Software Engineering Stack Exchange
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1500 questions
52
votes
20 answers

What are the steps in beginning a large project, when all I have is a big idea?

I am computer engineering student. I've been thinking about how I can handle a big project. What should be my first step to reach my goal in a more efficient and effective way? When I come up with a project, I don't know how I should start working…
user12654
52
votes
9 answers

How do I convince my teammates that we should not ignore compiler warnings?

I work on a huge project (more like a tangled up combination of dozens of mini projects that can't be easily separated due to poor dependency management, but that's a different discussion) in Java using eclipse. We've already turned off a number of…
user32020
52
votes
18 answers

Completing a project successfully despite hostile management?

I work for a subsidiary of a large world wide company. This was not a subsidiary from the beginning, it was a company bought by the larger company. We seem to be heading toward a death march and I'm wondering if there is anything I (or my team) can…
ionn
  • 201
52
votes
9 answers

When and how a programmer should start own business?

The title says it all but here's some explanation of what I want to know: Let's suppose a programmer has around 5 years of experience in multiple, mainstream languages. Also suppose that the programmer has worked in different positions from junior…
Yasir
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52
votes
12 answers

What is a Ph.D. good for in the software industry?

I'm a self-taught programmer and have just started a computer science degree to supplement my knowledge and fill in the gaps. However, I'm already debating the direction of my education. I want a 4 year bachelor's degree for sure, but after that,…
Carson Myers
  • 2,480
52
votes
11 answers

How can we make agile enjoyable for developers that like to personally, independently own large chunks from start to finish

We’re roughly midway through our transition from waterfall to agile using scrum; we’ve changed from large teams in technology/discipline silos to smaller cross-functional teams. As expected, the change to agile doesn’t suit everyone. There are a…
Kris
  • 573
52
votes
11 answers

How do you explain to an "agile" team that they still need to plan the software they write?

This week at work I got agiled yet again. Having gone through the standard agile, TDD, shared ownership, ad hoc development methodology of never planning anything beyond a few user stories on a piece of card, verbally chewing the cud over the…
user23157
52
votes
12 answers

If your unit test code "smells" does it really matter?

Usually I just throw my unit tests together using copy and paste and all kind of other bad practices. The unit tests usually end up looking quite ugly, they're full of "code smell," but does this really matter? I always tell myself as long as the…
Buttons840
  • 1,866
52
votes
15 answers

Why are there so many programming languages? Why are new languages still being made?

Why are there so many programming languages? And what prompts someone to create a programming languages in spite of the fact that other languages already exist?
Moshe
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52
votes
1 answer

How do you design programs in Haskell or other functional programming languages?

I have some experience in object oriented programming languages like c# or ruby. I know how to design a program in object oriented style, how to create classes and objects, and how to define relations between them. I also know some design…
Luke
  • 551
52
votes
9 answers

How to maintain different, customized versions of the same software for multiple clients

we have multiple clients with different needs. Although our software is modularized to a degree, it's almost certain that we need to adjust every module's business logic here and there a little for each customer. The changes are probably too tiny to…
Falcon
  • 19,308
52
votes
11 answers

Why isn't Lisp more widespread?

I am starting to learn Scheme by the SICP videos, and I would like to move to Common Lisp next. The language seems very interesting, and most of the people writings books on it advocate that it has unequaled expressive power. CL seems to have a…
Andrea
  • 5,375
52
votes
8 answers

I'm a CS student, and honestly, I don't understand Knuth's books

I stumbled upon this quote from Bill Gates: "You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing." He was talking about The Art of Programming books. So I was pretty curious and want to read it all. But honestly, I don't…
Rho
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52
votes
6 answers

Is denormalising a database for speed an anti-pattern?

I have a database with a 1:m relationship. I have to display a list of parents to the user rapidly on a home screen at startup. The parent shows a single piece of information that is a sum of a particular child field for that parent. I don’t want…
tommytucker7182
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52
votes
11 answers

How can a developer overcome their fear of merge conflicts?

I'm a beginner at collaborative development, I started learning about merge conflicts. And I have this question. Is it possible for a developer to deliberately postpone merging because he doesn't want to be the one resolving a potential conflict? If…
YsfEss
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