One of my coworkers at this client was nice enough to point me towards the Inmeta Build Explorer add-in for Visual Studio.  The add-in plugs directly into the Team Explorer window in Visual Studio and provides you an organized hierarchical list of the build definitions in your team project.  This is done using a naming convention for the builds in your team project.  The add-in uses “.” as the default separator, but the developers of the add-in were nice enough to make it customizable.  And the Inmeta Build Explorer add-in is a client plugin, so only the developers on your team that are interested in using it have to install it – if you don’t look at the build definitions on a daily basis, then you don’t have to install it.

Just to give you an idea of the structure of the builds underneath the Inmeta Build Explorer node, here is what the Inmeta Build Explorer add-in looks like in our team project.

Another nice feature of this add-in is the ability to easily queue up the “default” build for a specific build definition.  If you right-click on one of the builds, an option named “Queue Default Build(s)” is available on the context menu.  Selecting this will automatically queue a new build for that build definition, bypassing the build properties window that lets you override the default build settings.

You can get the Inmeta Build Explorer on the Visual Studio Gallery.

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/35daa606-4917-43c4-98ab-38632d9dbd45

In this webinar, we’ll take a look at how to configure a new Team Build definition for Continuous Integration.  Then we will walk through creating an MSDeploy package from an ASP.NET MVC project, and automate the execution of the MSDeploy package to remote servers using our Continuous Integration build definition.

The webinar will be April 28th from 12pm-1pm EST.  For more information and to register to attend, check out the Strategic Data Systems website.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/4974327595/in/photostream/

So I know that this book has been out for awhile, and actually, I have owned this book for awhile.  Actually, if we’re being exact, I’ve owned two copies of this book for quite some time now.  It’s a funny story… ok, so not actually, but anyway – here is why I have two copies of this book.  I ordered the book off Amazon.com when it first hit bookshelves.  However, I wanted to read it so badly and I couldn’t wait until it was shipped to my house, so I picked up a copy at the local Books and Company store.  I took that copy home, and started to read it.  And, eventually, the copy I had ordered off Amazon.com finally arrived.  Although at that point, life had already moved on and I never did remember to take back the original copy I had picked up at Books and Company.  So, now I have two copies.  And I finally finished reading one of those copies just a couple weeks ago on the plane, and here is the review.  This blog post does have a point – I promise.

Rework is one of the most interesting – and most realistic – business books I have seen in a while.  And it’s one of the more unique business books I have read.  It’s unique because, in all of its simplicity, the authors of this book seem to understand how to start (and run) a business more than most others.

The authors start off with some very basic suggestions on how to start your own business.  But rather than walk you through the step-by-step process for creating everything from business cards to marketing material, they help the reader consider the most important things first.  You don’t have to give up your 9-5 job to start doing something you love.  You can start working on something with a little as an hour a day, and if you’re truly passionate about this interest and it’s more than a hobby, then you will stick with it – oh, and about those business cards – they can wait.  The key is to prioritize your list of tasks and expenses, and focus on the most important things first.

The book continues by discussing how to build your idea into a productive business, when to grow (or not grow) your business, and how to deal with everyday business scenarios like hiring, marketing, and bad press.

If you’re looking for a no-crap book on how to turn your ideas into a sustainable business, then look no further – start by reading Rework.

In this webinar, we’ll take a look at how to use Team Explorer Everywhere, which is included with Team Foundation Server 2010.  Team Explorer Everywhere can be integrated into any Eclipse-based development environment.  Once integrated, users will be able to interact with Team Foundation Server directly from within their Eclipse-based development environment and use Team Foundation Server for both version control and process management. 

The webinar will be April 7th from 12pm-1pm EST.  For more information and to register to attend, check out the Strategic Data Systems website.

In this presentation, we’ll start with a brief introduction of what it means to be agile, and then we’ll talk about how business analysts fit into an agile project team and how to work effectively with the rest of the project team to help your next project succeed. 

For information on the event, check out the Dayton IIBA chapter website or the event page for tonight’s chapter meeting!  If you would like to attend, you can rsvp via email to dayton.iiba@gmail.com. 

New Blog Engine – WordPress

I made the switch to WordPress.  My blog was originally hosted with Blogger, but in the beginning of February, I received an email from Google stating that only 0.5% of the active blogs published using Blogger were using the FTP publishing option and they are no longer going to support this feature.  I really liked the FTP publishing option that was available to Blogger users because it allowed me to host my blog “inside” a typical ASP.NET site, complete with jQuery and even Silverlight and/or Flash content.  Unfortunately, this publishing option is no longer supported after March 26th, so WordPress is my new home.

New Blog Template – Extremely Simple

I also decided to switch up the blog template during the transition from Blogger to WordPress.  The original blog template was pretty simple and this one is even simpler.  This blog is about the content and not the theme, so keeping the theme simple is important to me.

New Posts – Coming Soon

Finally, new posts are on their way.  I have about 3 new posts in progress now, mostly technical focused posts as of right now, with the exception of one post on developer soft skills.  Look for these coming soon.

Impact analysis is extremely important when making changes to an existing application – especially if the changes you are making include database schema changes.  This is even more important if the application you are changing is an existing production application. if users are working with your application, they aren’t going to be happy if they have runtime errors in their application every time you touch the codebase.  The specific project my colleague and I are working on is still in development, so we didn’t cause any major production issues as a result of the schema changes we made, however, this may not be the case every time we make schema changes in the future.

