Comments for Old Dog, New Tricks http://mdenomy.wordpress.com Striving for better ways to write code Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:21:29 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on One Good Thing by mdenomy http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/one-good-thing/#comment-82 mdenomy Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:21:29 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=98#comment-82 Sue McKinney talked about that quite a bit. Instituting change is difficult, and at a company the size of IBM, even more so. There is an interview with her here that may be interesting http://agile.dzone.com/videos/sue-mckinney-agile-2009 One key with getting a company to adopt Agile is to start small. Convince management to try it for a small pilot project. Try and get people on your team that are open to Agile. If you can afford some training I would strongly recommend it. And keep in mind, Agile won't work if there is not buy in and active participation from the top. After you demonstrate success with the pilot project you can expand Agile to other teams. At that point you will also have one team that can act as in-house "trainers" and champions of the process. Good luck Sue McKinney talked about that quite a bit. Instituting change is difficult, and at a company the size of IBM, even more so. There is an interview with her here that may be interesting http://agile.dzone.com/videos/sue-mckinney-agile-2009

One key with getting a company to adopt Agile is to start small. Convince management to try it for a small pilot project. Try and get people on your team that are open to Agile. If you can afford some training I would strongly recommend it. And keep in mind, Agile won’t work if there is not buy in and active participation from the top.

After you demonstrate success with the pilot project you can expand Agile to other teams. At that point you will also have one team that can act as in-house “trainers” and champions of the process.

Good luck

]]> Comment on One Good Thing by Ryan http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/one-good-thing/#comment-81 Ryan Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:33:59 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=98#comment-81 Have any of the events touched on getting an organization to buy into Agile? My current employer would greatly benefit from the Agile model, but they seem to be afraid to leave what they know which is the "mini waterfall" and move to agile, despite "wanting to." They are literally drowning in meetings and process. Have any of the events touched on getting an organization to buy into Agile? My current employer would greatly benefit from the Agile model, but they seem to be afraid to leave what they know which is the “mini waterfall” and move to agile, despite “wanting to.” They are literally drowning in meetings and process.

]]> Comment on New Team – First Retrospective by Ryan http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/new-team-first-retrospective/#comment-79 Ryan Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:13:34 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=84#comment-79 Inspect and adapt Inspect and adapt

]]> Comment on Project Retrospective by New Team – First Retrospective « Old Dog, New Tricks http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/project-retrospective/#comment-78 New Team – First Retrospective « Old Dog, New Tricks Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:54:43 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=35#comment-78 [...] of the software. It seemed like a good time for a retrospective. Of course, if I read my own posts, I would have remembered that the right time for the first retrospective may have been right when I [...] [...] of the software. It seemed like a good time for a retrospective. Of course, if I read my own posts, I would have remembered that the right time for the first retrospective may have been right when I [...]

]]> Comment on Using the Automatic Recovery Features of Windows Services by Per Lundberg http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/using-the-automatic-recovery-features-of-windows-services/#comment-77 Per Lundberg Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:23:17 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=21#comment-77 Hi! Thank you, this was "on target" to what I was trying to do. Writing a multithreaded Windows Service is obviously an elegant way to do it (when it needs to wake up at certain intervals and perform certain tasks), but... having it be restarted automatically by Windows is certainly an important part of it. I'm not entirely happy about this solution though, but I don't know of any better one. The ugly part of it is that this is what gets logged to the event log: "Failed to stop service. System.ApplicationException: Service failing because of previously logged exception" (Yeah, I chose a different exception type and text in my OnStop() handler, since I already write the actual exception text to the event log in the UnhandledException-handler) The ugly part of it is the "Failed to stop service"; it feels a bit misleading, at best. :-) If you (or anyone else) finds out an even better way to crash the service, please let me know! Best regards, Per Hi! Thank you, this was “on target” to what I was trying to do. Writing a multithreaded Windows Service is obviously an elegant way to do it (when it needs to wake up at certain intervals and perform certain tasks), but… having it be restarted automatically by Windows is certainly an important part of it.

