What Is It?

KISS is an abbreviation which means to say, “Keep It Simple, Stupid or Keep it Stupid, Simple”.  This is a kind of principle which was really essential to the success of software engineering industries. One of the common problems of software developers and engineers these days is the fact that they over complicate problems. And thus, KISS is the answer to such things.

This principle states that a system works best if things will be kept very simple than making it very complicated. This only means to say that simplicity should always be one of the key goals in the designs and in avoiding the unnecessary complexities.

When to Use It?

This KISS can be used to solve problems a lot faster, produce codes to solve some complex problems in line with codes, build larger and simpler to maintain systems and large development projects and groups. This is during the times when you experience great problem dealing with complex problems in your area of expertise.

Concrete Examples

There are lots of concrete examples as far as KISS principles are concerned. But, this thought will definitely drive you to the best examples of this principle.

“Some of the greatest algorithms all over the world are always those with fewest code lines. When you go through such lines, you can easily and immediately understand all of them. Algorithm innovators broke down this kind of problem and it was already been understand. Huge numbers of problem solvers are not considered to be great coders yet they are still producing great kind of codes.”

Variants

This KISS principle find its origin in the same concept of minimalist such as Leonardo da Vinci and Occam’s Razor that puts emphasis to the idea that simplicity is really an ultimate sophistication. According to Mies Van Der Roche’s, less is considered to be more. Make some simple task very simple is the idea that Bjrane Stroustrups wants to emphasize.

The founder of the Lotus Cars, Collin Champan also follows the KISS principle. He assures to inform all of his designers to simplify and add lightness to the features of their product. Machines of Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinsons also make those overly complex solutions to be at the simple approach. Apart from that, Shakespeare also emphasizes the idea of brevity as the best soul of the wit.

Another alternative view in relation to KISS principle is more about the attribute of Albert Einstein which emphasizes that making things simple is possible. A variant is utilized in marketing in making everything straightforward and simple.

The KISS principle has been seen in different variants. There are still companies and people who make things difficult. But, with this principle, you would be able to make things easy and simple. Hence, you will no longer have to worry or be stressed out with the use of this KISS principle. This was also proven to be really effective and that you must follow it all the more for the common good of all!

— Slimane Zouggari

Worse is better is actually known as New Jersey Style. Introduced by none other than Richard P. Gabriel, it also basically aimed to describe the software acceptance and its dynamics. It is just that it has its broader and even wider application.

Apart from it, its main concept emphasized is that quality does not actually increase along with functionality. And, there really comes in when less functionality is an even likeable option when it comes to usability and practicality. The software might be limited but still easy and convenient to use. This is even more attractive to the market and users as compared to the reverse.

Prior to the so-called oxymoronic title, it was actually called by Gabriel as caricature. This declares the style bad than the “Right Thing”. Nevertheless, he further stated that it has even more survival characteristics as compared to the right-thing development style. This is even more superior than the MIT Approach.

History

In the formulation of the concept, Gabriel was working as a Lisp programmer in the year of 1989. He even presented it in the essay entitled “Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big”. In a particular section of the article “The Rise of “Worse is Better”, it was actually disseminated during the start of the year of 1991. This was especially right after Jamie Zawinski found it in the files of Gabriel at Lucid Inc. And then, it was emailed to colleagues and friends.

Description

The Worse is Better is actually claimed as a model of software implementation and design consisting of the following characteristics. This is in approximately descending order of significance.

Simplicity

As per the design, it must really be made simple, particularly in interface and implementation. Thus, the implementation must be made simple as compared to the interface.  In a design, it will always be essential to have simplicity.

Correctness

In almost all aspects, the design must always be correct. Nevertheless, it is better to just stay simple than right.

Consistency

Prior to the design, it must not also be overly consistent. There are times that consistency might be sacrificed. The important thing is that all those design parts are dropped. They are those that usually deal with less common situations than just to introduce inconsistency or complexity in the entire implementation.

Completeness

The design will have to cover a lot of significant situations as practical. All reasonable and expected cases must even be covered. Quality is also usually being favored than completeness. Even consistency may be sacrificed just to be able to obtain completeness. This is particularly true if simplicity is retained.

Concrete Examples, Variants (MIT)

In regard with the concrete examples of Worse is Better, these mainly include the early C and UNIX, created by none other than Bell Labs. These have been introduced as examples of this particular design method or approach.

