Anti-patterns and patterns for successful projects

Speaker: Kamon AYEVA

Note

I had hoped to get new things out of this but as an experienced US government software contractor, none of this was new. (Danny 07/05/2011)

Introduction (Why should we care)?

• Any website project is a ‘software’ project
• All projects are CMS projects
  • Users always want to update the site
  • Types of People involved in development
    • User
      • Works to get tool to address my needs
      • Tool should be easy to use
      • critical: does not want to change their habits
    • Project Manager
      • Speaks with user
      • speaks with developer
      • then manages the budget
    • Developer
      • Tries to get the right stuff involved: CMS, DMS, Web 2.0, Flex, AJAX, JavaFX, Python, Ruby, .NET, etc…
      • Trying hard to get best CMS done right!
    • Success depends on the three parties working together
    • Challenge is that each party has their own priorities
    • Tip one: Try to understand each other
    • User should be put first, since funding and interest comes from them

Follow these rules so life is easier

• Avoid things that don’t work (anti-patterns)
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel and fight people who do this sort of thing
    • File servers, DMS, Mail Server, Calendars, security, LDAP
  • If you build it they will come
    • What problem are your trying to address?
    • Have others done it already?
    • I there a third party tool that already exists for this task?
    • Am I building the solution for me, my customer, or my ego?
    • Trap: Gas Factory
      • Bloatware
      • We tend to add feature after feature until the application becomes unmanageable

• Apply rules and patterns that work