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Experience-rated development (by John Koziol)

  • Artigo

Before Microsoft made the mistake of actually hiring me (heh), I worked as a vendor to the company for the VFP 6 certification tests. The test teams always debated what could reasonably be expected knowledge of a developer. You see,  at that time the concept was to find the MQC - Minimally Qualifed Candidate.  What magic set of knowledge indicates that someone should be certified in a tool?

I'll never forget that Ted Roche, one of the team members, made a fascinating point - VFP projects tend to be line-of-business oriented and can take 6-12 months from conception to fruition. Therefore, at the time (1999), no one could reasonably be expected to have worked on more than 8 projects or so sice the product debuted Summer 1995. That assertion, which I find very true, made a big impact on me as to how I evaluated an MQC.

Fast forward to 2004 - We live in a world where new versions of developer tools come rolling out every 2 years or so, with all new features and enhancements. Back in the old days (I'm dating myself), we dealt with COBOL ANSI-68 or ANSI-74.  A 6 year difference, and the changes were not that severe.

So when I see folks pining away for a new version of a tool, I have to wonder how much experience they've garnered in the real world with the prior version that was just probably released within the last 24 months. Mind you, I'm not arguing against adapting the latest and greatest - better to have a P-51 than a Sopwith Camel and we'll figure out the fuel injectors later - but what is the compelling reason for folks to always look to the next version? Is it a geek-gadget thing or is there a method to the madness?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2004
    I'm with you. I want to feel like I've mastered version 1.x before I move to 2.0. Or at least become competent.

    I've been working with .NET since the beta and been writing "production" software for over a year and I feel like I have only scratched the surface.

    And I've got to help developers who are only just starting out.

    2.0 can wait.

    Disclaimer: I'm actively awaiting certain key features, including Refactoring support, Generics and SQLXML 3.0 being natively supported in .NET.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2004
    Typical VFP projects even tend to never stop. I know of at least ten developments, which just add features, changes and adoptions due to business needs on a weekly basis. Such projects are difficult to move to a newer VFP version in between and it's even impossible to switch to a completely different development tool. You can't go to you boss and say "We stop development for at least a year, because MS thinks we now have to switch to <InsertYourFavBuzzword.Net>". It's just not possible in real life.
    In VFP's world, Updates are always welcome because they provide a fully backward-compatible way of incorporating newest technologies (like XML or Webservices) and of course urgently needed bugfixes, without breaking the ongoing development process. Thus: yes, I want updates. Now and as often as possible ;)

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 29, 2004
    "but what is the compelling reason for folks to always look to the next version? Is it a geek-gadget thing or is there a method to the madness?"

    For myself, and I'm sure quite a few others, it's about not wanting to fall behind. You see, our tool and platform vendor (someone you know!) happens to enjoy it when we give them money. In order to get more of it more frequently than 6 years, they release new versions of the tools in increments that span -- important, pay attention -- less than 6 years.

    What you see replying to blogs will most likely be a small minority of the overall development population, and not necessarily representative of the majority. So when you see a person freak out over, say, generics in a future release of C#, remind yourself that you are dealing with exactly that. A freak.

    lol

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2007
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  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2008
    Before Microsoft made the mistake of actually hiring me (heh), I worked as a vendor to the company for the VFP 6 certification tests. The test teams always debated what could reasonably be expected knowledge of a developer. You see, at that time the concep

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2008
    Before Microsoft made the mistake of actually hiring me (heh), I worked as a vendor to the company for the VFP 6 certification tests. The test teams always debated what could reasonably be expected knowledge of a developer. You see, at that time the concep