Are design patterns outdated? Aren’t they old? Aren’t they already part of our languages? These questions come up again and again, and the conversation simply takes place at the wrong level of analysis. Watch to see why and how design patterns would be useful.
Are design patterns outdated? Read More »
The construction metaphor for software development has outlived its usefulness, and it’s time to reframe software design by reconnecting it to its similar disciplines from other domains. In this video, Alex offers a possible reframing and goes in depth on why and how UX laws apply to software design. Links:
Reframing Software Design Read More »
In a recent post, Dr Milan Milanovic has summarized 14 red flags for software design, as described in the book “A Philosophy Of Software Design” by professor John Ousterhout. Since this book has come on our radars for a while, Alex is looking into the red flags and offers commentary and advice on how to
14 Software Design Red Flags Read More »
Should we have a single assert per test? Are custom asserts useful? What about diagnostic messages? And how to structure our tests? Maybe we should have tests mixed with production code? Alex answers all these questions, prompted by a conversation on Twitter started by Mattias Verraes https://twitter.com/mathiasverraes/status/1752236595091054671.
One assert per test? Read More »
In a recent article, Kent Beck has detailed what he means by Test Driven Development (TDD). This video is an analysis an commentary of his definition, contrasting it with the three laws of TDD as expressed by Robert C. Martin, and drawing from my own experience of practicing and teaching TDD. Links:
Kent Beck on Cannon TDD Read More »
The latest xkcd talks about Date and Time problems in a very funny way. It is also a good time to remind you that 2024 is a leap year, so be prepared. Links:
DateTime XKCD And 2024 Is A Leap Year Read More »
Is consistency a desirable quality of design and architecture? How does it help? How far is it useful to take it? And should it stop us from trying out different things? Alex answers this and more, prompted by a conversation with Uberto Barbini. Links:
Consistency & Learnability Read More »
Structurally, objects are nothing more than a set of partially applied, cohesive functions. And thinking in objects should (perhaps) not start with writing the “class” keyword. In this video, Alex is offering an alternate perspective to the common “class-oriented development” used in many of the modern programming languages. This perspective is not meant to be
Object-First Design Read More »
In a recent paper, a Google research team details how they empirically determined the types of technical debt and ways to manage it inside the organization. The ideas in the paper bear a very close resemblance with Usable Software Design, in that the engineers are interviewed about the challenges they face with the design and
Google Technical Debt approach vs. Usable Software Design Read More »
Most of the attention in software architecture is given to new styles (eg. microservices, serverless) or technology changes. Too little attention is given to the process of creating, evolving, and maintaining the architectural models and decisions. Yet this process is immensely valuable since with the right process you can adopt innumerable architectural styles and adapt
Fitness and Workout for Software Architecture Talk Read More »
