Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Submission + - In Defense of Project Management for Software Teams

Submitted by mikeatTB
mikeatTB writes: Many Slashdotters weighed in on Steven A. Lowe's post, "Is Project Management Killing Good Products, Teams and Software?", where he slammed project management (PM) and called for product-centrism. Many commenters pushed back but one PM, Yvette Schmitter, has fired back with a scathing response post, noting: "As a project manager, I'm saddened to see that project management and project managers are getting a bad rap from both ends of the spectrum. Business tends not to see the value in them, and developers tend to believe their own 'creativity' is being stymied by them. Let's set the record straight: Project management is a prized methodology for delivering on leadership's expectations. The success of the methodology depends on the quality of the specific project manager..." She continues, "If the project is being managed correctly by the project manager/scrum master, that euphoric state that developers want to get to can be achieved, along with the project objectives—allwithin the prescribed budget and timeline.Denouncing an entire practice based on what appears to be a limited, misaligned application of the correct methodology does not make all of project management and all project managers bad." Where do you stand on project management?

Submission + - Is Project Management Killing Good Software, Teams? (techbeacon.com)

Submitted by mikeatTB
mikeatTB writes: For software development, no significant developer activity is predictable or repetitive; if it were, the developers would have automated it already. In addition, learning is essentially a nonlinear process; it involves trying things that don’t work in order to discover what does work, writes Steven A. Lowe. You might see linear progress for a while, but you don’t know what you don’t know, so there will be apparent setbacks. It is from these setbacks that one learns the truth about the system—what is really needed to make it work, to make it usable, and to make a difference for the users and the business. In other words, the dirty little secret of software development is that projects don’t really exist. And they’re killing our products, teams, and software. Here's how.

Submission + - Security Liability Is Coming for Software: Is Your Engineering Team Ready? (techbeacon.com)

Submitted by mikeatTB
mikeatTB writes: While agile and DevOps are belatedly taking on the problems of creating secure software, the original Agile Manifesto did not acknowledge the threat of vulnerabilities as a problem, but focused on "working software [as] the primary measure of progress." Without a security mandate, the incentives to create secure software do not exist, said Joshua Corman, founder of the Rugged Manifesto. Instead, almost every software program comes with a disclaimer to dodge liability for issues caused by the software. The oft-unread end-user license agreement (EULA) essentially states that people do not have to use the software, but if they do, the developer is not responsible for any damages. EULAs have been the primary way that software makers have escaped liability for vulnerabilities for the past three decades. That's changing as software takes an increasingly starring role in an expanding range of products whose failure could result in bodily harm and even death. Is your engineering team ready to deal with being held liable legally for security vulnerabilities and flaws.

Submission + - Remote vs. In-Office Software Teams: Which Is Better? (techbeacon.com)

Submitted by mikeatTB
mikeatTB writes: While Yahoo and Reddit are sold on banning remote work, there is generally increased acceptance of remote versus co-located teams, and the availability of effective tools that enable it are among the most significant trends affecting technology industry employment today. As with most things in business, productivity and cost are the dominant factors when choosing between remote and co-located workplaces. But there's no one answer. Which is the better fit for your software teams? Dave Fecak does a review of the science, and how peers in the industry are dealing with the modern workplace. One interesting take on the issues is raised by ThoughtWorks' Martin Fowler: Individuals are more productive in a co-located environment, but remote teams are often more productive than co-located teams. This is because a remote team has the advantage of hiring without geographic boundaries, and that enables employers to assemble world-class groups.

Submission + - 4 Forgotten Code Constructs: Time to Revisit the Past?

Submitted by mikeatTB
mikeatTB writes: Some things in the programming world are so easy to misuse that most people prefer to never use them at all. These are the programming equivalent of a flamethrower: You might rarely be in the position to really need one, but every once in a while it turns out that you need to take down a forest. In that case, there’s no easier way than going Rambo on your codebase. That's where a few of the old, forgotten code constructs come into play. Creative use of features such as goto, multiple inheritance, eval, and recursion may be just the right solution for experienced developers when used in the right situation. Is it time to resurrect these four forgotten code constructs?

Submission + - Google To Train 2 Million Indian Android Developers

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced its new Android Fundamentals training program, which aims to train and certify up to two million Android developers in India. The course, soon to be available online and at schools country-wide, is focused on training, testing and certifying Android developers to prepare students for careers using Android technology. Google is currently working to update the skills of its existing trainers to prepare them to teach the Fundamentals course, as well as updating course materials to provide students a solid foundation in Android development.

The new program works with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Skill India’ initiative, launched in 2015 with the intent of training 400 million Indian citizens with new vocational skills by 2022.

Submission + - Red Hat's Paul Cormier Marries Couple At Red Hat Summit

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Pushing a commit to github isn't the same as committing to a life partner, there is no forking this project," Red Hat EVP Paul Cormier told a Texas couple as he united them in holy matrimony at the Red Hat Summit this week. The groom was Matt Hargrave, a Red Hat client. The bride was Shannon Montague, a sign language interpreter and maybe the most understanding bride ever. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst was ring bearer. You can watch the ceremony on YouTube.

Submission + - Landlords, ISPs Team Up To Rip Off Tenants On Broadband (backchannel.com)

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: Eight years ago, the FCC issued an order banning exclusive agreements between landlords and ISPs, but a loophole is being exploited, leaving many tenants in apartment buildings with only one choice of broadband service provider. The loophole works like this: Instead of having an exclusive agreement with one provider, the landlords refuse to let any other companies than their chosen providers access their properties, according to Harvard Law School professor Susan Crawford, who wrote an article about the issue.

Submission + - SPAM: United Launch Alliance planning for 1,000 people working in space by 2045

Submitted by MarkWhittington
MarkWhittington writes: Jeff Bezos, of both Amazon and Blue Origin, may ruminate about moving a lot of industry off the planet, but the United Launch Alliance, that joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has a concrete plan to do so. ULA is working on an idea to have 1,000 people operating in Earth-moon space by 2045, less than 30 years away. The vision is based on three space vehicles that will rely on rocket fuel refined from lunar and asteroid water.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - US Efforts To Regulate Encryption Have Been Flawed, Government Report Finds (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. Republican congressional staff said in a report released Wednesday that previous efforts to regulate privacy technology were flawed and that lawmakers need to learn more about technology before trying to regulate it. The 25-page white paper is entitled Going Dark, Going Forward: A Primer on the Encryption Debate and it does not provide any solution to the encryption fight. However, it is notable for its criticism of other lawmakers who have tried to legislate their way out of the encryption debate. It also sets a new starting point for Congress as it mulls whether to legislate on encryption during the Clinton or Trump administration. "Lawmakers need to develop a far deeper understanding of this complex issue before they attempt a legislative fix," the committee staff wrote in their report. The committee calls for more dialogue on the topic and for more interviews with experts, even though they claim to have already held more than 100 such briefings, some of which are classified. The report says in the first line that public interest in encryption has surged once it was revealed that terrorists behind the Paris and San Bernardino attacks "used encrypted communications to evade detection."

Slashdot Top Deals

Men take only their needs into consideration -- never their abilities. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Close