ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » software developers http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/23/which-software-development-life-cycle-is-best/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/23/which-software-development-life-cycle-is-best/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:58:46 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3284

Your Guide To Software Development Methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, SDLC, Extreme ...)

Your Guide To Software Development Methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, SDLC, Extreme ...)

Models like Agile, Extreme Programming, Scrum or Waterfall are used by project managers, business analysts, software developers or quality assurance analysts to describe how a project is managed or a software product is built.

The software development life cycle determines how risks are managed, business requirements documented, resources estimated and allocated, stakeholder expectations or customer feedback is managed and when software / quality assurance testing is performed.

Each software development model recommends a set of guidelines or best practices for developing software.

It is then up to an adopting organization to follow these guidelines from the inception of their project.

Choosing the right Software Development Life Cycle is important because it helps your project team reduce or eliminate the risks of project failure which occur as frequently as 60% of the time.

Software Development Life Cycles are also important because they help deliver a better product or user experience.

In a nutshell, software development practices like Agile, Extreme Programming, Waterfall, Lean Software Development, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Scrum will help your project team meet or exceed customer or business requirements, deliver products on time or under budget.

Meeting Business Requirements

Software Development Life Cycles help with clarifying when or how software requirements will be gathered and analyzed in a software development project.

In software methodologies like the Waterfall model, business requirements are collected, analyzed or documented extensively at the beginning of the project.

In other software models like Agile or Scrum, requirements are gathered or analyzed multiple times during the life cycle of the project.

While opinions differ as to which software model helps you gather better software requirements, each model still offers the benefit of a formal plan for gathering, analyzing or documenting business requirements.

Engaging the Best Minds or Resources

Some Software Development Life Cycles like the Waterfall model are more traditional with their “top down” team structure or project management approach.

Other software models like the Agile or Scrum models are flatter in their team structure or more self organizing and independent.

The benefit of following a software development model is that it helps with organizing or structuring the project team’s roles, responsibilities or communication style.

Reducing or Eliminating Time or Budget Overruns

Statistics show that as much as 60% of Information Technology (IT) projects fail for various reasons including time or budget overruns.

This is where choosing the right software model can be helpful.

Each software development life cycle offers a set of best practices for estimating project resources, planning project deliverables or product features and monitoring timelines or milestones.

While some software models like the Waterfall emphasize time, budget or resource estimation at the beginning of the project, others like Agile or Scrum emphasize time, cost or resource estimation & planning throughout the life cycle of the project.

Managing the Software Development Process

Each Software Development model divides separates the development process into a set of activities which makes the project more manageable.

While some Software models are sequential, others are iterative.

Software development models separate your development cycle into phases which helps with project planning, resource utilization and progress monitoring or control.

Creating Better Software Products

Software development life cycles can help with meeting or exceeding customer expectations as well as creating better software products.

Your software development model will provided guidelines for creating test cases or mapping test cases to requirements or product features.

Software models provides guidance for quality assurance analysts or software testers, on when to execute tests, record bugs or defects and measure or report on the quality of the software product.

How To Adopt A New Software Development Life Cycle

An organization may be incapable of taking advantage of a software development model in-spite of the merits of the model.

Here is my advice on adopting a new software development model

  1. Evaluate your Company Culture: consider the flexibility or willingness of your company to change or adapt.

    I have seen organizations with a top-down management culture fail at agile models because they were not ready to give up some control to an agile, self-organizing team.

  2. Take Small Steps: don’t try to change too much, too soon, when adopting a new software development model.

    Over-committing at the early stages of your project raises a red flag because it means that your project team is being expected to run before it has learnt how to walk!

  3. Get Executive / Organizational Commitment: get someone with senior management or executive authority to back the adoption of the model or it may not survive corporate politics.

Sometime ago, I functioned as the Information Technology Director of a re-manufacturing plant in the Ozarks.

One of the goals I set for my team and employer was to get them to adopt a formal software development model.

Before I started running with the implementation of that model, I spent time coaching the CEO, the quality assurance and product development directors, and other senior managers on the benefits as well as potential challenges of the new software development model.

Because I had strong organizational commitment and backing, the software model was finally adopted without any incidents.

Which Software Development Life Cycle Is Best for Your Project?

With all that has been said in mind, i have prepared a downloadable study guide that will help you with choosing a software development model for your project!

The study guide which you can download below covers answers questions like:

  1. What is Agile, Scrum, Waterfall?, Lean Software Development, Extreme Programming …
  2. What are the advantages, disadvantages, challenges or benefits of adopting a software development model …
  3. How does Agile compare to Waterfall … And More ….

