Oct 10, 2009, 11:17 by Anonymous
Good talk, but too much emphasis on vcs's perhaps?
Passing the Joel Test in the PHP World
Lorna Jane Mitchell (Oct 10, 2009)
Talk at PHP North West 2009 (English - UK)
The Joel Test is a series of 12 steps which, according to software guru Joel Spolsky, every team should follow in order to create succcessful code. The steps include things like using source control, having a bug database and using the best tools. This session takes a look at how relevant his steps are to PHP development today, and the tools available to help us achieve his recommendations. We’ll look at the packages available for the steps where software can help and discuss ways to implement process and political changes to facilitate some others – finally we’ll talk about which don’t apply and invent some steps to replace them.
Quicklink: http://joind.in/612
Comments
Oct 10, 2009, 11:20 by Anonymous
It's the simple things that I like to take away from talks: the burndown chart is the natural progression for my "todo/estimates" spreadsheet. Perhaps this shows that apparently mundane working practices are worth mentioning.
Oct 10, 2009, 11:21 by Anonymous
good clear delivery, Lorna is obviously enthusiastic and well informed. Real world experience of best practice issues beats the theory every time...
Oct 10, 2009, 11:45 by Anonymous
Good to think about what things affect productivity
Oct 10, 2009, 11:49 by stefan
This was an amazing talk, I was really impressed. This talk contains so many important lessons about PHP projects and organizations, I think this talk should be on the schedule of every PHP conference for the coming year, so that as many PHP developers as possible get exposed to this information.
Oct 10, 2009, 11:56 by lvtrii
Great talk - especially liked the idea of running a project out of a bug tracker and burndown charts. Plenty of questions for the bar later!
Oct 10, 2009, 13:12 by Anonymous
Great content, relevant not just to PHP but any kind of development, good delivery and slides. I love the burndown chart - its a really useful idea.
Oct 10, 2009, 13:24 by blongden
Some good stuff in there! We use trac during projects for development (start with a burndown all the tasks as tickets). Makes it really useful for tracking code reviews and merge status with the rest of the project.
The burndown itself is great for seeing how your doing against the project schedule.
Good talk and well delivered :-)
Oct 10, 2009, 13:43 by Anonymous
Great talk Lorna, never heard of a burnout chart before, but it's a great idea. Will probably use that in the future.
Oct 10, 2009, 14:40 by akrabat
Good overview of important best practices and why you need to be aware of them.
Oct 10, 2009, 16:16 by manarth
I work with Lorna, so I should know all about the points she makes in her talk...but her talk's given me a bunch of ideas and I can't wait to try them out in my next project!
Oct 10, 2009, 22:53 by GizzmoAsus
Great presentation which opened up a couple of realities which I will have to be addressing when I get back to the office. Great presentation and well delivered, thank you :)
Oct 11, 2009, 17:56 by Eli-T
Great talk mapping theory to real world and practical steps. I'd encourage that this talk is submitted to other conferences.
Oct 11, 2009, 17:59 by seengee
great talk by Lorna, her analysis certainly raised some issues that will make me reconsider methods that i currently use. Only criticism, which i would hope isnt really a negative, is that Lorna mentioned a few things in passing (deployment being one) that i wished she would have had more time to discuss.
Oct 11, 2009, 19:05 by rooster
I was worried this talk would try to follow the Joel test too closely and focus on bending the way we do things to fit into an imperfect model. I was pleasantly supprised that Lorna worked this angle into her presentation, and talked about how certain points applied (or didn't) to a typical web development team.
I would mark it down for the occasional tangents, but they were delivered with an enthusiastic smile so they didn't spoil the presentation at all.
Oct 11, 2009, 20:14 by anthonylime
Good fun and well presented - I think the points at the end about security and code review were as important as the ones covered.
Also sandwiches should be made fresh on the day, not 3 days in advance as shown in the burndown chart. Whilst I would attend and recommend another of Lorna's presentation to friends - I would not be so positive about any events she is catering. ;)
Oct 12, 2009, 22:54 by majs
I enjoyed this talk, it mirrored precisely the decisions which we are currently making at work. Very informative! :)
Oct 13, 2009, 13:35 by mikenolan
Well delivered, good pace and balance of content. Quite a lot of what we already do / know we should do but that's good to confirm we're going the right way and encourage us to take the last few steps.
Oct 13, 2009, 19:10 by loonytoons
A great presentation, especially helpful as I'm currently looking at our working practices and project management in the office. There are a lot of useful tools and ideas that I definitely need to consider!
Oct 14, 2009, 10:35 by Anonymous
A good talk! Made me realise how much I didn't know.
Oct 14, 2009, 13:35 by Etzeitet
I already knew of the Joel Test prior to Lorna's talk but I was very interested by her thoughts on applying it to PHP development.
A very good subject by a very good speaker.
Oct 18, 2009, 11:27 by Anonymous
Excellent talk
Dec 17, 2009, 15:15 by Anonymous
Just watched this talk on http://blip.tv/file/2975387/ . Must say I'm impressed. I'm a Java developer and this talk obviously is useful for me as well. Good and clear talk! Compliments!
Oct 10, 2009, 11:16 by derick
Good content and delivery!