SCNA 2009 - Craftsmanship Under Pressure: Robert C. Martin

Object Mentor

"Uncle Bob" needs no introduction.

Professional

• Carries a note of responsibility
• Cool under pressure
  • People want things from us
  • We make promises
  • Pressure is fear that we will break these commitments
  • Undercommit, overdeliver - make your commitments and more

Estimation

We all estimate badly, but we must estimate.

PERT

• Don't give a number; give a mean and standard deviation.
• Best case, worst case, nominal case
• Probability distribution, wide spread - honest
• Narrow over iterations as learn more
• Generally on wrong side of mean

Manage expectations. Down. ;-)

Rushing

• Standard reaction to pressure
• Reduce scope, put in overtime, reduce quality - leave something out
• Care disappears. Carelessness.
• A professional does not rush. Can reduce scope, but not quality.

Technical Debt

• He disagrees with the term. It's not debt, it's making a mess. A mess slows us down.
• As soon as you go down the wrong path, forever it will dominate your destiny.
• You never will go back to that code and clean it up.
• You'll always be on the wrong side of the mean.

Principles

First, do no harm.

Test.

• Know that your software works.
• Unit, acceptance (not necessarily written by developers), etc.
• Coverage.
• Automate tests.
• TDD (or at least the time between code and test is very small).

Mercilessly refactor.

• Must be able to make changes to your software without exorbitant cost.
• Change it. Find what's hard. Fix that.
• Flexible software is never designed up front. The act of changing makes it changeable.
• Leave it better (cleaner) than you found it. Never check it in dirty.

Pressure

• Under pressure is when you're most likely to do harm.
• OK to work overtime - for a week.
• Professionals know how to have uncomfortable discussions.
  • (As early as you can)
  • Scope
  • Move the date
• When you feel pressure, slow down. Avoid temptation.

Work ethic.

• Deliver value.
• 40 hours a week belong to your employer.
• Your employer is not responsible for learning time - that's your responsibility.
• Developers must take responsibility for their own careers.
• 20 hours a week (over 40) is learning time.
• Manage overtime.

Know your field.

• S.O.L.I.D.
• Design patterns
• Several languages, radically different
• Different methodologies and metrics
• Structured design

Continuous learning.

• Never stop learning.
• Live to learn, love to learn - passion
• Different kinds of learning - mind, muscle, etc.
• Read books, blogs, articles
• Go to conferences, users' groups, lunch & learn
• Step outside your comfort zone
• Practice. (See Katas under Further study)

Further study

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (also mentioned by Michael Feathers)
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Video Lectures
• TDD As If You Meant It (Braithwaite)
• Coding Dojo (Katas)

Final thoughts

Small reference groups? Not the AMA, but "Do you know Fred? How good is he?"