See The Question of Risk.

Also, see Lean Projects -- Not Deficient Projects.

And Keeping the Customer Satisfied.

These are notes for a long, detailed rant on the value of Agile methods.

One specious argument against an Agile approach is the "risk management" question. In this case, however, it becomes a …

A library had unit tests that ran for almost 600 seconds. Two small changes dropped the run time to 26 seconds.

I was amazed.

Step 1. I turned on the cProfile. I added two methods to the slowest unit test module.

def profile():
    import cProfile
    cProfile.run( 'main()', 'the_slow_module.prof' …

For the 757 Python Meetup group, someone proposed looking at some Python code they had which was slow. The code implemented a variation on the Elo chess rating system. It applied the ratings to other sports, and used the points scored as well as basic win/lose/tie to work …

I get emails looking for help with technology choice. Essentially: "I've got this idea for game-changing software idea, what technology should I use?" These questions have disturbing expectations. There's a Gordian Knot of dependencies that's sometimes baffling.

Sometimes the questions are about choosing a "tech stack" or an "architecture". Sometimes …

After talking about some experience with legacy modernization (or migration), I received information from Blue Phoenix about their approach to modernization.

Before talking about modernization, it's important to think about the following issue from two points of view.

Modernization can amount to nothing more than Paving the Cowpaths.

From a …

Tweet:

People criticize for making tons of small classes instead of fewer larger classes.How is well-organized code more difficult to understand?

—jim christopher (@beefarino) May 31, 2013

This isn't really a question. Writing a few "large" omnibus classes is simply bad design.

There are several variations on the theme …

Careful study of the HamCalc shows a number of quirks. Some are funny, some are just examples of the need for unit test frameworks. The Wikispaces for the modernization project is here: http://hamcalc.wikispaces.com/home

For example, the following line of code, in GW-Basic, will (usually) set Y …

Some additional points on using Python 2.7 in a way that bridges the gap to Python 3.2. The steps are small and simple. You can start taking them now.

Recently I suggested that one should always include from __future__ import division, print_function on every module. Always. Every Module …

Once in a great while, you see someone engaging in Obstinate Idiocy.

Here's my recent example.

They're solving some kind of differential equation. Not sure why.

Symptom 1 of Obstinate Idiocy is No Rational Justification. The explanation is often "that's not relevant, what's relevant is this other thing I want …