*Words of Wisdom From The Elder

As a team leader, one of my duties is one of the toughest jobs in the software business and that is communicating where a gigantic project is status wise.   There are entire books written on just how to judge where a project is as well as how to do projections and estimations.  Like everyone else I struggle with guesstimating when something is going to be done.  This is what forced me to change my quote for the blog recently to:

Software is ready to be scheduled for production when the last line of code is written.

While somewhat of a play on words and the truth, almost everyone has trouble communicating statuses of their projects to the business.  As you move up the chain of command it gets even harder.   As you move from Engineer->Team Lead->Director->CIO->CEO the less information is needed. 

At work we’ve been working on a major redesign on one of our core systems.  Not that we built it incorrectly when we built it mind you.  The product has just grown and taken on more responsibility.  Before we took on a huge chunk of extra responsibility we knew we were going to need to restructure a lot of things around.  Things were easy when we first built it.  Several years later the system has grown into a really large system with a lot of integration points and moving parts.  With so many parts and integration points how do you calculate the whole project?  Beyond that how do you show someone where you at without them having to read a 10 page report?  I struggled with this for some time and then stepped back and thought about it for a bit.

What I came up with was a simple one page picture that I put together in PowerPoint to represent all the different pieces and the status of each of those.  As each week progresses I can then easily update the PowerPoint with the new percentages of work that was accomplished.  Here is what I came up with.

After a quick glance of the above image we can easily deduct that our largest body of work on this project is the Core in the services tier.  Second is the user interface and then third is the data migration.  It is important to communicate this to the business.  The reason is it helps to set expectations.  If I told someone at work, “Well we are 60% done with our Core service work.”  To them that might sound great.  But in context it is still only about 40% of the overall work for the services tier that needs to get done and then only about 5-10% of the overall project.   I sent this out to a team member who was not involved with the project but asked how things were going.  The first thing they came back with was, “Wow, I didn’t know the project was that big!”.  I think I accomplished my goals of A) showing all the moving parts of the project B) simplifying the complexity of it and C) minimal reading. 

For those that may be interested in trying this approach out I am attaching the PowerPoint I created.  Feel free to download and use it.  Let me know how your mileage varies with it.  I am still “testing” it out myself.

If you are an experienced .Net developer more than likely you’ve come to a cross roads of sorts in development over which object model to go with.  Do you use Strong-Typed Datasets or should you write your own business entities from scratch or generate business entities using an ORM.  A reader emailed me asking my opinion the other day and the very question was also raised on Twitter by Joel Ross yesterday as well.  Here are my words of wisdom on the subject matter to help you hopefully arrive at a conclusion which road you may want to travel.

Things to Think About

What are you going to do with the data?  This is the most important question to ask your self.  The reason is Datasets and business entities solve two different problems and where one makes life easy in one example it overly complicates the heck out of another problem.  Let’s take a simple scenario that any Smart Client developer may run into.  For example, let’s say you are instructed to build a search screen within your application and bind the results to a DataGridView.  The user interface should allow an end-user to search and return joined row data from the data store.  After the data arrives to the client the end-user needs the ability to filter, group, and sort the data within the client.  What do you do?  Here is a rough draft of what we need.

In this case my default answer is a plain Dataset.  There are a few things to think about in this scenario.  The first one is how often the screen data might change.  In the example above it is returning CustomerId, CompanyName and ContactName and ContactTitle to the end-user.  The question is how do we handle a simple change if the business requirement changes a month from now and we need to add a new column of Email to the result set?  Let’s look at the three options we could go with to tackle this scenario.  It helps to visualize it on paper.

Looking at the table we see the non-typed Dataset has the fewest checks (one less).  While it isn’t the fastest to develop because we do not get all of the automatic pre-built bindings it is still pretty fast.  Much faster than the custom business entity.  Even then we still don’t have to write our own sorting and filtering routines nor do we have to redeploy our client.  Having to redeploy is the biggest cost to a business and should be taken very seriously when developing Smart Clients for the enterprise.  Downtime is not cool in any business, even if it only takes a minute for a ClickOnce app to be redeployed.  In this scenario all we’d have to do is change the way we fill our Dataset within our middle tier (services layer) and then send it down the wire.  This change could be made pretty much whenever we want without having to interrupt the business.  Notice we get the flexibility of being able to change our business requirements on the fly so to speak, but we are using the heaviest payload to send our data over the wire to our client.  If you aren’t familiar with why the strong-typed Datasets can have smaller payloads via web services over the wire then read this tip on strong-typed Datasets and web services.

Is the Data Really an Entity?