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here




ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES


Visit our Shopping Cart

]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/09/23/which-software-development-life-cycle-is-best/feed/ 1 Java, C/C++ or C#, Which Is Better? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/04/20/java-cplus-or-csharp-which-is-better/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/04/20/java-cplus-or-csharp-which-is-better/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:50:24 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3172

Java, C#, C++, Which Is Better?

Java, C# or C++, Which Is Better?

Sometimes, you have to look to the past to see the future. To see the future of our more popular programming languages including Java, C#, Visual Basic, C/C++, let’s first review their histories.

Is C/C++ the Best Programming Language?

The C programming language was standardized in the early 70s for the UNIX operating system (and not Windows) by Dennis Ritchie.

In the early 80s Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs invented the C++ programming language as classes that extend the C language.

The C/C++ programming language is primarily used in writing operating systems, video games, device drivers, embedded systems and commercial, shrink-wrapped windows based software programs.

In the MS-DOS or Windows 3.1 era, C/C++ was probably the most capable compiler for developing windows based programs

Is Visual Basic the Best Programming Language?

The folks at Microsoft who were the sharpest minds in the software development business at that time realized that they were not catering enough to hobby or beginner programmers … keeping in mind that Bill Gates started his career as a hobby programmer without any formal computer science college education.

The issue was that working with C/C++ or most of the programming languages in existence at that time, required a strong computer science background or a formal computer science college education and lots of tedious, coding hours.

At that time, programmers had to repetitively code for mundane windows features or behaviors like detecting or responding to keyboard clicks or mouse movements.

So, in keeping with their founder’s (Bill Gates) history, Microsoft decided to do away with a lot of the repetitious, boring coding by developing Visual Basic (VB) 1.0 as a Drag and Drop, User Interface Driven, Rapid Application Development Environment.

VB 1.0 was introduced in 1991 to make computer programming accessible to everyone including hobby programmers, inexperienced software developers, beginners or anyone without a strong, formal, computer science background.

Visual Basic succeeded at making programming fun, less tedious or less expensive by giving programmers an easier, more productive coding environment.

A Paradigm Shift in Computing

Because of Visual Basic, millions of professionals without a formal computer science college education or background could learn how to program or get fun jobs without experiencing the drudgery or pain traditionally associated with programming languages.

Because of this paradigm shift, business owners could bring their windows software projects more quickly to market because the amount of time that programmers spend writing code had been dramatically reduced.

This paradigm shift also separated systems programming for which C/C++ was still the best from windows-based business software development for which Visual Basic was better suited.

What differentiated Visual Basic was its graphical, windows development environment which allowed inexperienced programmers to write less code by dragging or dropping pre-built windows features from a toolbox!

This meant that programmers no longer had to write thousands of lines of code before their software would receive user input in data entry forms, interact with back-end databases or detect and respond to mouse or keyboard actions from users.

Is Java the Best Programming Language?

While Microsoft was busy at work, the Internet appeared as if from nowhere and pulled the rug from other programming languages like Visual Basic and C/C++ which were not designed with the Web in mind.

The question no longer was “can you program in visual basic” but rather “can you program for the web or build a website?“

Sun Microsystems answered that question by releasing Java in 1995 with the intention that unlike Microsoft software, Java programs will run easily on web browsers and is portable to most hardware or software environments.

Java became very popular for many reasons. It was a superior object oriented programming language to Visual Basic which at that time was not object oriented.

Java was easier to code with than C/C++ and Sun designed Java programs so you could port or run them on all sorts of hardware systems unlike Visual Basic or C/C++.

Though Java became popular in the late 90s with experienced programmers, it still lacked Rapid Application Development features just like its cousin C/C++.

Today, Java still does not appeal to inexperienced software developers, beginner programmers or web developers without a strong, formal computer science education.

Java is also not the language of choice for writing web applications or designing websites! Web application development skills are currently more in demand than windows, systems, hardware programming skills.

Is C# the Best Programming Language?

Then Microsoft had another brainwave and released C# in February 13th 2002 which changed the web and windows programming industry again.

Here was a programming language that incorporated the object oriented programming capabilities of Java or C/C+ and the Rapid Application Development environment of classic Visual Basic and at the same time, provided a first-class web programming environment!

With all the facts in this article in mind, here are my recommendations for choosing a programming language.

  • Lower Learning Curves Is Good For You

    C/C++ has the highest learning curve (level of difficulty) followed by Java.

    C# is the easiest of the three (3) programming languages to learn because of its Visual or Graphical Programming features and language intellisense, which explains the meaning of programming commands as you type!

    C# also offers a large set of pre-built classes that save you from writing thousands of repetitious lines of code before you read, write or update databases or accept user input.

  • Acing Programming Interviews or Finding A Job

    Acing a programming interview or finding a job depends on your mastery of the programming language in question.

    Keep in mind find that mastering C# is easier than learning Java which in turn is easier than learning C/C++.

