Category: Articles (Page 235 of 257)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

Quality WordPress Products: Do They Exist?

April 12, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Last week, I published my thoughts on Software Craftsmanship and WordPress. For what it’s worth, that particular post was one that I’d been thinking about for quite some time, I just never took the time to sit down and actually draft my thoughts on it.

The post resulted in a short, but interesting discussion both in the comments and on Twitter, but one comment in particular really got me thinking more about the topic.

Seeing the terms “WordPress” and “software craftsmanship” in the same sentence makes me LMAO. I just downloaded 3.5.1 to see if it was as bad as I remember. It’s worse. I remain convinced that WordPress was developed wholly by monkeys randomly hitting keys on a keyboard.

The point of this post is not to go back and forth on whether or not the author is correct in his statements. Instead, the comment got me thinking about craftsmanship in the context of the work we do on top of pre-existing systems regardless of the language, platform, and/or framework that you’re using.

Specifically, it got me thinking more about quality WordPress products and projects and whether or not form follows foundation.

WordPress Plugins: A Dilemma

April 11, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

In case it isn’t obvious from some of my previous posts, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to some of the problems with the WordPress plugin repository.

Though I’ve already stated this in previous posts, my goal isn’t to complain without offering solutions – I hate seeing it, and I hate doing it – I don’t think it’s proactive and that’s why I enjoy many of the comments that have happened around this particular space.

But as I begin consider moving back to a premium model of offering WordPress-specific products and services, this has raised yet-another-dilemma.

Stop Complaining About Customers

April 10, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the things that I enjoy the most about Twitter is the ability to meet, greet, chat, and learn from other people in my field.

Granted, not everyone uses Twitter for the same reason, but I’ve really enjoyed getting to know certain people in my particular development space, and enjoy the conversation as much as the next person.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s helped make me a better developer because of the conversations that have gone from Twitter to this blog, or vice versa.

But there’s something that I’ve noticed on Twitter among my fellow developers – most notably freelancers or those who are at the head of smaller businesses – that I can’t seem to understand (or endorse): It’s complaining about customers.

Software Project Estimation: Free or Paid?

April 8, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Ever since I’ve gone into business for myself, software project estimation has been one of those skills that I feel as if I’m constantly refining.

Sure, I have a process for how I go about doing it now, and I have open conversations with potential customers as I try to understand their core business need before I go off to estimate the project, but the truth of the matter – and anyone who’s ever estimated a project knows this – is that estimating a project is also a function of how well the customer understands their current problem.

By that, I simply mean that if a customer has a felt need and they have a vision for how their process can be improved, it’s easier to come up with an estimation for a project than for a customer who has a felt need but a vague idea as to how it may be solved.

There’s a lot that can be written on this topic, but I’m primarily concerned with just one aspect of estimation in this post: should estimates be free or paid?

Software Craftsmanship and WordPress

April 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this year, I shared a post on why software craftsmanship matters in WordPress development. It stemmed from a Twitter conversation that I had with Dave Donaldson at Max Foundry.

In the comments of that particular post, Dave also followed up with this comment:

Just to be clear, my issue with the term “software craftsman” is that it’s taken on an elitist connotation by many people, and that bothers me. It also bothers me that there is some correlation between people who spout “software craftsmanship” but don’t actually ship anything.

I try not to spin my wheels on topics that I’ve already discussed in-depth, but I recently stumbled across another post by Uncle Bob Martin – arguably the biggest proponent of the software craftsmanship movement – on the 8th Light blog that brought up the same concerns that Dave mention.

Specifically, it discussed the “elitist connotation [demonstrated] by many people.” Call me naive but I’ve simply been missing out on the drama that’s been going on surrounding this entire “software craftsman” thing.

For me, it’s always been about the manifesto, and the ability to make sure that I – as a developer – am doing the best job that I can to build good things for others and for myself.

It’s also a matter of making sure that I’m actively trying to learn from others as well as evangelizing my own practices to others not because I think that I’ve got it figured out, but simply to give back to the developer community.

But apparently, there’s more going on.