The above example didn’t favor very well for using an entity.  Why?  I think it has to do with the fact that the problem we were trying to solve didn’t match itself well to an entity.  I even question if the results from a search in this scenario is an entity.  I argue that it isn’t, it is a result set based on an action.  Not a true business entity.  If we think of the entity above as a Customer entity we would have a lot more properties within the Customer entity.  For example addresses, contact information, orders maybe and so on.  In our scenario we didn’t need any of that data to be filled.  As with most ORM mappers which help developers build entities, this is where a lot of them fall short in the fact that only a few properties need to be loaded, yet we have to pay the entity tax as I call it just to get to a few fields of data and load all the data within the entity. 

What if we created a brand new entity with just the four fields we needed to display?  While we could create a plain old collection of C# objects that only have the fields we need, we are still back to the problem of filtering, sorting, grouping and deployment. 

In this scenario:  Dataset 1  Entity 0

Another Scenario

To take our example a little further, what would we do if the end-user was able to double-click one of the rows that was returned from the search?  The end-user would then be presented with a new screen so they could edit the customer record and see other data like address information, contact information and so on.  What would we do in this case?

In this scenario we are truly dealing with an entity.  We are dealing with a Customer entity and it makes perfect sense to handle all of our bindings directly to a business entity.  Sure we have to bake in all of the OnChange events, validation, and so on, but the end result is we have a very flexible way of dealing with our Customer.  Maintaining customer information in just a Dataset scenario is slow, lots of overhead and isn’t near as clean as just a plain old C# object (or entity, however you think of it).  We can wrap our Customer entity with policy injection and validation much cleaner than we can trying to represent a Customer in a DataSet no matter how we look at it. 

In this scenario:  Dataset 1  Entity 1

Deadlines and Size of Application

When it comes to making a decision in your applications I say use common sense when it comes to what you are developing.  Honestly if I’m building a one or two page web form for internal use within our company, I’m cutting corners to get the thing done.  I want it to work and make the client happy but then move on.  Datasets here I come!  On larger applications though that isn’t the case.  For example if you are building a commercial web site or large scale enterprise app the code base will be taken more seriously.  There will be plenty of time to identify entities and put in the proper plumbing such as filtering, sorting, grouping, change tracking and more.  You may also take the time to explore one of the many entity frameworks available for .Net as well to give yourself a jump start. 

Conclusion

No matter how many times we argue the benefits and merits of one versus another I think the best approach a developer can take when it comes to Datasets vs the entity argument is take a holistic approach at the problem that he or she is trying to be solve.  Don’t forget to take into account future changes and how much maintenance may be required.  Use common sense and match the best solution to the problem.  I hope this helps and is now officially clear as mud.

Be warned, what follows is YASBP – Yet Another Stupid Blog Post

Dang you Chris Woodruff for distracting my Xbox 360 playing time tonight by posting your Simpson image to your site.  While I will never be able to gain back those precious minutes of Guitar Hero I do have something to show for my time.  In the end I have a new shiny image that is the spitting image of me Simpsonized thanks to a really cool site called http://www.simpsonizeme.com. 

Before you head over there to generate your very own, you will need to know that you will need to find at least a 640×480 picture to upload.  The site then analyzes it and sets some defaults which you can then customize.  All I did to this one is change my pose and my shirt color.   Not bad I don’t think.

They say it isn’t what you know, but who you know. I have a buddy that works for Comcast, Gary.  For those that have been paying attention, Gary is the same buddy that happened to have a new HDDVR on his truck and who helped end my three weeks of waiting for an HDDVR from Comcast.  It pays to know people (words of wisdom to live by).

The last few times I’ve needed something I’ve had the pleasure of by passing the Comcast support center and have gone directly to a Comcast technician, Gary.  He gets free beer, and I get my cable issues resolved.  It is a relationship that works. 🙂  I saw him the other day in passing at the store and told him that a guy came out back in the summer and installed an amp in the attic and he went, “Huh?”. 

Apparently the last guy that was here didn’t do things correctly because Gary is walking around the house going, “What the heck” and “Why’d he do that?!”.  Gary re-wired things up in the attic and removed the amp.  I think we are good.  I can certainly tell my speed is faster, definitely my upload speed has improved as well as the download speed.  This is good since I am on the company VPN all day everyday.  Here’s my latest speed test results.

Now back to work!  Thanks Gary!

It seems that an article I wrote a while back is making its way around the Internet once again.  It never fails that once a year or every 6 months it pokes it’s head up from the ashes, dusts itself off and finds new readers.  The article I’m talking about is this one:

How an Open Source Developer Transitioned to .Net

It is an interesting read and if you haven’t read it, check it out.

I started getting lots of emails from readers last night and this morning as the article was passed around.  One person emailed me a question that was particular interesting after reading it:

Thanks for sharing your story on your transition from .php to .net. My main question is; did you also change from working on Macs to the inferior PC’s?