Even the windows registry is another example wherein you will notice that everything in .NET is carried out through the use of plaintext.config files. And as the registry hive is believed to be really superior, it is still subjected to a lot of issues that relate to complexity. The moment you have lost a few bytes and they have been corrupt, you will now have to say goodbye to the registry data.

— Slimane Zouggari

MLP

The MLP is introduced as a new product which brings back the highest amount of love from the tribe members with less effort. Sam Altman, Y Combinator further emphasized that it is a lot better building something that a small number of users will love as compared to a lot of users.

History

The concept of minimum lovable product originates in giving importance to the prioritization of stories of users on the story map. Due to the reason that being viable is and will never be enough, it is rather important to make the minimum product lovable. The perspective of customers is usually being taken into account.

Description

The job of building great, appealing and impressive products is really difficult. And whether you are working in an agency, startup, corporate and non-profit, it is true that product people really want it all. Now, when launching a product, there is usually a tricky balance of striking between quality of execution and speed of delivery.

The manufacture or creation of a great product requires dedication, discipline and skill. It will also mainly require making some bold choices. This is even whoever you want to hire and when you need to hire and what will you need to build. In all these, the product will be defined by all the decisions that you make.

The MLP is now the newest fit for the design-hungry users. In addition to that, it is simply about thinking big and starting small. The idea is more on validating that people really loved your cake and will then come back for more. And then, they will have to tell all their friends. Since you have started small, you still have more room to maneuver.

The MLP further allow you of gaining more followers while exploring for more opportunities. This also sticks to the belief of not only making clients happy but even more on making happy clients.

Difference with MVP (minimum viable product)

The difference that MVP has with MLP is that the former is a newer product that is consisted of necessary facets for deployment. Nevertheless, there’s no more than that. The MLP is even a lot better than MVP because it is a curse for all ambitious tech companies that aim to grow.

The transactional world usually depends much on the happiness of customers over a long-term period. Long-term happiness of customers originates from customers adoring your service or product. And, even if MVP is considered as really a strategic approach to obtaining a product out of the door, it actually produces unsatisfactory products.

In several large organizations, the usual conversation will involve the minimum viable product and some of its flawed principles. Now, with MLP, the concept is more on the things that customers will love you and will not tolerate you.

Another major difference between MVP and MLP is that the latter is more on doing something fantastic in bringing great joy for the world to become a better place. Now, you already have learned more about MLP!

— Slimane Zouggari

Often abbreviated as RERO, release early, release often is actually a philosophy on software development. The main focus is on emphasizing the significance of frequent and early releases. This is especially when it comes to creating an even tighter loop between testers and developers. This is also in contrast to the feature- oriented release strategy.

There were lots of advocates who insist that this enables the software development to progress a lot faster. This will allow a user to define the software and its outcome. This way, it will conform to the requirements of the users to the software. And thus, this will further result to even better and higher quality software. The philosophy that relates to development will attempt to eliminate the issues of creating software which no one would ever like to use.

Actually, the philosophy was introduced and popularized by none other than Eric Raymond. The strong focus is also more on listening to customers. This was also actually applied to the early development of the open-source software and Linux kernel. This was even more applied to commercial and closed source software development.

Practical Examples

The most practical example of release early, release often is that when it has been a part of the development model of Linux. Even this belief had been completely reinforced to a cathedral-building style of development. If the objective was that users will be able to see some bugs as possible, why would still release a version every 6 months and then work possibly as a dog when debugging between releases. This was also when Emacs C core was founded and established this way.

The significant thing of all these is that the archive of Ohio State Emacs expected the many features of the archives of big Linux. But, only a few of them was able to think hard about what they were actually doing or of the archive and its suggestion about the issues in the cathedral-building development model.

How to make it

If you are interested to incorporate the philosophy, you first need to the jobs that must be done. It is also through conventional and traditional marketing techniques that teach you to frame and segment customers by attributes such as race, age, demographics and more.

Thus, you need to seek for answers to some questions that include; What will be the job of the product? What are the problems that the product is solving? And then, ask clients about the new features. Their feedbacks will help you a lot along the way.

More importantly, you must start establishing a relationship via emails. Emails will be an essential way of building a relationship. This will provide you and all of your users the freedom of choosing those whom you would want to interact.

Monitor all the feedbacks of your customers. And, release early to be able to make your customers happy. It is the happy customers that will always be the most valuable things that you should strive for when you make it.

Now, you have already learned more about the philosophy called release early, release often!

— Slimane Zouggari

What Is It?

