Something I find continually interesting is how people view upfront vs ongoing costs in the world of app development. And I don’t strictly mean iOS apps, whether they be web-based software, custom website builds, mobile applications (or any of the many other things we made) there seems to be a somewhat common thread:
Upfront cost = investment but ongoing cost = liability.

This thought pattern leads to a great piece of software being run on a shoestring and very quickly ending up being no longer a great piece of software.

I’m an avid Dragon’s Den fan, and if they ever…

The effects of interruptions on my old programming team were something that I was acutely aware of, and the knock-on task-switching effects that has on technical disciplines.

Although I’ll speak in general, it’s worth noting that this mostly applies to the technical/programming space and may be less applicable to other industries.

The impact of interruptions on workflow can prove hard to understand, especially at management levels that are one-to-two steps removed from “the coal face”.

It’s easy to walk up to someone in your office, ask a quick question and move on. …

Having spent over a decade in custom software development, I’ve seen a range of approaches when a business embarks on a new software journey, but there is one conspicuous omission: MVP.

People tell me that’s an acronym used in sports too, but that’s not what I mean. In the world of software development, MVP refers to the Minimum Viable Product. In other words, the least you need to build in order to start trading.

If we translate this concept to physical stores, you wouldn’t expect to see new companies popping up to directly take on Myer or Bunnings at the…

Full disclaimer: this post will borrow heavily from Jeff Atwood and Martin Fowler who have both written on this topic in the past, mostly as we share a perspective and writing style. I also have a lot of respect for Jeff and his blog is a regular read of mine.

First, what is “technical debt”?

It’s a metaphor that’s been around for years, coined forever ago (read: pre-2003) by Ward Cunningham in an effort to explain the issue in a way non-programmers can understand.

Just like the financial space, the metaphor comes from the reality that taking on technical debt…

I was in the process of writing (what I thought was) a great article on the topic of this image

But today’s CommitStrip really won