What is this “product” you speak of?

We talk about “software products” and “product teams.” What does this even mean, “product?” It is not the definition I learned in school. Economics 101: the output of the economy is “goods and services.” Goods, also called “products,” are physical items that you can buy, take home, and have. Like, if you buy a rug, …

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What functional programming and secure code have in common

As a programmer, especially a strong-typing functional programmer, I love abstraction. Defining what the program does and expressing that cleanly in code. The code should express little else. Now I’m studying secure code, and it is the opposite. It’s all about what can happen, not what should. So many nitty-gritty details of network protocols, memory …

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One Secret to Quality Software

They ask us for quality. What is “quality”? “Well, free of defects.” (Oh it’s a lot more than that.) What is a “defect”? “Well, when it doesn’t work like we expect it to. Like we agreed it should.” Trust me, you didn’t specify how it works. That’s my job, as a developer. To organize all …

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The Quality Wheel

“Quality software.” It means something different to everyone who hears it. You know quality when you see it, right? Or maybe when you smell it. Like a good perfume. Perfume preferences are different for everyone, and quality means something different for every application. In perfume, we can discover and describe our preferences using the Fragrance …

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