Obviously by the reference of “inferior PC’s” in the question we know where this reader stands.  It is sort of like one of those interview questions you get that is completely loaded.  For example, “So Mr. Person Wanting a Job…. things around here are really busy.  A lot of the times you have to switch tasks very quickly.  How would it make you feel if you were working on a project and then your manager asked you to stop it and move onto something else?”  Obviously the question has already been answered.  Or rather loaded up for you to respond in the way the person asking the question wants to hear.  By the way, if you ask these type of interview questions, stop.  They get you no where.  I digress though. 

I don’t know if this question is the same loaded type of question but my first reaction was, wait, aren’t Macs made up of the same parts that are in PCs?  It is a hard drive, processor, video card and memory.  Apple looks at various vendors and plugs in the best deal / bang for the buck just like any other PC manufacturer.  Are PCs really inferior just because Apple has a better looking plastic cover than most PCs?  I don’t think so since they are essentially made up of the same parts.  Case in point I recently upgraded the wife from an aging iBook to a HP notebook.  I think she got a far superior product for a whole lot less money compared to a Mac.  That’s another post that I’m working on though. 

Maybe he was talking about the PC operating system being inferior?  What if I am running FreeBSD on my PC, does that make it more superior to the Mac since OS X is really just FreeBSD under-the-hood?  Or what if I’m running an Intel version of BEOS?  Maybe it was a OS X vs Windows comment?  The reader didn’t say so I am totally speculating on what he’s “really” trying to ask and also infer.

Here is the bottom line folks.  When you chose a technology you ultimately chose a platform.  We all do it and to say we don’t is just wrong.  When I was writing PHP/MySQL I used Linux for years since I thought it was important to develop applications on the same OS the application was going to run on the server.  I knew the Linux platform inside and out.  Even enough to teach it at the college level.  Today I write .Net code and I write that on Windows for Windows.  Again, I think it is important to write software on the same platform it is going to run on.  The difference is when you chose .Net you are married to the Windows platform, at least today.

Whether you want it to be or not, there is a huge platform investment made as a developer to understand the full potential of our applications.  I have a buddy at work that has been doing Windows IT infrastructure related stuff for years.  He understands a lot of things under the hood of Windows that I don’t even understand.  For me he is a resource I use often to pick his brain to solve a problem.  More times than not, he has an easier way to solve a problem than I was thinking just because he knows the platform.   For .Net development it means that those of us doing .Net development are married to the platform of Windows.  That is not a bad thing though since from a business standpoint the platform as a whole provides a lot of value.  

Yes, I use PCs today as opposed to Macs.  I’d be completely non-productive and probably lacking brain cells to development enterprise applications on a Mac and boot Visual Studio in a virtual machine.  I’d also be completely non-productive trying to write .Net code using Mono with VI.   I’ve seen lots of Macs at conferences and even friends of mine that are fellow MVPs have purchased Macs and run Visual Studio in a VM or just run Windows on the Mac 100% of the time because they like the Apple notebook better.   For those running Windows on an Apple, if you want to pay the Apple tax and spend a lot more money for your shiny toy fine, at least you understand that you are ultimately writing .Net on Windows.   For those that boot virtual machines and do .Net development God bless you, you must have the patience of Job.  I’ve done it and ultimately I came to the conclusion of:  Damn this slow and non-productive.  BTW, if you are a client of a consultant and he/she walks in with a Mac and is doing .Net development for you.  Run!  They just doubled your billable hours haha!  I poke fun in jest obviously but hey, it is something to think about if you are footing the bill no?

The thing is I still like OS X.  Notice I didn’t say Apple, because I don’t like the Apple hardware tax having built computers for years.  The operating system I like, nay, completely admire still to this day.  I’ve spent many hours looking at XCode on Mac OS X wishing it could be my development platform of choice.  Wishfully thinking that I could get a job as an Enterprise OS X developer at one time.  I wrote a few programs for Mac OS X and found it to be 5-10 steps and way more complicated than it needed to be just to do something simple like put a button on a form using Cocoa.  Compared to Visual Studio dragging and dropping a button onto a form and double clicking to wire up an event is apples and oranges (pun intended).  I’m sorry, but Apple spends all their time on making their OS shiny and adding features for end users but doesn’t do a damn thing to help developers embrace their platform at all.  At least that is how I see it.  If you don’t agree, then feel free to shine some light on my short sightedness, I’m all ears.

So yes, I use PCs today, not a Mac, and I don’t feel when I wake up in the morning and sit down at my computer I’m using an inferior product.  As a matter of fact I feel I have more options using the Windows Platform than I do using a Mac, especially since there isn’t an Apple store within 300 miles from me.  Not only that but professionally I have all sorts of nice haves that run and are supported with the Windows platform such as integrated authentication for applications, SQL Server, Biztalk, Windows Presentation Foundation, Winforms, Asp.Net, Windows Communication Foundation, Workflow Foundation, Silverlight, Visual Studio, Ado.Net, Windows Mobile, Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Infopath, Publisher), Sharepoint, built-in analysis and data mining features, OLAP, Report Services and much more.  Based on all of that reader, which platform seems inferior now?