    Also, C# is preferred to either C/C++ or Java for building web applications.

    This means that if you want a web development career, you will do better to choose C# over Java or C/C++!

  • Bringing It To Market Matters Most

    The speed or ease with which you write code determines the time, money or effort required to complete a software development project.

    That is why it takes longer to build websites in C/C++ compared to Java. That is also why C# is easier or most productive for building web or windows applications compared to C/C++ or Java.

    Finally, software development managers are typically more concerned about the ease or speed with which you code than how fast your code runs, keep in mind that C/C++ is the the fastest or how portable your program is: Java is designed with portability in mind.

  • Code Potability or Processor Speed Is Irrelevant

    The amount of processing power available to Computer power has been dramatically boosted since the 90s.

    Software programs now run in 4GB to 8GB of memory instead of 256MB.

    Furthermore, computer processing power has grown from 16MHZ to QUAD CORE 2GHZ CPUs.

    So, the speed of your compiled software code is no longer a determining or driving business factor for most software development projects.

    The web / internet removes the need to address the question of code portability because HTML, XHTML and CSS is the native programming language for the web.

    Your Web Software is 100% portable if it emits pure or valid HTML, XHTML or CSS, so saying that Java is portable gets you nowhere!

Please answer the questions below. But before you answer the questions posted below, take a moment to read this article titled: “Is Learning C/C++ Programming Language Good For You?”

Discussion Questions

  1. Today, we live in a digital, information rich, mobile, internet era and my first question is: “how relevant is C/C++, Java, C# to the Web / Internet Age?“

  2. What is the difference between Operating Systems / Hardware programming and Business Software Application programming?

  3. No one programming language is best suited for every project. With this in mind, “what sort of software development project is each of these programming languages best suited for: Java, C#, C/C++?“

This post answers a question posted by Josh on the quickest way to get into a computer programmer career..


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here




ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES


Visit our Shopping Cart

]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2011/04/20/java-cplus-or-csharp-which-is-better/feed/ 5 Which Programming Language Is Best To Start With? http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/18/which-programming-language-is-best-to-start-with/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/18/which-programming-language-is-best-to-start-with/#comments Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:44:24 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=3039

Are You Chasing Rabbits For A Living?

Are You Chasing Rabbits For A Living?

[Ask IT Career Coach] is a Career Advice Column for Information Technology (IT) professionals looking for answers to their most challenging career situations.

Do not worry about how to get handson experience in a programming language before you actually learn the programming language … that is called putting the cart before the horse.

If you choose to worry about handson experience before learning the programming language, all that you will end up achieving is nothing … those worries, fears or doubts will only delay your progress because they are either imaginary or harmful!

Rather, choose the path of action or get your hands dirty learning the programming languages that I recommend below and opportunities to get more handson experience will present themselves.

So, don’t hesitate or procrastinate … remember, he who hesitates is lost!

Click here to read this article on hesitation or procrastination

Which Programming Language Is Best To Start With?

Here is a question submitted by a reader on getting handson programming experience and the best programming language to start with.

The toughest challenge facing my career right now is boredom and a feeling of restlessness.

I’m about to graduate college with a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, and I’m itching to start a real career that is more technical than the help desk that I work on.

Therein lies another challenge: I have no experience.

I’m very interested in programming and software development right now, but I don’t know what is hot in the job market in my area right now.

I’ve been searching the IT job sites, and there are positions open for Java, .NET, and Unix developers (each with a minimum five years of experience).

I appreciate your website and the excellent articles!

I now know to self-teach myself programming skills and work on open source projects, freelance and try for some contracting jobs.

Thank you!

Here Is The Answer To This Reader’s Questions

Hi, I am glad that you know how to self-teach yourself programming skills, work on open source projects, freelance and try for some contracting jobs … it seems that you just want to choose the right programming language since you’ve already heard about Java, .NET and Unix.

Choose Web Development Languages:

Don’t waste your time learning programming languages that are not suited for web development. This is because out of all the software development language careers, web developers are the most in-demand!

Choose a Rapid Application Development (RAD) Programming Language:

The best programming languages for your career will be the ones that are the most productive to code with.

Several years ago, software developers were using languages like Clipper, Foxpro, C/C++. That was back in the days when computer programmers were just transitioning from programming for DOS to programming for WINDOWS.

While all that was happening, Microsoft released a programming language known as Visual Basic which revolutionized the programming industry.

Visual Basic was a Rapid Application Development (RAD) Language which contained visual cues for building desktop applications.

For example, it allowed you to drag an icon representing a button onto a screen and then it generated the code for the button for you.

Because it made programming easier, Microsoft’s Visual Basic quickly became one of the most popular and productive languages for building software applications.

