Comments on: The life of a software developer, episode 1/4 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/ web business models, information systems, high tech, software economics, SaaS, Software + Service, innovation, new product development, digital strategy, software engineering, remote / mobile / wireless technologies, VoIP, IPTV, blogs, telecommunication business models, computer networks architecture, project management, user-generated content philosophy, entrepreneurial finance, outsourcing, operations - logistics - e-procurement - supply chain management, customer relationship management, telecom billing, clusters of innovation, e-Business, e-Commerce, start-up launch, fast-growing ventures management, globalization + some useless stuff (usually getting the most visits & comments) Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:23:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Relationship » The life of a software developer, episode 1/4 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-39299 Relationship » The life of a software developer, episode 1/4 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:13:45 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-39299 [...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn order to develop the website more easily, I took a lot of time to build my entity-relationship model. For those who don’t know it, an entity-relationship model is used to describe the structure of your database and the relationships … [...] […] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn order to develop the website more easily, I took a lot of time to build my entity-relationship model. For those who don’t know it, an entity-relationship model is used to describe the structure of your database and the relationships … […]

]]> By: Remy MIRALLES http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36791 Remy MIRALLES Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:40:55 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36791 No problem Vince, I should have mentioned earlier the target and purpose of the company, but I didn't want to complicate the article with a lot of business insights. I totally agree with your analysis of art vs science, especially in design. No problem Vince, I should have mentioned earlier the target and purpose of the company, but I didn’t want to complicate the article with a lot of business insights.

I totally agree with your analysis of art vs science, especially in design.

]]> By: Vincent van Wylick http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36754 Vincent van Wylick Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:24:22 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36754 On web-dev. vs. design: interesting perspectives. However, as coming from a family of "artists" I do believe that there is a very fine line between art and science. In the case of design, it is a method of communicating with an audience and there are fairly well-researched principles of usability, colour and font-usage, etc. which assist in reaching that goal effectively. Of course, individuality plays a big part in separating yourself from the other trees in a forest, and I suppose that is when you are called an artist. I'm sure the similar reasoning applies to programming as well, as you wrote Remy. @Remy on corporate design: you are right of course. I had not considered that blogs can be used as a means of communicating with the outside world, in which case design is one of the priorities. Silly me. On web-dev. vs. design: interesting perspectives. However, as coming from a family of “artists” I do believe that there is a very fine line between art and science.

In the case of design, it is a method of communicating with an audience and there are fairly well-researched principles of usability, colour and font-usage, etc. which assist in reaching that goal effectively.

Of course, individuality plays a big part in separating yourself from the other trees in a forest, and I suppose that is when you are called an artist.

I’m sure the similar reasoning applies to programming as well, as you wrote Remy.

@Remy on corporate design: you are right of course. I had not considered that blogs can be used as a means of communicating with the outside world, in which case design is one of the priorities. Silly me.

]]> By: Remy MIRALLES http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36748 Remy MIRALLES Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:06:34 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36748 @jeremy and web developers : it is a tricky question, especially since there are no standard definition for these concepts. From what I know (and God knows I’m not a philosopher!) a piece of art is defined by its originality, and if we take this definition I think that development can be assimilated to Art. For the exact same application, you won’t find two developers developing the exact same code: there will always be differences as coding implies choices, preferences, and a different vision of the result we want to have. And I think that development can be like a creation process: as a painter, I’m often surprised by what I create and the intermediate results often modify the rest of the project. I don’t know if it’s really convincing but this how I feel it! @vince: our target was very small businesses (shops, local associations, travel agencies…) which often don’t have enough time or money to have a website but which want to have an online presence. The purpose was to create a kind of “yellow pages” based on basic blogs, really easy to create and update. Since it would have been the only online visibility for those companies, design was definitely crucial, and the second problem was that our target was really fragmented so it was hard to convince companies in every sector without sales force. @jeremy and web developers : it is a tricky question, especially since there are no standard definition for these concepts. From what I know (and God knows I’m not a philosopher!) a piece of art is defined by its originality, and if we take this definition I think that development can be assimilated to Art. For the exact same application, you won’t find two developers developing the exact same code: there will always be differences as coding implies choices, preferences, and a different vision of the result we want to have. And I think that development can be like a creation process: as a painter, I’m often surprised by what I create and the intermediate results often modify the rest of the project. I don’t know if it’s really convincing but this how I feel it!

