Brilliant, Hilarious and very apt article on ‘Frameworks’ penned by Joel Spolsky “Joel on Software” almost 7 years ago.

 

It’s funny because it’s true.

 

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.219431

I like a good paradigm challenge, so when I stumbled upon this series post by Jeffrey Palermo on software architecture using an Onion layered analogy as opposed to the traditional Stacked layer analogy approach of separating concerns, I was hooked. He talks about something I’ve been battling to put my finger on for years.

The traditional, stacked, layered approach to software architecture was intended to create loose coupling has always had that noble goal – to separate concerns to a level of total layer autonomy. All the projects I’ve worked on follow this principle, yet every time it comes to an architecture overhaul it becomes clear just how tightly coupled these layers have become.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of MVC3 work lately and I like the way the .Net framework is heading, the little things like Convention over Configuration for dependency injection just make programming that much easier and step closer to purer loose coupling. This is where I stumbled onto this view of looking at dependent layers.

I believe focusing  on Domain Driven Design and development is the right approach to creating an agile project that can adapt the users needs readily. That's why I like the Onion Architecture, It focuses on the clear restraint – the Business domain’s needs, no solution can un-couple from it’s requirements – otherwise it becomes something it was never intended for.

The Onion approach builds dependencies outwards from this absolute constraint and approaches projects more realistically. Read the three part series below, Jeffrey does a great job of explaining the thought process.

Jeffrey Palermo on Onion Architecture:  http://jeffreypalermo.com/blog/the-onion-architecture-part-1/

These performance enhancements are phenomenal and would recommend implementing these tips to anyone. Also follow the link to the registry tweak file, all up – my machine responsiveness seems to have doubled!

http://www.computingunleashed.com/speed-up-windows-7-ultimate-guide-to.html

I read about Sitecore’s upcoming presentation at Dreamcore of Tableau using Sitecore Analytics. It sounded quite interesting so I decided to check it out.

Sitecore reports are a bit cumbersome for my liking and the thought of plugging in the Analytics database directly into a reporting tool that generated it’s own reports sounded perfect.

 

From the look of the screencast it looks quite powerful:  http://www.screenr.com/V2i

 

I’ve downloaded the trial and am going to start playing asap.

 

Checkout their website: http://www.tableausoftware.com

What is it? No more design up front? Blaspheme!

Most Architects of the day would scoff at the thought, the idea of an evolving architecture seems counter-intuitive, if I’m building a house I cant just keep changing the foundation…. Can I? Well I can, but it will have an effect on the house. Just as in Agile development, all change have an effect  - It’s about weighing up the effects with the pay offs.

Picking a proven, lightweight framework to get the minimum requirement's done. Use this first step to get the conversation and tight feedback looping going from as early as possible. Feedback loops with stakeholders are vital, if you can get your lightweight framework done in a sprint (from project inception) means that you’re already getting feedback on what you system can do – and what your stakeholder wants it to do.

Your best base architecture is any architecture follow at least all SOLID principles and patterns and practices. All problems resolve to common patterns (some unique situations – but there are exceptions to every rule)

I found this talk helpful in articulating the process of Agile Architecture, in particular the Command and Query pattern / ideology.

 

http://pluralsight-free.s3.amazonaws.com/pluralcast/pc_045_mario_agile_arch.mp3

I’ve heard a good things about the new CMS from

Microsoft – Orchard – from some fellow developers.

It’s open source. Great. Most importantly, it’s not MCMS – which I’ve never been a fan of.

I haven't had the time to look closely at it, but I found a great post via MSDN on installing, setting up and configuring Orchard. It looks quite straightforward. I like the interface screenshots, pretty enough to entice me into trying it out.

Maybe one day it will make it onto the Falcon blog CMS Fight Club

Here we go,

A foray into the installation, setup, and configuration of an Orchard site

 

I excitedly hurried along to the link tweeted by Kentico’s Wayne Jasek last night to a blog post covering the latest release of Kentico 6.0 CTP.

WayneJasek (@WayneJasek)
4/29/11 8:28 PM
RT @jeroenfurst: Just blogged: First look at #Kentico CMS 6.0bit.ly/jSp4x6

It’s an informative post with some screenshots, my favourite kind, and covers a high level overview of all the new features.

I’m still looking to see what architecture enhancements they’ve made behind the scenes, hopefully there’s no need for a zillion files per deployment and they’re combined into a single assembly.

I think the Online Marketing Suite was one of the most anticipated features, especially since Sitecore seems to have built a large reputation around their OMS module, soon to be renamed Direct Marketing Suite (DMS), just about every clients I have come across seem to be most interested in this feature. There’s seems to be a fair bit more analytics involved in the Kentico CTP 6.0 release, which never hurts, but just on how to implement a rules based system on these analytics isn't quite clear yet.

So far, I’d say they’re still a fair bit behind the CMS behemoth Sitecore in the Online Marketing field, but I think they’ve done well to polish off all other aspects of content management and considering most clients don't even have a clue on how to implement OMS of any kind – Kentico just might have the right angle to break them in.

One thing both Kentico and Sitecore (and many many other CMS’s)  are lacking is a mature marketplace. Sharepoint and Drupal are two examples that have so many plug and play modules out there, it sometimes makes them the simplest choice for meeting all requirements quickly.

 

Now that I’ve had some time to play with the new iPad and ponder the future of the tablet in business it’s easy to see that the need for custom, non-app store, business applications is now higher than ever.

How do you develop an application for your business to use internally to take advantage of the tablet interface without incurring app store bureaucracy and public exposure? The simplest solution is creating your own native app. HTML5 is easy to develop, distribute and there are no app store hassles.

The only issue is protecting your app IP. An HTML5 app may as well be open source, anyone who has dabbled with a ‘save-as’ feature could rip down an internal application and repurpose for their own need or discover those internal calculations that are supposed to be a mystery. Protected third part and internal webservices are a way around this, but there is still the paradigm of tablet development for the marketplace to catch-up on. Just when you think software development couldn't get more exciting… along comes Jobs.

Either way, internal apps for tablets are here. You’re either on the bus or left behind.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/14/ipad-business-apps/

Victorian Department of Justice just released a YouTube video on Social Media Policies for their staff. Love how they made it public, social media policy via social media… pretty cool and edgy  for a government department.

As my Balinese compatriots would say, Bagus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQLkt5CG8I&feature=youtu.be