Author:
Dan Rice
I’ve been developing Rails applications since version 1.2. Having worked through several major Rails upgrades, I’ve learned the true value of writing tests. Simply put, tests provide confidence that features will work as designed, and will continue to work in the future.…
Author:
Jon Woodroof
At Highgroove, we’re no surgeons, but the folks at Hope Builds are. Though we aren’t trained to use scalpels, we’re really good at writing Rails applications, and that’s just what they needed to make their surgical work more effective.
Among other projects, Hope Builds, an Atlanta-based non-profit, improves the standard of living in under-served neighborhoods by providing medical treatment.…
Author:
Aubrey Rhodes
At Highgroove, we aim to be fast. When we jump on a project, we work with the client to understand their goals and begin delivering functionality on the first day. As the project progresses, we strive to increase the velocity of work on the project with each passing iteration.…
Author:
David Worth
For those following along at home, you know that we love to work iteratively, and as such, work towards our big-picture goals one small step at a time. We also take software quality seriously, and an important part of software quality, particularly when it comes to web applictations, is security.…
Author:
Aubrey Rhodes
Prior to working at Highgroove, I worked for a number of softare product companies. One of the best metrics I’ve found for measuring how great a company is to work for as a developer is the Joel Test, which is a list of 12 simple questions.…
Author:
Chris Kelly
Refactoring is a something we spend a bit of time on at Highgroove, so much that David recently wrote about refactoring and related tools in Red, Green, Refactor and I’m writing with even more on refactoring and the ‘Refactoring Rabbithole’.
“When refactoring, it’s easy to see 10 other things that probably should/could be refactored”
Spending time on refactoring is a tough sell to clients: by definition, the ‘backend’ can be completely re-done without any visible changes in an application.…
Author:
David Worth
It’s easy to say “We’re agile” and “We use Behavior/Test Driven Development” and thus “we use the right tools to empower our developers!” but what are those tools? For me that discussion is entirely about the tool stack you choose, how that stack empowers you as a developer to do things right the first time.…
Author:
Pamela Overman Vickers
Far too often there exists a chasm between the client paying for and the developer working on a particular project. One party has a longterm vision; a vision that will ultimately impact his/her financial future. The other party has a much closer view of the project, which creates the risk of getting tunnel visioned.…
Author:
Pamela Overman Vickers
At Highgroove, we like forward momentum. This means that we know that every delivery cannot be perfect, so instead of worrying about perfection, we worry about progress.
By tracking stories in Pivotal Tracker, we have an easy interface to shoot stories back and forth with our clients.…
Author:
Andy Lindeman
I have only been a professional software developer for a few years, but I feel like I have already acquired bad habits.
One of the hardest for me to break is the desire to create software in a cloistered environment where the requirements are stable and the best technical approach always wins over other constraints like schedule and cost.…