sanity – robhorton.net

Want Amazing Products? Build an Amazing Culture

January 10, 2018 by Rob Horton

Back at my second real IT job, we did not have what some would call today “true” agile practices. I say that because we did a great deal of up-front design work, requirements gathering, and signoffs. Those are all things that most “agile” shops I’ve worked with avoid like the plague. Somehow though, at that job, we seemed … Read more Want Amazing Products? Build an Amazing Culture

Learning for fun instead of “for the job”

September 17, 2017 by Rob Horton

Most days I leave all the programming stuff at work, where (for me), work belongs. I make it a point to not focus on work at home. Since I work for an employer, that effort I perform for them is to build someone else’s dreams. So I leave work at work, striving, never to let … Read more Learning for fun instead of “for the job”

Just Keep Building

November 11, 2015January 15, 2015 by Rob Horton

Do you ever get overwhelmed with software complexity? There is always it seems, a new framework this and a doomaflagit-that coming out. More to learn, more to learn. Learning is not a bad thing. As we all know in IT, that’s kinda our thing … we keep doing that learning thing. The upside of this … Read more Just Keep Building

Google Let Me Write That for You (glmwtfy)

March 15, 2017June 12, 2012 by Rob Horton

We’ve all heard of “let me google that for you” right? Fun little site where you can make your friends feel like the noobs they are. Ok maybe they aren’t noobs, don’t get cranky with me, k? For some time now, probably about a year and a half, I have have been using Google Voice … Read more Google Let Me Write That for You (glmwtfy)

Get a clue! or .. write a requirement

March 15, 2017March 21, 2012 by Rob Horton

Guys and gals, we’ve all done it. Written code without requirements. Me too. Guilty. However what is your preference? Are you the developer that needs a mountain of documentation that details your every line of code? Are you the developer that thrives on having some creativity by just having a loose outline of what is … Read more Get a clue! or .. write a requirement

Check it and check it again

March 15, 2017November 4, 2011 by Rob Horton

The other day at work an interesting thing happened. I was working with someone else in order to troubleshoot an issue with pushing some software out to our live site. I had tested my changes on my local machine as well as the test site. So we rolled things out to an external test site so our client could preview the changes before we flipped the final switch. Drum roll please …

Ask .. “What Changed?

March 15, 2017November 4, 2011 by Rob Horton

Ok this may sound simple. It may seem like a “duh” moment. However, we’ve all been there, right? The pressure is freakin’ ON .. and .. either your an employee or heaven-forbid, an even more expendable consultant, but the world is on fire, mountains are crumbling and folks ranting. The guy or gal who last worked on this project is either dead and buried or “called in sick” and you’re lost. Everyone is looking at you saying, “Well it worked when I went home last night! How soon can we get this {insert name of the unbelievably important application here} back up and running??!?!”