Software Development as a Craft

Jason PoonSoftware Developer, Microsoft

Hi, I'm a

software developer

Programmer vs Developer

Software development is a craft.
Programming is only one aspect of software development.
Knowing how to program is not the same as being able to develop high quality software.

It's like woodworking. You can START by growing a tree, then chopping it down and finishing it, sanding it, before you make a table. Or you can go to Ikea. More likely you'll try something in between. Modifying a WordPress theme is going to Ikea. Writing you own web framework is growing a tree first because you don't like the existing trees. You have to decide where on the spectrum you want to be, from being a custom furniture maker from the Woodright's Shop or someone who assembles prefabricated pieces made by someone else.

Software Development Process

work closely with the customer to discover what is required design a software architecture that balances simplicity, scalability, performance, and reliability implement writing quality code unit tests, component tests, integration tests, etc.

Software Development Process

Traditional Waterfall model Requirements known up front

Software Development Process

agile development involves breaking things up into smaller bite sized chuncks

Learning the Craft

learn the fundamentals
- data structures
- algorithms
apprenticeship
- code reviews
- extreme programming
- mentorship

best way to learn it is to sit down with someone who knows how to do it and learn it from them

Lessons I've Learned

Shipping Services

Shrink-Wrapped Software

Examples:

Windows 10
Office 365
DropBox
Google Docs

What does this mean as a developer?

Don't be afraid of shipping
Always shipping
Impossible to be 100% bug-free
Everyone is accountable

Lessons I've learned

Things will Fail

Lots of stuff can go wrong

Reddit effect
misconfigured machines
bad configurations
hard drive failure
...etc

Dealing with Failure

Failover

Defensive Programming

switch (Orientation)
{
    case Orientation.Horizontal:
        break;

    case Orientation.Vertical:
        break;

    default:
        throw new NotSupportedException();
}

Fail fast, fail hard
KISS

Tools of the Craft

IDE

Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Xcode
Eclipse
NetBeans
Sublime

Team Tools

Visual Studio Online
GitHub
Slack

Cloud Hosting

Microsoft Azure
Amazon Web Services
Google Cloud
Heroku

Hardware

Raspberry Pi
Arduino
Particle Photon
Windows IoT

App Dev

Cordova
React Native
Xamarin

Web Dev

Postman
Fiddler
NodeJS
JS Frameworks

Tools of the Craft

IDE

Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Xcode
Eclipse
NetBeans
Sublime

Team Tools

Visual Studio Online
GitHub
Slack

Cloud Hosting

Microsoft Azure
Amazon Web Services
Google Cloud
Heroku

Hardware

Raspberry Pi
Arduino
Particle Photon
Windows IoT

App Dev

Cordova
React Native
Xamarin

Web Dev

Postman
Fiddler
NodeJS
JS Frameworks

Dreamspark

Tools of the Craft

IDE

Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Xcode
Eclipse
NetBeans
Sublime

Team Tools

Visual Studio Online
GitHub
Slack

Cloud Hosting

Microsoft Azure
Amazon Web Services
Google Cloud
Heroku

Hardware

Raspberry Pi
Arduino
Particle Photon
Windows IoT

App Dev

Cordova
React Native
Xamarin

Web Dev

Postman
Fiddler
NodeJS
JS Frameworks

Free

Applying your Craft

Continue Schooling
Work for Someone
Work for Yourself

Stop by and say hello tomorrow (Oct. 1) at theCareer Fair or Oct. 6, 7pm @ Dempster 310 for Meet Microsoft Presentation.

Jason Poon

Software Development as a Craft Jason Poon Software Developer, Microsoft

Software Development as a Craft

jpoon

Software Development as a Craft

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