For example, using a Visual Basic enabled database software like Microsoft Access, a developer could create a functional application in a fraction of the time it takes a Java or C/C++ developer to code the same application.

Finally, Microsoft changed the game again with the introduction of .NET Framework which incorporates some of the best features of programming with Java, Visual Basic and C/C++!

So, if you want to be successful computer programmer, go with a productive Rapid Application Development (RAD) Language like Microsoft.NET, learn C# and SQL Server … which is the database language that is most compatible with .NET Framework.

Note that you also have to learn a relational database system because both web and windows software developers have to design or develop databases for their software applications … so, learning SQL query writing and database development is required for software developers.

Study Or Handson Experience, Which Comes First?

And don’t be worrying about not having handson programming experience before you get to learn the programming language … that is putting the cart before the horse.

Answer These Questions …

  1. Are you learning the right programming languages?
  2. How productive are the programming languages that you are learning?
  3. Are you worrying about how to get handson experience?

When you start out learning the programming languages that I recommended, opportunities to get your hands dirty will present themselves.

Don’t hesitate or procrastinate … remember, he who hesitates is lost! Click here to read this article on hesitation or procrastination

Another reason why you should stick with my recommendations is that … studying computer programming can quickly become an overwhelming experience because of the myriad of computer programming languages.

So, if you make the mistake of dabbling in different programming languages, you may end up not being skilled in any!

Don’t waste your time chasing rabbits … learning programming languages for which there is little or no market demand.


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here




ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES


Visit our Shopping Cart

]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/12/18/which-programming-language-is-best-to-start-with/feed/ 16 Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/09/programming-interviews-exposed-secrets-to-landing-your-next-job/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/09/programming-interviews-exposed-secrets-to-landing-your-next-job/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:50:32 +0000 Vijay http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=2779

how to: ace technical interviews and land jobs

how to: ace technical interviews and land jobs

This question was submitted by Vijay who needs advice on “how to ace programming interviews and land the next job!“

If you need help with a Question or Challenge, be sure to ask it as a comment on this page and I will answer it fully just as I am answering Vijay’s questions below!

Question: How To Impress Hiring Manager at Programming Interviews

Here is the question submitted by Vijay:

On my last job I was given a technical test to write nested SQL queries.

I did not write the nested SQL query in one statement rather I created a temp table and then later join the results.

Even though the rest of the interview went ok and was able to answer other technical questions on face to face interview.

I am looking for an entry level job and I have been practicing my programming skill in C#/ASP.net and SQL queries, but in the last interview I missed the nested query question and I am thinking that it is because of this that am not selected.

So how should some one impress the hiring manager if they have not performed well on the written technical questions.

How can somebody cover the weakness in one skill while other skills are stronger and impress the hiring manager.

Thanks

Vijay

Answer: Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job

Knowing how to ace technical interviews is important because it determines whether you land the next job or not.

With this in mind, here is some advice on how to ace your next technical interview or get a job.

  1. Self Confidence at Programming Interviews: failing to get one technical / programming question is usually not enough to fail you at the interview.

    The real reason is that you lost confidence after missing one (1) technical question and the hiring manager noticed that!

    It may not be realistic to expect that you will pass all your technical questions. What you need to do, is to continue in a self assured or confident manner as that signals that you know what you are doing!

    For more information, read this post titled: “Fear And Self Confidence In Programming Interviews“.

  2. Kaizen Principle Applied To Programming Interviews: there is a Japanese quality improvement term known as Kaizen.

    Kaizen practitioners achieve significant results through small, incremental improvements.

    What this means for you is that, you can land the next computer programmer job making incremental improvements in your performance at the job interview!

    Bringing it home, you should make a note of all your weak technical skills like nested sql queries and then practice and improve on it before your next programming job interview.

    Also, you should keep a journal of all the questions that find challenging at job interviews and then research, practice and improve on them.

  3. How To Impress Hiring Managers: note that it is hard to impress the hiring manager if you fail to perform at the job interview.

    So, a better question to ask may be: how do I impress the hiring manager at a programmer job interview?

    If you really want to impress the hiring manager, start your preparing for technical interviews really early … before you have to take them!

    Why? … Because making significant improvements in skill level takes time. So, it cannot be treated like you are ordering fast food or buying soda from a vending machine!

    So start preparing intensively for your programming job interview really early and you will have the knowledge needed to impress hiring managers!

This post is one in a series dedicated to answering questions submitted by readers.

If you have a burning question or challenging situation in your career … be sure to post it as a comment on this page and we will take care of it for you!


What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?



What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here




ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES


Visit our Shopping Cart

This post was submitted by Vijay.

]]> http://www.it-career-coach.net/2010/02/09/programming-interviews-exposed-secrets-to-landing-your-next-job/feed/ 1