JoelHelbling.com

Essays

Agile vs Waterfall

I have come to dislike “agile vs waterfall” discussions. “Agile vs waterfall” is a false dipole which leads to confusion about agile. The term “waterfall” is simply a description of a problematic, default approach to developing software.

On Writing Well

As I writer, I find I do my best writing in a rush. I believe this is because, due to my training, I have very little time to write inspiring things before Common Sense reasserts itself, and my Training kicks in. The ole ego steps up, takes command, and thinks about wretched things like approachability and marketability and other “abilities”. All these “abilities” impair my capacity for joy, which is the only thing I really care about writing in the first place.

Software Craftsmanship: Time To Pay The Piper

Jason Gorman says computing education is in decline. I say it isn’t; it’s just that computing education never has been truly the purvey of universities.

Why Software Craftsmanship Is A Tough Sell

It can be difficult for proponents of Software Craftsmanship to land work, especially when pitching Software Craftsmanship on its merits. What should we make of the fact that large companies tend to have be more resistant to software craftsmanship?

TDD Is Dead; Long Live TDD

Everyone’s extolling TDD these days. Well, almost everyone. Some conversationalists at SDTconf ’09 debated whether the honeymoon may be over.

Agile Notes: Why Story Cards Matter

Does writing formal story cards feel hokey? Although they may seem ceremonious, well-formatted story cards add critical value to the software development process. In this essay I’ve broken down the aspects and features I like to use/see on story cards…

Why The Next Big ETL Framework Will Be Written In Ruby

I have been thinking a lot about the need for some kind of information architecture/ETL framework, the Ruby language has repeatedly presented itself as an excellent candidate for implementation language. Here are some reasons.