Over-engineering is the process of designing a certain product to make it more complicated or robust than is necessary for the applications, either to assure sufficient factor safety, adequate functionality or design errors. This process is desirable when performance or safety on a specific criterion is very critical or extreme functionalities are required.

But, this thought is criticized as something wasteful from the value engineering points of view. When it comes to design philosophy, this is really opposite of what less is more. This is also considered to be a violation by other people.

Over-engineering occurs in some specialized criteria in the market or in high-end products. This also takes various forms and scopes.  This thought is somewhat beneficial in some ways but for some, this is a violation that provides problem. And, these problems must be addressed as early as possible.

Why Is It A Problem?

Over-engineering is a problem by some people since it is opposite to the scope of the value-engineering.  Here are some of the reasons why over-engineering is a problem:

• Overbuilt

In one form or another, over-engineering products are really overbuilt and provide performances which are far in excess of your needs. This is the reason why it is really bulkier, heavier and more expensive than necessary. For instance, a family who uses SEDAN can drive at exactly about 300 kilometer per hour or even a home cassette video recorder with a lifespan of more than a hundred year.

• Overcomplicated

Apart from the fact that over-engineering products are a problem in terms of built quality, they are also considered to be really overcomplicated. The designs are really far more difficult than the necessary ones.

For instance, a modern editor of text asking where to save some files are given a chance to choose from different formats either in EBCDIC, ASCII or in different multi-byte formats. Over complexity of over-engineering products reduces the products’ usability. This may also decrease the productivity level of the products design team due to the huge need of maintaining and building all these features.

• Market Segmentation

Another related problem with over-engineering is more on market segmentation – creating or building different products agile to different market segments. In this kind of context, particular kind of product may be less or more suited to a particular marketing segment and is over-engineered to any applications.

How to Solve It?

The best way of solving over-engineering problems is to assure of forcing the functionality and features of a certain product as necessary. You don’t need to create it less or more than necessary to assure that this can meet the needs or requirements of users.

In short, try to make it in a well-balanced manner basing from the build quality, features and performance. The purpose of which is to assure that it does not over value the necessary things that it supposed to have.

Now, you already have learned more about over-engineering and all its significances that you must not miss out on!

— Slimane Zouggari

The key for having an exploratory testing is that it’s not a test technique or the items were tested or being reviewed, but the cognitive commitment of a tester, as well as its responsibility to manage the time.

What is Exploratory Testing?

Exploratory testing is considered as the approach to testing the software, which is described concisely as the test execution, test design, and simultaneous learning. In 1984, Cem Kaner coined the terminology as the style of the software testing, which emphasizing not only the personal freedom but also the responsibility of the individual tester in order to optimize the quality of the work in a continuous way by treating the test-related learning, text execution, text design, as well as the interpretation of the test results as a supportive mutual activity running in the project.

How and When to Use the Exploratory Testing?

Using the exploratory testing, you don’t have to wait for a long period of time and it only focuses more on intellectual approach, thus agile test is guaranteed. Also, it can easily and seamlessly detect the bugs if there’s any and it doesn’t require any documentation.

You can use the exploratory testing if you have to learn and understand the product in an agile way and then provide a quick feedback to it. It can also be applicable if you are having a hard time understanding what to do next. Also, you can use it to diversify the process of the testing after doing the scripts. Lastly, it is used to make a brief check of the work of other tests.

Criticisms

Using the exploratory testing, you have to remember that it will require you to have a certain mindset. And because of its unstructured nature, you should give much of your attention as you may more likely lose your focus into it. And because of its performing ‘on-the-fly’, you may find it hard to define in which the tests are running, and you may encounter difficulty in repeating the cases if you have to.

Also, it is viewed that exploratory testing will not be great without the help of scripted testing. These two are known to be two kinds of partnering approaches that may not be mutually exclusive yet fully compatible, as well as can be used to test in the same projects. Also, it is criticized that most of the problems in the software testing cannot be solved using only one approach, meaning exploratory and scripted testing should always come together at different stages of the process.

Concrete Example

We are becoming more and more exploratory once we didn’t understand what kind of test needs to be done in an advanced cycle of the test or once we are in a circumstance of not creating those tests. When we are running a scripted test and when new data comes that suggesting a better technique, we may more likely have to switch to the exploratory mode. The result on the exploratory test is not radically different compared to the scripted test results, yet they are still compatible with each other. The companies such as Microsoft and Nortel are using both these approaches on similar projects.