@vince: our target was very small businesses (shops, local associations, travel agencies…) which often don’t have enough time or money to have a website but which want to have an online presence. The purpose was to create a kind of “yellow pages” based on basic blogs, really easy to create and update. Since it would have been the only online visibility for those companies, design was definitely crucial, and the second problem was that our target was really fragmented so it was hard to convince companies in every sector without sales force.

]]> By: Web developers http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36736 Web developers Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:11:55 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36736 I would equate web designing to art and web programming to math :) I would equate web designing to art and web programming to math :)

]]> By: Jeremy Fain http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36711 Jeremy Fain Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:47:18 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36711 Okay, thx man. Another question then: do you consider your job as a software developer to be an Art or a science? Sorry, it's sort of tricky - but I can't answer it myself since it's neither the one nor the other when I start coding, but rather a mess. Okay, thx man. Another question then: do you consider your job as a software developer to be an Art or a science?

Sorry, it’s sort of tricky - but I can’t answer it myself since it’s neither the one nor the other when I start coding, but rather a mess.

]]> By: Vincent van Wylick http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36710 Vincent van Wylick Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:40:24 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36710 Thank you, Remy, a real insight into a world I know very little about! I read it with great interest. A question to you, or perhaps Fidji: what was your target market? Did you aim at small, medium-sized, large, or multinational companies. Was it aimed at the French or international market? Having worked with corporate packages and university ones, I'm not sure if your conclusion that design was the issue is something I would agree with. In my experience, these companies focus on vendors who can deploy on large scale and add consulting to the package. The design-part of it definitely seemed like an afterthought (i.e. puke-worthy). Thank you, Remy, a real insight into a world I know very little about! I read it with great interest.

A question to you, or perhaps Fidji: what was your target market? Did you aim at small, medium-sized, large, or multinational companies. Was it aimed at the French or international market?

Having worked with corporate packages and university ones, I’m not sure if your conclusion that design was the issue is something I would agree with. In my experience, these companies focus on vendors who can deploy on large scale and add consulting to the package. The design-part of it definitely seemed like an afterthought (i.e. puke-worthy).

]]> By: Remy MIRALLES http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36676 Remy MIRALLES Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:45:01 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36676 As I said in the "technical insights", being alone was definitely a bad thing especially since it was my first project and it would have given me some confidence to be challenged by another developer. In my next experiences I have really seen that working in team brings a lot of added value in the case of software development where almost everything is perfectible. Besides, when I developed it, the corporate blogging market wasn't so crowded and time to market was really important, so having another developer would have also been a great asset to go quicker. Finally, my business partner was focused on marketing the product rapidly (and it is often the case even in bigger start ups from what I know) so it would have been great to share my concerns and pressure with another developer. As I said in the “technical insights”, being alone was definitely a bad thing especially since it was my first project and it would have given me some confidence to be challenged by another developer. In my next experiences I have really seen that working in team brings a lot of added value in the case of software development where almost everything is perfectible.

Besides, when I developed it, the corporate blogging market wasn’t so crowded and time to market was really important, so having another developer would have also been a great asset to go quicker.

Finally, my business partner was focused on marketing the product rapidly (and it is often the case even in bigger start ups from what I know) so it would have been great to share my concerns and pressure with another developer.

]]> By: Jeremy Fain http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36671 Jeremy Fain Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:22:30 +0000 http://techiteasy.org/2007/08/21/the-life-of-a-software-developer-episode-14/#comment-36671 What was it to work as the only develop in the project? "Great, No asshole" or "too bad you didn't have a peer to give you a hand and share"? Do you think having another develop would've added an unnecessary complexity layer? What was it to work as the only develop in the project? “Great, No asshole” or “too bad you didn’t have a peer to give you a hand and share”? Do you think having another develop would’ve added an unnecessary complexity layer?

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