Sami Dalouche

Android application developers often opt for a simple freemium/premium model, which, when we think about it, is great for everybody.

Let’s consider the Slideshow for Facebook app as an example. Instead of relying on other people’s comments to decide whether it’s worth paying $0.99 for your app, it makes sense to download the free version (in this case, feature-restricted, but other applications developers choose to put ads), use it for a while, and then decide for yourself if the premium version is worth your buck.

I personally see it as a more sustainable model than the vast majority of iphone apps for which you pay between $1-$4 just to realize later that it was totally useless…

When it comes to buying Software Development Services, clients are typically stuck with a few classical options, such as :

• Renting “resources” for a given hourly/daily price. For instance, an “Intermediate Java/Jee Developer for 95$ / hour.
• Outsourcing (fixed-term, fixed-cost) to  an offshore (or nearshore) team.

The goal of either renting resources or outsourcing your development is to increase the perceived flexibility and supposedly stay in control of your costs. Neat !

However, if you look at what happens in practice :

• One “resource”  never equates another “equivalent” resource.
• The “equivalent” resource never fits the team the same way the previous one did
• Completely outsourcing your development might be well-suited for simple, well-defined domains that never change, but usually ends up costing way more than what was previously envisioned.

So, we had this idea : instead of selling mere “resources”, we want to experiment with selling complete teams such as pyxtreme. The idea is simple: you get a team of people who are used to work together, and whose skills are complementary. No more hidden costs of “team building”, no more randomness in the matching of personalities, you simply get a working team !

If you are a software developer and are not actively working on improving your skill set, chances are that your skills are already outdated and are part of the legacy world So, unless you are proud to stay a monkey coder, it’s a pretty smart move to stay aware of the latest trends and the modern engineering principles.

However, what I have noticed while doing technical coaching in various teams is that there are tons of motivated, intelligent developers who just do not upgrade their skills because their environment does not embrace continuous improvement. For these people, it makes a huge difference to bring them a list of important references to read.

The current trend in software development is Agile, which relies on a set of Software Engineering Practices to make a real difference.

At pyxis, we have compiled a set of book references, blogs, twitter accounts, frameworks and libraries that we consider an important part of the Technical Agile landscape. We called it the Agile Expertise Center, and even though some sections are still incomplete (yes, we do apply the release early, release often principle), it provides a good start for anyone interested in :

• Learning more about the software engineering practices that support iterative and incremental development ;
• Adopting a Team Skill Acquisition Strategy ;
• Evaluating how up to date your skills are.

We want this initiative to be useful for everyone :

• While performing technical coaching, it is of great help when people ask for books and other references
• It is a foundation to encourage our own employees to learn more about the practices
• It gives visibility for our clients on what kind of technical help they can expect from us

Oh, and even better, the content is released under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0, so do not hesitate to either contact us to add references, or fork the content to create your own expertise center.

There seems to be at least 2 open source StackOverflow alternatives that are worth it :

• Shapado : ruby, mongomapper, mongodb
• OSQA : python, django, South

So, as usual, we see the python & ruby communities working on actual, useful applications, while the Java community is busy creating frameworks and libraries

Oh, no, sorry, the Java community is already busy debating on the future closure syntax,  if they ever decide to include them It looks like the java community needs a BDFL

Usability is something most teams outside the Apple circle do not care about.

However, luckily enough (or sadly enough, depending on how you see it), developers are keyword-addicts, and some things suddently start looking cool as soon as they are trendy. Nobody cared about the business logic before, but now that  Domain Driven Design is considered the new, cool thing, some developers start putting their effort into the domain, instead of the technical details.

Now, it looks like that two of the new, trendy architectural approaches will help us regarding usability, as they are focusing on user interactions :

• CQRS : User Commands are an important aspect of the architecture, that defines the transaction boundaries of the system
• Data Context Interaction : DCI is a vision to capture the end user cognitive model of roles and interactions between them.

Will these trends save our software ?

I came across this rather old article on Usability from Jim Coplien (One of the guys behind Data Context Interaction). It is definitely worth reading, and here is a striking quote from it :

My points were that:

1. Test-driven development without architecture emphasizes a procedural architecture rather than the kind of good object-oriented architecture than supports the direct manipulation metaphor, which in turn is one foundation of a good user interface;

and 2. That the Agile Manifesto leaves usability at the side of the road

As you may have realized by reading my previous posts, when it comes to managing software projects, my ideas are largely inspired from the Open Source movement, especially if we are talking of big, distributed projects involving many developers. When it comes to managing companies, my inspiration comes from incubators.

Now, if we are talking of hiring developers, I seem to forge my opinion based on what happens in the startup world.

Here are a few interesting pointers on hiring developers that I find inspiring :

• Some tidbits from Joel Spolsky’s talk last night on recruiting programmers
• 9 ways to succesfully edit job postings
• Why Mark Suster is wrong about not hiring job hoppers
• You Don’t Need Math Skills To Be A Good Developer But You Do Need Them To Be A Great One

And of course, salary is an important aspect of hiring. Did you know that the old proverb “money does not make happiness” has been proven wrong by researchers ?

Incubators are looking for ways to differentiate themselves. The newly launched AngelPad (an incubator created by 7 ex-googlers), for instance, bets on recreating a google-like atmosphere to foster innovation.

A recent post from Mark Shuttleworth seems to show that some foundations also have interesting ideas when it comes to financing projects :

“The model of the Foundation is unusual: we identify interesting change agents, like Mark, who are articulating powerful ideas that seem like the offer a hint of the future, and we fund them to work on those for a year. We also offer them an investment multiplier: if they put their personal money into a project, we multiply that by 10x or more, up to a maximum amount. In short, find good people, back them when they put skin in the game.”

Now, I am wondering about something : could incubators be a model for managing companies ?

• What would happen if you created a company that was merely a kind of aggregate of smaller companies sharing a common vision but running mostly independantly ?
• Could the Politics of Switzerland be an inspiration  for creating such an ecosystem ?
• How much federal government do you need to have inside a company to have the perfect balance between “feeling like a single company” and “feeling empowered enough to do things without any bureaucracy” ? (do-ers hate bureaucracy, so if you want doers in your company, you’d better find a way to systematically fight it if you want to keep these people)
• Is is possible for people to feel part of their community without neglecting the rest of the ecosystem, the same way Texas inhabitants feel both texan and american ?  (Have you noticed that people have both the texan flag and the american one in their garden over there ?)

See Enough is enough: disinfecting OSM from poisonous people.

“I used to write the code, own the domain names, run the mailing list(s), run the servers, evangelize, talk to the press and so on. I’ve successively and successfully given up those rights to very capable individuals. However this has led to a power vacuum when it comes to making some key decisions because nobody, for example and in a sense, is “in charge” of everything. For the most part I’ve enjoyed giving up control and seeing the project blossom, because it wouldn’t have if I hadn’t.”

InfoQ runs a very interesting video of Jim Coplien about Data-Context Interaction.

“Uncle bob completly misses the point by assuming that professionalism is about doing TDD”.

“Dynamic languages got popular for the wrong reasons

“people get religious about details that don’t matter, and very very few people are talking about the big picture”

“scrum is all about common sense, but common sense is really uncommon”

“teams are effective, and to be effective they have to be small. 3 is better than 5″