You won’t get a performant and scalable system, by asking someone to build a “really fast and scalable system”. Demands of the performance and scalability vary for different problems and domains; and accordingly, it needs very different solutions and technologies to deliver these performances. Software Performance is absolute; you get what you demand. For Example-Hotel Management System – 10s of thousands of...
“When you’re a manager, you work for your company. When you’re a leader, your company works for you.” - Stan Slap “We need to move very fast. We have a release coming up in two weeks from now, and I want everyone to be focused on their work.” A heated debate was going on in the daily stand-up meeting. Rasik...
The team was excited. The demo went well. Our platform was appreciated and they agreed to use it. Great news indeed! “We will use it from next week. Will it hold well when all users log in on Monday morning?” A common concern, based on past experience. The team had done a good job of understanding the scalability requirements, designed an...
"Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" - a safety warning on side mirrors of motor vehicles. “Makarand, I get close to a thousand emails every day. I want to answer every mail, but it is overwhelming. Any tips?” In an informal conversation, Ramesh was sharing his experience in the new job. He had recently joined us from a...
“Never confuse motion with action.” —Ernest Hemingway “I am a creative person, I need the freedom to innovate.” A comment from a developer caught my attention. We were talking about working in a systematic way, and following certain development guidelines and processes. Sometimes there is a conflict between innovation and processes. Processes are considered to be bounded, whereas creativity is boundless. “I...
“Failure doesn’t exist. It’s only a change of direction.” ? Alejandro Jodorowsky “I am in the middle of the development of this one, give me a couple of days to finish, and then I will start with this new one.” We were discussing development plans in the weekly meeting. Sandy was highly engrossed in his thoughts about the work at...
“I have been asked to prepare a plan for the whole year, and I do not know where to stop. Some tasks have too many details. For some, I don’t know much. If I go ahead and just put down something, it will result in wasted efforts. Do we really need to plan for these? Or can we do...
“The difference between courage and stupidity is measured by success and survival.” -- Evan C. Currie, The Heart of Matter. “Every business has risk, how is this different from other risks?” As a senior member of the executive team, I thought it was my duty to warn someone if he is taking undue risks in the business. “As such, it is very difficult to differentiate between the...
“Thinking well is wise; planning well wiser; doing well wisest and best of all.” --Persian Proverb “We fixed more than a hundred issues during the last week.” Parth is a very energetic developer and has very sharp debugging skills. When he comes across a defect he can’t take a rest before it is fixed. More challenging, the better. “Wow! That is great....
Consider a scenario where you need to walk into a supermarket to buy a pack of cookies. You would just go to the salesperson and say - “Pepperidge farm Montauk soft chewy cookies, pack of 6.", and end of the conversation. Now, consider the same scenario while you attempt to order the same pack of cookies from the web with a...
