Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

Rob (one of our new developers at Tangoe) and I had a great conversation about the various viewpoints and perspectives one has to take in to account when developing software. Essentially, there are three different entities whose wants and needs you need to balance: the business itself (management), the development team, and the users of your application. Ultimately, the goal of the business is to make a profit on its product. The developers want to implement functionality efficiently. The users need the product to match their views of whatever task they need accomplished.

The subject came up because we were discussing one of the major features in the Scrum software development methodology: the product backlog. The features and fixes that bubble up to the top of the backlog are highly dependent on these activities of these three groups. In our case, we were talking about redesigning UI elements and navigation. Rob and I both agreed that we needed to implement these redesigns eventually, but that the business (management) needs some sort of justification to do so. There’s a limited amount of time for each release, and you need to make a strong case to get any large piece of functionality included in the development cycle. On the surface, what sort of benefits does the business see in reworking the navigation when we could be expanding our feature selection? I mentioned that this is where things like user research come in to play; perhaps one would discover that the navigation is increasing task times (and hurting productivity in the app) by 20%. This translates directly in to cost savings for the customer and provides the business justification for the redesign.

The take-away is this: whenever you get frustrated with how someone interprets and prioritizes a request you make, try to keep in mind that there’s a delicate balance in place. The time and ability of the development team to implement functionality, the profit-seeking goals of business, and the needs of your users are all competing for your attention. Try not to neglect any of them!

(that’s all Johnny Snow)

I’m not entirely sure why I passed on the Whedon family’s tragicomedy-musical masterpiece Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog when it was released in July 2008. Anything with Neil Patrick Harris (of Doogie Howser fame), Felicia Day (of The Guild), and Nathan Fillion (Mal from Firefly) has to be excellent, right? I finally got the chance to see it last week with Katt, and I have to say that I walked away very impressed. Created and filmed during the WGA Strike, it’s a great example of what you can do with a sane budget and a wonderful cast.  Not-so-evil villain? Check. Incredible dense, offensive superhero? Check. ELOL (the Evil Leagure of Evil)? Check. Give it a watch; it will be the best 45 minutes of film you see today.

(Plus, how can you not love a musical with a song like this?)

Bad Horse, Bad Horse

Bad Horse, Bad Horse

He rides across the nation, the thoroughbred of sin

He got the application that you just sent in

It needs evaluation, so let the games begin

A heinous crime, a show of force

(a murder would be nice of course)

Bad Horse, Bad Horse

Bad Horse, he’s bad

The evil league of evil is watching so beware

The grade that you receive’ll be your last, we swear

So make the bad horse gleeful, or he’ll make you his mare

You’re saddled up; there’s no recourse

It’s “hi-yo, silver!”

Signed: Bad Horse.

Early last week a friend of mine send me a link to 23andme, a biotech firm specializing in personal genomics. I had heard of companies who engaged in genetic sequencing and genotyping, but none that offered individually-directed services for a price approaching affordable. The data 23andme offers was extremely interesting; demonstration accounts come stocked with the lab results of an anonymous family who volunteered for the project. Not only do you get disease risk and trait analysis, the company can trace ancestry as well. They have a limited-time special going on right now for trait and disease risk analysis for $99, a far cry from the usual price of $399 (which includes disease carrier analysis, ancestry, and some other information).

I saw this and asked myself “Do I really want to know this sort of information?” Knowing one’s general health is one thing, but knowledge of your own genetic code? Part of me thinks that such information can only increase the amount of stress and worry that one feels. Another part says “Wouldn’t you rather know about (and make lifestyle changes to react to) possible risks?” I ended up biting the bullet and going for it; should have my results in 4-6 weeks. I’m going to try and look at this as a scientific and educational opportunity rather than something to get worked up about.

I’m curious as to how other people feel about the topic?

Our completed wedding invitations are finally in the hands of the Postal Service. We tried to work in some gaming imagery (I especially like the front emblem) while keeping them a bit fancy looking. I think they turned out rather well!

A special thanks goes out to Lynne Johnson of Inviting Company for her fantastic work!