— Slimane Zouggari

Class-responsibility-collaboration Cards (CRC) cards is a tool that is used in creating software that is object-oriented. As a teaching tool, it was originally developed by Ward Cunningham and Kent Beck. The CRC cards are also highly-recommended by many programmers and supporters. This card is said to be the alternative for sequence program and is used for object collaboration.

CRC Cards are usually made from index cards and each of the members will write on the CRC Cards for any relevant class of their design. The card is divided into 3 major areas: the class name, the responsibilities of each class and the collaborators of other classes. CRC cards also help to avoid too many responsibilities for the class. Since these cards are portable, they can be easily seen and be easily re-arranged.

When to Use

CRC cards were originally created to teach object-oriented concepts. But they are also used to as a modeling technique. They can be used as an effective tool for conceptualizing models and also for detailed design. Many people find the CRC very wonderful, but some find it very cold. They can be used perfectly if the team is with so many details and the team is getting bogged. They can also be used when identifying the class seems so cluttered and there are no clear definitions. It is not good to have a long list of responsibilities. It may not fit your index card. CRC cards can also be used for any interactive designs. Many agile teams are making use of the CRC cards as a requirement and often use for designing an important set of objects.

Since this card represents the collection of similar objects they can be used in many ways. For example, in a university system, the classes there are represented by seminars, professors, and students. At the top of the CRC, the names of the classes will appear. And this is usually written in a singular noun phrase or a singular noun only. Singular names are used because of the fact that each class generally represents the version of an object.

Creating CRC Models

How you do you create models of CRC? These are the following steps on how to do it:

• Find Classes. This is the first step in making your model. This identifies the building blocks for the application. It is also good to look for 3-5 classes.
• Find Responsibilities. After finding the classes, it is now the time to look for the responsibilities. But, it must interact with the other classes to make the job well-done.
• Define the Collaborators. The class must collaborate with other classes. Collaboration comes in two forms: request to perform the task and a request for information.
• Move the cards. Understanding the system is letting everyone understands it. It is easier to understand if there are two cards that collaborate. And it is also easy to know the relationship between these classes.

There are also responsibilities that every class knows and does. For example, every student has their own name, phone numbers, and address. These are the information that the student knows. And when the student enrolls in a seminar or requests a transcript, these are the students does. Responsibility refers to the things that the class knows and the responsibility they do. There are times that the class needs to fulfill a responsibility but doesn’t have enough information to do it. What they need to do is to collaborate or interact with the card.

— Slimane Zouggari

CI is your team that need a reliable method in order to build software that is under development wherein it happens on a continual basis. This method can help the team to receive a frequent feedback and at the same time, its defects.

The Overview Practices

Continuous Integration has different important tools in order to build and allow performing a continuous high-quality check. To know more about it, here are the following:

1. It is Source Code Control – This offers a foundation for the whole process. In usual software projects, they are working in order to transform the functional requirement into a source code in any kind of programming language.
2. Build Tool – Once the source code required to be compiled, build tool need to support that kind of method. The modern IDE (Integrated Development Environment) such as Visual Studio or Eclipsed are allowed to perform this kind of task and to save the source code in files.
3. Test Tools – This is part of build process, creation, and compilation of the binary outputs. Therefore, it is important that source code will pass on this tool.
4. Trigger or Schedule -We want to create a build tool according to its schedule or even the changes in a state project source code. With that rule, it can trigger once the developer changes the state of a team works wherein continuously integrated to yield a steady build.
5. Notifications -With this tool, this is responsible to the respond as well as fixing the issues.
6. CI Server -This serves to interact with source control in a system and in order to obtain the updated version of the code, it will launch build tool and then, it will notify the user if there are failures. The continuous server offers web-based interface wherein it allows the team to check the status.

Tooling: Which Tools

CI is the important part in every software development setup. With that, team strives not to break the build tool while it is delivered in an incremental feature. However, while developer is focusing on adding different features, some code errors may appear and render software unusable.

Continuous Integration has its different kind of tool such as:

1. Jenkins – This is advanced in Java and this can install in easiest way.
2. Buildbot -This is based on twisted framework and his is alternative to Tinderbox. In fact, WebKit, Chromium, Mozilla, and other use this.
3. Visual Studio -In typical software programming, this usual tool is being used to conduct a CI test or changes.
4. Travis CI -This is the easiest tool that you can use in order to get started with CI server. This is an open source and free to host own server. Aside from that, it also allows the user to have a free testing for an open source projects.

However, the highly recommended tool for every CI project is Visual Studio wherein it makes the testing, changing of source code, and identifying the errors faster and easy.