A quick search on StackOverflow shows that I’m not the first developer to ask this question.  Also, I’m sure I’m not the last person to ask about it either, so I thought it was worth repeating here in case anyone else is interested.

In my scenario, I needed a way to search all of the existing stored procedures to see if an existing database column and relationship were referenced.  The easiest way to do this is a quick keyword search through all of the stored procedures.  Our database has over 100 stored procedures, so searching each one by hand wasn’t feasible.  Plus, we’re developers – when we are confronted with situations like this in the future, we should be looking for a quick way to automate this type of task.

One of the responses to this question on StackOverflow suggest running a quick SQL query against the database you want to search, plugging in the keyword you want to search for.

SELECT DISTINCT(sysobjects.name)FROM sysobjects,syscomments
WHERE sysobjects.id = syscomments.id
AND sysobjects.type = 'P'
AND sysobjects.category=0
AND CHARINDEX(<the keyword>,syscomments.text)>0

Just replace the placeholder ‘<the keyword>’ with the keyword you want to find.  This query can easily be thrown into a stored procedure (with the keyword as a parameter) and you can call this every time you need to perform an impact analysis on your SQL Server stored procedures before making changes in the future.  Your colleagues. and your boss. will appreciate this, trust me.

I’m honored to be asked back as a speaker at this event (I’ve spoken at this event several times in the past) and look forward to sharing my experiences as a computer engineer.  Hopefully I’ll be able to generate some interest in the exciting opportunities that are available in our field!

For more info on the event, check out the info page here.  Unfortunately registration is full, but you can add your name to a wait list if you are interested in attending.

Code and Coffee is a great way to keep community going on a more frequent basis.  This is typically an informal meet up on a scheduled basis – usually once a week – at a coffee shop in your neighborhood.  Just about every coffee shop has large group tables, free wifi, and caffeine and you would be amazed at how much you can learn just by doing an hour or two of pair programming with other developers in your area. 

The Dayton, Ohio Code and Coffee meet up is on Tuesday mornings at Caribou Coffee at The Greene.  We typically start at 715am and finish up whenever the last person needs to leave.  In the last several months, we have worked through EdgeCase’s Ruby Koans and Sean Chambers’ SOLID presentation as a group.  The schedule is really informal (you can read that as "there is no schedule"), so who knows what is next.

If there is a meet up similar to this in your area already, I encourage you to get involved.  Here are the groups I know of in the southwest Ohio area:

• Cincinnati – Bitslingers, Monday evenings at Panera Bread at Deerfield Towne Center (6pm) and Thursday mornings Panera Bread in Kenwood (630am)
• Columbus – Code and Coffee, Friday mornings at varied locations
• Dayton – Code and Coffee, Tuesday mornings at Caribou Coffee at The Greene, 715am

If there isn’t a Code and Coffee group in your area, maybe there is a similar group of developers that meet for lunch or in the evening.  If you still can’t find one, why not start your own?  These sessions are usually very informal, but one of the key things I would suggest is to keep it as open as possible.  In other words, don’t exclude people by making it a language specific group.  All developers, regardless of language preference, should be invited to attend and get involved.  We can learn a lot from each other by reaching across the language and technology boundaries.

The bottom line is, the user experience is arguably the most important aspect of any project. Sure, it is important to have a functioning application that works as expected, but if the user experience does not let your users use the application functionality to solve their problems and meet their needs, the extra features you added to the application code are worthless. This does not mean that the user experience of every application needs to be built in some form of rich application environment (i.e. Silverlight, WPF, Flex, etc.). Even though this would certainly be nice eye candy, some applications just do not warrant the need for a rich application interface. But that does not mean the user experience is not important – you can develop a great user experience regardless of the UI technology.

One of the books I am currently reading is “Subject to Change: Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World” by a group of authors from Adaptive Path, a user experience strategy and design company located in San Francisco. Here are a few excellent points I have picked up on so far that I thought were worth sharing.

Empathy is your most valuable tool

A key point that is stressed throughout the book is the use of empathy in user experience design. To quote the folks from Adaptive Path, “empathy is an understanding of a person or group’s subjective experience by sharing that experience vicariously.” If you have empathy for your audience, you can really start to see what drives their behaviors rather than just observing them as some type of action.

Empathy is not sympathy

Empathy and sympathy are two completely different emotions. Sympathy could be (1) pity for the user or it could be (2) a feeling generated by actually sharing an experience with the user, both of which do not have a place in the software design process. Pity can sometimes lead to a sense of superiority, which is definitely not what you want. And If the user and the designer both share the same experience, the designer’s objectivity can be removed and he/she can sometimes get “too close” to the problem. Empathy however keeps you at a distance with an objective point of view.

Users are human beings and not market segments

Having empathy for your users and understanding them as human beings and not as market segments or demographics will greatly increase your chances of developing a quality user experience. One example of developing empathy, which is mentioned in the book, is the redesign of two Huggies products by Kimberly-Clark. After conducting a significant amount of research in families homes, they noticed that parents were often struggling to hold babies while diapering and bathing them. Based on these observations, the product designers at Kimberly-Clark redesigned their baby wipes packaging to make it easier to pull out wipes with one hand. By observing users in their homes while they live their everyday lives, researchers were able to develop empathy for the users (in this case, the parents) in regards to how they use the product.

So the key points are (1) empathy, not sympathy, and (2) human beings, not market segments. Once you understand these points, you are well on your way to better understanding your users and their needs.

Anything else you think is key when it comes to empathy and user experiences? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.