Comment Feed for Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab (Charles on Channel 9)

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

arindam.mallik — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 06:20:31 GMT

This is not a working environment ... just heaven!!

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

CompiledMonkey — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:34:16 GMT

Is this video available for download anymore???

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

BlackTiger — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 06:51:12 GMT

One more secret - never work with "bcos it's so cool" developers.
They are nice funny guys but worthless for project because too enthuziastic. Too much energy but wrong directions.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

BlackTiger — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 05:51:24 GMT

Considering developers are going to be spending most of their time debugging

50-75%

Imho, it's FAR TO MUCH. May be it's time to change developers? Or just "update" them. I personally spending up to 5% of my time in debugger. My secret - never jump between areas and see whole picture. But if you have stuff rotation then you will spend alot of time in debugger because of "spaghetti code".

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

briankel — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:43:29 GMT

JohnAskew wrote:

Peter Provost is inspiring.

I'd like to plug a cable in the back of my neck and get a core dump of Agile.

Write a book about it, P&P.

Check out Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials for a brand new book which addresses this topic. I haven't read it myself yet but it's getting good reviews.

Brian Keller

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

PeterProvost — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:15:12 GMT

DigitalDud wrote:

I'd say working with as a team is definitely important but so is developer privacy. Considering developers are going to be spending most of their time debugging, I'd say some privacy and the ability to shut off distractions is going to be pretty important. The last thing you want when you're debugging, and going deep into the call stack, is someone coming in and disrupting your concentration.

The most interesting thing about the way we work is how little time our developers actually have to spend in the debugger. When you practice things like TDD and pair-programming, you literally spend less than 10% of your time in the debugger.

I was giving a "agile" presentation to another team here on campus lately and had a few other agile folks from around MSFT with me. I asked the room, "How much time you spend in the debugger?"

The team I was talking to responded with numbers like 50% or 75%. Then I asked my agile friends and they responded with numbers like 0% or 5%.

TDD allows you to build the system in a small way so surprises rarely occur. You don't spend very much time in the debugger, because you only added one or two lines of code since you last ran the tests.

I typically only use the debugger when an API call I'm using doesn't behave the way I expect. But then it is a VERY targeted attack. Step into the one test I'm having problems with, trace through to the API call and inspect the result. Once I've learned better what's going on, I add typically add a new test that explains that behavior better and then I can move on.

Hopefully that helps explain things a bit better.

--Peter

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

T1Guy — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:19:20 GMT

Wish our office was like that!

Thanks for giving us a peek at what it's like to work there.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Ion Todirel — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:29:46 GMT

BlackTiger wrote:

Eah... Great place to be and work...

Unfortunately it's impossible in my company. Also it's impossible for me to work in Microsoft - I'm allergic to C/CPP.

there are many teams that develop in C# (or more generally .NET).

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

BlackTiger — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:11:35 GMT

Eah... Great place to be and work...

Unfortunately it's impossible in my company. Also it's impossible for me to work in Microsoft - I'm allergic to C/CPP.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

tshak — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:45:12 GMT

DigitalDud wrote:

I'd say working with as a team is definitely important but so is developer privacy. Considering developers are going to be spending most of their time debugging...

:O I certainly hope not! One of the benefits of Agile practices like TDD is that it replaces the need for debugging sessions. I still use the debugger on occasion but for short periods of time and usually with someone looking over my shoulder.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

JohnAskew — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 20:56:47 GMT

Peter Provost is inspiring.

I'd like to plug a cable in the back of my neck and get a core dump of Agile.

Write a book about it, P&P.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Massif — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:57:58 GMT

And to think all I really want is two screens. (And it would be nice if they were bigger than this 17" one too!)

Have you guys been measuring your output? Are you going to be able to prove one way or another that the new layout provides real benefits?

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Chadk — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:35:20 GMT

DigitalDud wrote:

I'd say working with as a team is definitely important but so is developer privacy. Considering developers are going to be spending most of their time debugging, I'd say some privacy and the ability to shut off distractions is going to be pretty important. The last thing you want when you're debugging, and going deep into the call stack, is someone coming in and disrupting your concentration.

But that is why it is so cool. You can the the room, so theres 1 man rooms.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Archer — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:09:25 GMT

Very cool...and I love the ending.:)

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

DigitalDud — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:29:59 GMT

I'd say working with as a team is definitely important but so is developer privacy. Considering developers are going to be spending most of their time debugging, I'd say some privacy and the ability to shut off distractions is going to be pretty important. The last thing you want when you're debugging, and going deep into the call stack, is someone coming in and disrupting your concentration.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Soviut — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:03:42 GMT

I like the "teams" atmosphere. Working with a group that's excited and focused on something keeps the momentum of a project going. This looks like the sort of environment where that kind of thing would thrive.

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Chadk — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:35:58 GMT

Wow, i would like to work there :|

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

Cyonix — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 03:05:14 GMT

That would be a very cool place to work

Re: Tour: Patterns and Practices Lab

jsampsonPC — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 23:32:59 GMT

That is so cool to see how much Microsoft cares about its teams. Many software companies give you a den, a check, and expect you to be happy - Great to see Microsoft going the extra million-dollar mile to keep the teams functioning in the most effective environment.

I sense an episode of Microsoft Cribs coming up :)