Ideas to improve processes technology, productivity 2009

Using software, processes that improve the lifecycle of the project and produce more robust results

Planning and design

Issue Tracking

Shorter iterations

Coding Conventions

Sustainable development processes that are simple to apply

Larger, More complex Software

In order to develop larger, more complex software, more time needs to be spent on planning and design. Involving requirements analysis, possible use cases (UML), usecases prior to coding

Develop Solid Wireframes, Prototypes

So the message does not get confused or lost, develop prototypes that can be agreed upon, and signed off, while it may change, its much cheaper to change at design stage than dev. If properly done, more reliable estimates and higher quality results with less workflow later on.

Coding is heaviest part of any development, much more complex to change functionality once implemented than any other part.

Develop mockups,content for thank you pages from form submissions, show what each page should lead to, this will simplify the programming aspect and reduce the number of changes required later on.

Testing Environments

Local inhouse testing environments, could be virtual machines running under Sun VM (open source) Machine would need good cpu and lots of ram : Quad Core, 4gb+ ram, Win Server 2008 (or vista, 64bit if possible)

Useful Software:

Faststone Capture Keepass Passwords (managing passwords securely, and organized) Evernote Sun VM Launchy/RocketDock

Source Control

Ideally remotely hosted (such as CSVDude) to cover remote use, backup etc

Testing Environments (linux based locally hosted to match live site)