QG Software & 5pm Blog

If you have anything to do with software development and didn’t read “Joel on Software” by Joel Spolsky yet, you should.

Joel is a software developer who lives in NY city. Before starting his own company, Fog Creek Software, he worked for big players like Microsoft and Juno. Joel shares his thoughts on his blog from 2000, and this book is a compilation of posts from it.

The book is entertaining, informative and easy to follow. You can read it on and off without going through each paragraph a dozen of times. I actually took it on the flight to Europe and was reading it through that long journey - in the bar, in the airport, on the plane. I finished reading it somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and almost felt sorry getting to the last page. Coincidently, the purpose of my trip was to conduct a bunch of interviews and the book had a great chapter on this subject.

A lot of startups bloomed lately, and new software spawns every day. Novel approaches to development are evolving (check “Get Real” by 37Signals). With all that web2.0 buzz going on, Joel takes a more “traditional” approach on developing software. He keeps it up to date but relies on experience accumulated over the years. Here is an interesting quote from his book:

“A lot of software developers are seduced by the old ‘80/20′ rule. It seems to make a lot of sense: 80% of the people use 20% of the features. So you convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and you can still sell 80% as many copies. Unfortunately, it’s never the same 20%.”

The book is mostly about desktop software development, but a lot still applies to the web development world. He writes about planning, putting together specs (the Achille’s Heel of many failed projects), assembling teams, testing, selling, support and many more business related issues.
When it comes to scheduling and tracking tasks, he recommends keeping it simple - just use lists in Excel. I would go even a lower tech route and use good old paper and pencil. Nothing feels as rewarding as crossing out the completed tasks at the end of the day. However, what works well for one person may not work as well for a group. Especially when people working on the same project live in different places and even different time zone. Having a central location, where everybody can see what needs to be done and what has been done, is essential. A piece of paper can not send email notifications or have files attached to it. Eventually you may need something more.

In case you are looking for a solution to synchronize your team efforts and keep track of your daily tasks, give a try to Project and Team Manager. It’s a web-based application and can be accessed from anywhere, making it easy to maintain virtual teams. You can check the online demo here.

- Sergei