In my last post I illustrated the advantages of short consistent release cycles but in order to achieve this, you often need to build your software in a way that helps ensure that releases cannot be missed. Support enabling / disabling features without deployment or rollback Having atomic feature configuration for new or risky features [...]

One of the greatest challenges facing any software company is the risk associated with new releases. As a responsible software development team, you should put just as much emphasis on delivery of the software as you do on development. The most direct and deliberate way to mitigate the risks associated with software delivery is to [...]

I frequently have trouble trying to copy music onto my iPod due to iTunes’s draconian binding and synchronising rules. These rules exist to ensure that only “authorised” files can be copied onto any given device. Apple implement this by binding your device to a specific instance of iTunes using a randomly generated Persistent Id that’s [...]

JustGiving SDIs, ExitUrl redirection and monthly direct debit donations. Y U NO WORK?! When we first implemented SDI, it worked for everything everywhere. At that time, we accepted single donations via credit card and PayPal, and monthly donations via a recurring credit card mandate where we manually re-requested authorisation on a schedule until the end [...]

Oh dear lord, I’ve just lost two days of my life trying to find the exact incantation to persuade a fresh install of Windows Server 2008 R2 to act as a file server on my home network. I did this last two and a half years ago, and it’s taken me two days to regain [...]

I’ve spent quite a lot of time experimenting with document databases at the moment, almost exclusively RavenDb of late.  We’re currently looking at sweeping architecture changes at work, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like Raven is going to be suitable (nothing to do with the product, which is excellent, just a target audience with a [...]

I’m frequently asked for my opinion on outsourcing software projects and components and in the vast majority of cases I always end up explaining my distaste for outsourcing when you work in the software industry. It just doesn’t work very well at all. People often decide that outsourcing could be a great idea for a [...]

So today at work we were spitting some league table-ish (shh! unreleased feature!) data onto a screen and I realised I was going to have to manually pluralise “0 donations”, “1 donation”, “2 donations” depending on the number of donations having been made. I felt a little bit of the crazy eye coming on, because [...]

So this year @JustGiving we’re going to be making a little bit of a big deal at Charity Hack 2010 by releasing the first round of public JustGiving APIs. The new JustGiving APIs are a suite of RESTful resources covering a few key areas of the site, debuting at Charity Hack 2010 after closed testing [...]

As browsing becomes more commonplace on phones, sub-notebooks and (within the next year or so) Tablet PCs, there’s an increased appetite to tailor your user experience for people using these “non-desktop” devices.  You can leverage your existing application infrastructure without having to create costly or outsource applications for specific (*cough* iPhone) platforms that have lots [...]