Designing a Workflow Engine Database

What is a Workflow Engine, and what does it do? Let's find out and set off on a Database Design adventure (Part 1 of 8).

Explain Yourself!

A few days ago I was summoned to a meeting where one of the most basic ideas a web programmer can have wasn't obvious to our non-technical customers. Something had gotten lost in translation, and now I had to try to explain myself. Our customers (let's call them Kate and

Five Personas of an Effective Programmer

In my opinion there are five basic personas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona] that an effective programmer can utilize to do his/her job efficiently, and they can be combined in ways that might make them more inclined to certain "roles" in their development team. Which one (or ones)

Fighting Chameleons: Why Reuse Isn't Always A Good Idea

When can code that looks the same not be the same? When it's actually a Code Chameleon in disguise! Our failure to dig a little deeper and actually understand the code we were trying to rewrite led to a bunch of wasted time and effort. Similar But Not Similar In

What's Your Project's Bus Factor?

Can other people continue working on your projects if you are hit by a bus tomorrow? How long would it take them to start making changes that actually mean something? Could they even get started? In other words, what's your project's Bus Factor? The Bus Factor [http://en.wikipedia.org/