This post was inspired by recent experience with some horrible build scripts from the open source world — but I've seen enough in-house badness over the years that I wanted to establish some basic parameters for build scripts.

This is a really broad way to divide the world, but I ...

This is a rundown of the things you should have in your toolkit -- doesn't matter whether you call yourself a software engineer, programmer, developer, code monkey, etc.

Editor

You must have an excellent editor. It should slice, dice, puree and mince, all with minimal effort. Seriously, it should have ...

The only good way to create any kind of a reliable estimate is by using (your own) historical data.

If you are trying to create an estimate for a new project and are having a hard time, don't lament your lack of historical data. The best thing you can ...

Do time tracking tools have a low uptake because it's tedious to enter your activity data?

What do you use to enter time / activity data into your tracking tool?

If you don't use time tracking, is there a specific reason or is it just not something you've ...

There are two kinds of great software development tools:

1. Those that do one thing exceptionally well.
2. Those that allow you to communicate better with your coworkers.

In some rare cases, you may find that the same tool lives in both categories.

Without an insane focus on exactly one mission, tools ...