Published Tick-the-Code Material
Happy Are The Software Engineers.. (article)
My first ever published article is called "Happy Are The Software Engineers.." and it appeared in Better Software magazine in December 2006. The article describes briefly how complete concentration can create the feeling of happiness especially if the task at hand is meaningful. I wanted to highlight that working for software quality is meaningful and with Tick-the-Code you can achieve complete concentration.
Simply put, happiness is Tick-the-Code.
Tick-the-Code Inspection: Theory and Practice (paper)
My first ever scientific paper is called "Tick-the-Code Inspection: Theory and Practice" and it appeared in the peer-reviewed publication of ASQ (American Society for Quality) called Software Quality Professional.
As the name says, the paper reveals all details of Tick-the-Code up to the 24 coding rules. At the moment this paper is the most comprehensive written source for information about Tick-the-Code.
Tick-the-Code Inspection: Empirical Evidence (on Effectiveness) (paper)
My second paper is called Tick-the-Code Inspection: Empirical Evidence (on Effectiveness). It was prepared for, and first presented at, Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference 2007. The paper presents measurements taken in Tick-the-Code training courses so far (about 50 sessions with over 300 software professionals). The results are revealing. The main point of the paper is that software engineers could keep their software much simpler and avoid making many of the errors software projects are so notorious for.
In the Appendix of the paper, you'll find all the active rules of Tick-the-Code at the time of writing (summer 2007).
Tick-the-Code - traditionally novel technique in the fight against bugs (article)
Pirkanmaan Tietojenkäsittely-yhdistys (Pitky ry) published my article in their member magazine Pitkyn Piiri 1/2008. It is called "Tick-the-Code - uusvanha tekniikka taistelussa bugeja vastaan" and it is only available in Finnish.
An Example Rule Introduced
There are 24 active rules in Tick-the-Code. Each one of them helps to locate either omissions, redundancies, ambiguities, inconsistencies or assumptions in the source code. Individual rule violations might seem minor, but when you let them accumulate long enough, you'll be in trouble.
Marked rule violations are called ticks. Try the following rule on your production-level code and see how many ticks you can find. Then analyze each tick and see if you can't improve the maintainability of your code.
The rule sample changes weekly, so in a mere 24 weeks of diligent visits, you can have yourself the complete set of Tick-the-Code rules. However, there is an easier way and you'll be rewarded with laminated rule cards to top it all up. Get trained! Contact Qualiteers if you want to know more.
PTHESES
"Parenthesize amply."
The rule applies also to braces and brackets, both curly and not.
Do not rely on the rules of operator precedence, is another way of expressing this rule.
Future Work
Tick-the-Code Inspection: The Book (book, working title)
Since 2006, there's a book on Tick-the-Code on the works. Currently the book project is on ice, as I study and gather more material and field experiences to include in the book. The book will be the most comprehensive written source on Tick-the-Code.
Excerpt from the book
The excerpt changes weekly. Each excerpt is still a draft version and might change before ending in the book.
Lack of skill, tools, methods and supporting processes are reasons for not producing good quality source code. The root cause behind it all is lack of capability. Even if you had the time and all the other ingredients for good quality, if you weren't capable, you wouldn't produce good quality software.
In addition to enough time and concentration, you need to be able create good quality code. You need to have the necessary tools and methods in place. The processes in your organization should support good quality and you yourself should possess the skills to write quality code. Training courses, books, magazines and journals, online seminars and many other ways exist to continuously become more capable at your work. Use them to your benefit.
Time isn't enough, or anybody could paint the Mona Lisa. Leonardo Da Vinci was physically quite normal, he had two hands, ten fingers and so on. In principle, there is nothing stopping you from reaching the same kind of artistic impression and level of realism in your paintings as he reached. You know, it isn't just time you need. You need to master the technique of painting, learn about different colors and paints, get the canvas, the paints, the brushes and all the other equipment, before you can even dream about painting the way Da Vinci did. With practice you might finally reach the level where your capabilities are on par with him. After all, he was just human. But you won't practice enough if you don't have the drive and motivation.
The conclusion of Chapter 3. "Root Causes" is that there are exactly four ultimate reasons for failure in software. One of them is lack of skill.
Get your bearings:
Click for the sitemap.
Participants comment:
Click for training course details.
