2020

The Correlation Premise

Today, let’s take on microtest TDD’s Correlation Premise: Internal software quality (ISQ) and productivity are directly correlated. They go up together, and they go down together. Writing about geekery these days seems idle or frivolous at times. I’ve decided to just accept it as a way to relax here and there. But don’t mistake me. Black lives matter. Stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind. The correlation premise lies in direct opposition to the widespread but grossly over-simple analysis […]

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The Judgment Premise

Today, let’s talk about microtest TDD’s Judgment Premise: "We are absolutely and permanently reliant on individual humans using their individual judgment in TDD." Folks, in these times, I gain respite in thinking & writing about geekery, and I hope you do, too. But there are more important stories, and this is just a break. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay angry. Stay kind. Black lives matter. Voting rights do, too. The judgment premise emphasizes the human in test-driven development. There are

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The Steering Premise

Microtest TDD’s Steering Premise is quite simple, which may be why it sometimes meets furious opposition. It says "Tests and testability are first-class citizens in design." Let’s talk that over a little. As is my wont, I remind you, TDD, and even geekery, aren’t really the most pressing story around us today. It’s comfort food, a chance to catch my breath. Black lives matter. Stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind. We can change this, we’re the only thing

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The Pieces Premise

The Pieces Premise says, "To get the whole thing to do what you want, start by getting each piece of it to do what you want. It’s one of the basic underpinning of microtest TDD. It’s a hard time out there for those working on social change. I want you to know how much what you’re doing means to me. Geekery is respite for me. But I see you, and I see how hard you’re trying. Stay safe, stay strong,

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Collaboration, Complication, Continuity

I was recently asked, by two different groups, two seemingly different questions, but I gave them both the same answer: Collaboration, Complication, and Continuity. Let’s mull that situation over. Folks, this is a hard time for a person with my views about society. There is so much going wrong, in so many directions. I turn to geekery, as I often do, to be a kind of comfort food, for me, and maybe for you. Stay safe, tho. And stay strong.

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Real Programming S01E06: Getting A Little Testy

This entry is part 6 of 10 in the series Real Programming

Real Programming S01E06: Getting A Little Testy! We did good work last time, but we left some testing issues, so let’s fix that up. If you want to follow along in the code, the project is at github. Real programming, episode 6. The show where the slogan well, we ran into a couple of technical glitches. But we seem to have found workarounds for it, and we don’t think we’d slipped schedule really at all. So it’s all going really

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Old Coach at the End of the Bar

I am supposed to be shooting the next Real Programmer episode today, but I had a really good wrap-up meeting that was important, and I’m waiting for one more piece I need to send a first invoice to a new client, and I want to talk about coaching. In another part of the forest, some folks are discussing the frustrations of what is, by whatever name we call it, coaching. And the long and the short of it is "they

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Change Harvesters Iterate Change

Human, local, oriented, taken, and iterative, these are the change-harvester’s bywords. In iterative change, we not only accept the reality of gradual stepwise refinement — changing what we’ve already changed before — we actually anticipate it and take advantage of it. Before we begin: Folks, I know many are celebrating last week’s results . I see them as one small pass towards the change I seek. Take a short break, then it’s back to work? Black lives matter. Voting rights

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Real Programming S01E05: Models Don’t Do Real Work!

This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series Real Programming

Real Programming S01E05: Models Don’t Do Real Work! There’s still game stuff going on in the model, so let’s get it out of there. If you want to follow along in the code, the project is at github. Hey! Episode Five, Real Programming. The show where the slogan has 142.1 story points left before it’s delivered. It’s been a while since we last chatted, so let me do a quick review. We’ve broken our code up into three layers. At

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Change Harvesters Take Change

We’re talking about change-harvesting: human, local, oriented, taken, and iterative change. Let’s consider this adjective "taken" today, and see where we go with it. I keep saying: these muses are respite for me, and maybe for you, from more important stories. Partisan thugs seek to turn our nation into a freak show of state violence, white supremacy, vast inequality, & the oppression of women. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay angry. Stay kind. In change-harvesting, we use this word "taken" in

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