I’m not entirely happy about this solution though, but I don’t know of any better one. The ugly part of it is that this is what gets logged to the event log: “Failed to stop service. System.ApplicationException: Service failing because of previously logged exception”

(Yeah, I chose a different exception type and text in my OnStop() handler, since I already write the actual exception text to the event log in the UnhandledException-handler)

The ugly part of it is the “Failed to stop service”; it feels a bit misleading, at best. :-)

If you (or anyone else) finds out an even better way to crash the service, please let me know!

Best regards,
Per

]]> Comment on Rethinking the C# using statement by Dave Amphlett http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/rethinking-the-c-using-statement/#comment-53 Dave Amphlett Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:33:35 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=18#comment-53 correction to above - I realised that a tiny class that does the attach in the *constructor*, and a detach in the Dispose() correction to above -
I realised that a tiny class that does the attach in the *constructor*, and a detach in the Dispose()

]]> Comment on Rethinking the C# using statement by Dave Amphlett http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/rethinking-the-c-using-statement/#comment-52 Dave Amphlett Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:32:16 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=18#comment-52 I came up with a use for this sort of anonymous 'using' and found this page whilst trying to prove to myself it was a reasonable thing to do. In my case I have various classes that can publish 'progress' of what they do, and a helper class that can show this progress on a progress bar. When I'm about to kick a class off to do some work I 'attached' it to the progress bar help class. When it had finished the work I 'detached' it. I realised that a tiny class that does the attach in the helper, and a detach in the Dispose() could make the code easier to read and use the simple 'using' statements 'final' functionality to ensure the detach is always performed. All very handy I came up with a use for this sort of anonymous ‘using’ and found this page whilst trying to prove to myself it was a reasonable thing to do. In my case I have various classes that can publish ‘progress’ of what they do, and a helper class that can show this progress on a progress bar. When I’m about to kick a class off to do some work I ‘attached’ it to the progress bar help class. When it had finished the work I ‘detached’ it.
I realised that a tiny class that does the attach in the helper, and a detach in the Dispose() could make the code easier to read and use the simple ‘using’ statements ‘final’ functionality to ensure the detach is always performed.

All very handy

]]> Comment on Project Retrospective by Kevin E. Schlabach http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/project-retrospective/#comment-42 Kevin E. Schlabach Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:10:22 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=35#comment-42 I have several posts on my blog related to <a href="http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/search/label/retrospective" rel="nofollow">retrospectives</a> that might help you. Especially the one about <a href="http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/2008/09/retrospective-accountability.html" rel="nofollow">accountability across retrospectives</a>. It's important in your first few retrospectives to insure you build trust by taking the raised ideas and following through with changing them! Good luck. I have several posts on my blog related to retrospectives that might help you. Especially the one about accountability across retrospectives.

It’s important in your first few retrospectives to insure you build trust by taking the raised ideas and following through with changing them!

Good luck.

]]> Comment on Energized Work and Personal Responsibility by Energized Work - Part II « Old Dog, New Tricks http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/energized-work-and-personal-responsibility/#comment-40 Energized Work - Part II « Old Dog, New Tricks Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:49:45 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=28#comment-40 [...] does someone go from blogging about Energized Work to being too busy to blog for 6 months. One day at a [...] [...] does someone go from blogging about Energized Work to being too busy to blog for 6 months. One day at a [...]

]]> Comment on Using the Automatic Recovery Features of Windows Services by Zaphod's Third Head http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/using-the-automatic-recovery-features-of-windows-services/#comment-39 Zaphod's Third Head Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:39:59 +0000 http://mdenomy.wordpress.com/?p=21#comment-39 This is helpful, but a stern warning about having JIT debuggers disabled on production servers would not be amiss. This is helpful, but a stern warning about having JIT debuggers disabled on production servers would not be amiss.

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