development lifecycles

Better Software Magazine Articles

Principle-driven Development

Challenges are inevitable in software development, and formal methodologies may obscure the simpler, basic rules that govern quality. When faced with an overwhelmingly complex challenge, look to proven principles.

Chuck Allison's picture Chuck Allison
The Power of Low-Tech Tools

The level of technology that goes into a tool is only as valuable as the service that you, as a user, get out of that tool. Some low-tech tools--such as the four that Esther Derby lists here--have a place in the technologist's toolbox, too.

Esther Derby's picture Esther Derby
The Ajax Balancing Act

The path to Ajax has its pitfalls, but using it carefully can put you ahead of the game. Tod Golding offers some tips to help you investigate the world of Ajax solutions, technologies, frameworks, and patterns and find a balance between an enhanced user experience and a robust application.

Tod Golding's picture Tod Golding
Believing Is Seeing

What you don't know can hurt you, and what you do know can too. Lee Copeland takes a look at how the results of a 1949 Harvard experiment with playing cards should influence the way you evaluate your previous experience when building software

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Rhetoric, Religion, and a Better Way

With Apple's conversion to Windows-capable, Intel-based architecture as his jumping off point, Tod Golding takes a look at how we tend to view new technologies through our old perceptions. As technology evolves for the better, he explains, we too must grow out of old rhetoric.

Tod Golding's picture Tod Golding
X Marks the Test Case: Using Mind Maps For Software Design

If you've run through the standard design approaches and still need that killer test case, try mind maps.

Robert Sabourin's picture Robert Sabourin
Planting Seeds of Software Awareness

Some of the most powerful tools for software developers are now free--a fact which Chris McMahon believes should help bring small businesses and local developers together in the creation of custom software. Read of how he plans to accomplish this on a local level.

Chris McMahon's picture Chris McMahon
The Power of Persuasion

Twenty years ago, Brian Marick defined a small startup's company process and coding standard in his position as head of quality assurance--and didn't win any popularity points. Looking back, Brian thinks that he and others in charge of process would be more successful using persuasion than using commands.

Brian Marick
Tapping into Testing Nirvana

As the initial, positive vibes of unit testing begin to fade, Tod Golding goes in search of whatever it is that sends some developers into a seemingly ongoing state of unit-testing nirvana. Respect your unit tests, Grasshopper, and find your testing center.

Tod Golding's picture Tod Golding
Test to Impress: Getting the Most Out of Ajax Developer Tools

Ajax applications are very popular and can be flexible and dynamic, but only if you find the bugs first. Stuart Halloway has the details on tools that Ajax developers use and that will keep your applications dressed to the nines.

Stuart Halloway

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