— Slimane Zouggari

In every organization, one of the goals that they would want to achieve is to provide the needs of their customers in an instant. With this, they have been using a software engineering approach that makes it easier and quicker for them to make their goals be reached. The approach that is now being used by almost all organizations is Continuous Delivery. This approach is now being used because even the companies who are not great in making software can make it because it allows the organizations to make their own software, which they can depend on anytime.

With CD, there are a lot of advantages that organizations can get. When they make use of CD, the delivery times will be made quicker. Not only is that the cycles will be in short release unlike when not using a continuous delivery, the releases will be large and monolithic. In addition, CD lets you make your products have high quality and your production failures will be lesser. Moreover, not using CD will keep you in a high risk which is why, when you utilize it, you will be able to experience risks that are adequate. With CD, everything is made easy and efficient.

Tools to do it

With continuous delivery, you will be able to encounter tools that help the approach to be more effective at the same time useful. Here are the tools that you must get familiar with when you make use of continuous delivery.

1. NuGet – This tool is used in CD because it offers a dependency management for the applications that you have. In addition, when you make use of this tool, it will give you benefits because it has a package manager that will help you in the development of your project or product. Apart from that, the tool is free to use.
2. ProGet -This tool for CD hosts the releasable packages that you have. In addition, with this tool, you will be able to have a package source, which your team can access.
3. Go – This tool is kept and written by people of ThoughtWorks who are responsible for the book about Continuous Delivery. This tool can perform both the CD and the CI, which is the continuous integration.

Risks and Pitfalls

No matter how beneficial CD and its tools, it still gives dangers and pitfalls that everyone should be aware of. Here are the risks and pitfalls that organizations may face once they use continuous delivery.

• Building a CD when the CI is unstable is a pitfall. Before an organization makes use continuous delivery, it will first fall in continuous integration which is why it must have a firm foundation in order for it does not cause any risk or failure.
• Continuous delivery and continuous deployment are different even though they may be alike in some terms.
• Trying to change to CD even without any infrastructure that supports it

• Obstacles when implementing the approach to CD
• The approach may be useful but there are problems that hinder it from being applied. Here are the obstacles that the approach faces.

• When the applications are enormous and colossal
• Less automation is also an obstacle that CD faces
• When the setting is inadequate

With continuous delivery, it is best to know the tools that are best to use in order to avoid it from getting into risks and pitfalls.

— Slimane Zouggari

Every company would want to make their businesses be on the top of their game and make them successful. However, the path to success is not easy.  There will be many risks, which can bring them to either achieving it or lead to failure. Hence, when this kind of situation happens, the only solution is to have a continuous delivery, which has been helping big organizations for them to be inventive, responsive and lean.

History

Continuous Delivery or CD as being referred is known as an idea that was given a description in a book that was published in 2010. The book was co-authored by Jez Humble and David Farley, which are both ThoughWorkers. Continuous delivery is used as a language about that is utilized when it comes to the software builds and when an examination or placement activities occurs in the production of the software. CD is being used until today by huge organizations in order to for them to take control their customers when the software is in its continuing cycle.

What is it?

Continuous Delivery or CD is software with engineering approach, which allows individuals to create software in cycles specifically the short ones that will guarantee that the software is trusted once it is launched. Continuous Delivery allows individuals to alter such types as new features, bug fixes, experiments in a safe and abrupt process.

Why doing it?

With CD, there are a lot of benefits that an individual once he or she makes use of it. Continuous delivery avoids the organizations to be out of high risks. With this, the software engineering approach will enable the software to be deployed in low-risk and effortless which can ben demandingly done anytime. In addition, with CD, organizations can quickly market their software to their clients that also keep them more advanced with regards to competition.

In addition, continuous delivery lets the organizations be able to get the feedback of the customers in a faster way since with their regular releases, they were able to gather all the feedbacks of the customers that they will deliver to the application development teams. Moreover, the approach allows the organizations develop the quality of their product because it fixes the bugs found in the product and not only that, it helps them reach the satisfaction level that their customers want and improve it.

For organizations who want to know how they can improve their products, continuous delivery is the solution because it helps them to get the feedbacks from their customers in an instant. The feedbacks become the basis when it comes to developing the product. With the help of CD, the organizations will be able to know how they easily fix the issues and make it even workable for their clients. The approach will be the key for the companies in order for them to make changes to the software that they have released which allow them to make the software and product have a higher quality.

— Slimane Zouggari