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Against Best Practices

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Re: Against Best Practices

#141

Post by [deleted] »

javcasas wrote: post #59
agentultra wrote: post #55

I think the rejection is too strong in this article. The idea of, “best practices,” comes from an established Body of Knowledge . There is one published for software development called the SoftWare Engineering Body of Knowledge or SWEBOK; published by the IEEE. The author seems to be arguing for nuance: that these “laws,” require context and shouldn’t be applied blindly. I agree. However they shouldn’t be rejected ou…

I'm one of the devs not aware of the SWEBOK. Searching the internet all I can find is links to "the guide to SWEBOK". https://ieeecs-media.computer.org/media/education/swebok/swe... But, you know, I want the whole ordeal. I want the SWEBOK, not the "how to read the SWEBOK". Where can I find it?

[deleted]

Re: Against Best Practices

#142

Post by c22 »

godelski wrote: post #127
lkrubner wrote: post #80

Dan Morena, CTO at Upright.com, made the point that every startup was unique and therefore every startup had to find out what was best for it, while ignoring whatever was considered "best practice." I wrote what he told me here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/dan-morena-is-a-... My summary of his idea: No army has ever conquered a country. An army conquers this muddy ditch over here, that open wheat fiel…

> No army has ever conquered a country Napoleon and his army would like to have a word with you… I get the analogy but I think it can be made a lot better, which will decrease people who dismiss it because they got lost in where the wording doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty confident most would agree that country A conquered country B if country B was nothing but fire and rubble. It’s pretty common usage actually. Also,…

The US president, a civilian, is in command of the US military. This is, in fact, the inverse of a country being run by its military.

Re: Against Best Practices

#143

Post by SoftTalker »

agentultra wrote: post #55

I think the rejection is too strong in this article. The idea of, “best practices,” comes from an established Body of Knowledge . There is one published for software development called the SoftWare Engineering Body of Knowledge or SWEBOK; published by the IEEE. The author seems to be arguing for nuance: that these “laws,” require context and shouldn’t be applied blindly. I agree. However they shouldn’t be rejected ou…

To put it simply, best practices are, at best, context-dependent. Best practices for avionics software are not the same as best practices for a CRUD form on your mailing-list signup page.

And to be fair, the best practices for designing a bridge or a skyscraper are not the same ones for designing a doghouse.

Re: Against Best Practices

#144

Post by baxtr »

layer8 wrote: post #105

The advantage of best practices is that you have something you can follow without having to analyze the situation in depth. The disadvantage of best practices is that you may have to analyze the situation in depth to notice that they maybe aren’t the best choice in the specific situation. The harm that best practices can do are lessened by viewing them as a rule of thumb conditioned on certain premises rather than as…

That’s why I think Best Practice is a bad term. I rather call it something like Best Toolkit or Best Elements.

Re: Against Best Practices

#145

Post by hinkley »

convolvatron wrote: post #72
gspencley wrote: post #66

> but because they’re mostly pounded by either 1) various types of zealots, idiots, and assholes who abuse these kind of “best practices” as an argument from authority, or 2) inexperienced programmers who lack the ability to judge the applicability, The author might go on to make other points that are worth discussing, but lays out his supporting arguments clearly in the opening paragraph. Best practices do not neces…

we don't have to give undue value to 'best practices', nor do we need to judge an idea based on its presenter. we just need to have a reasonable discussion about the idea in the context in which its being applied. this simple approach has been largely eclipsed in the industry by the fetishization tools, and the absurd notion that whole classes of approaches can be dismissed as being 'antipattern'. It's not very hard…

Some of those fetishized tools are themselves anti patterns.

Re: Against Best Practices

#146

Post by hinkley »

malfist wrote: post #121
layer8 wrote: post #105

The advantage of best practices is that you have something you can follow without having to analyze the situation in depth. The disadvantage of best practices is that you may have to analyze the situation in depth to notice that they maybe aren’t the best choice in the specific situation. The harm that best practices can do are lessened by viewing them as a rule of thumb conditioned on certain premises rather than as…

I like to use the term "golden path" instead of best practices. In a golden path, lots of others have gone before you and figured out all the nuance. But this doesn't mean the path is the best one for you, but does mean you should have a good reason for starying from it

To which they will respond with something from their VC deck, like, “because we’re Uber for ”

Buddy that’s not a reason, that’s a rationalization.

Re: Against Best Practices

#147

Post by KineticLensman »

c22 wrote: post #142
godelski wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No army has ever conquered a country Napoleon and his army would like to have a word with you… I get the analogy but I think it can be made a lot better, which will decrease people who dismiss it because they got lost in where the wording doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty confident most would agree that country A conquered country B if country B was nothing but fire and rubble. It’s pretty common usage actually. Also,…

The US president, a civilian, is in command of the US military. This is, in fact, the inverse of a country being run by its military.

Also true in the UK. Even in a war the UK armed forces are ultimately tasked by and report to politicians.

Re: Against Best Practices

#148

Post by KineticLensman »

gbacon wrote: post #109
lkrubner wrote: post #80

Dan Morena, CTO at Upright.com, made the point that every startup was unique and therefore every startup had to find out what was best for it, while ignoring whatever was considered "best practice." I wrote what he told me here: https://respectfulleadership.substack.com/p/dan-morena-is-a-... My summary of his idea: No army has ever conquered a country. An army conquers this muddy ditch over here, that open wheat fiel…

Likewise, people do business with people, not with companies. Assert that “society” is merely an abstraction invoked for political gain to become an individualist.

> people do business with people, not with companies

Many of my interactions are with electronic systems deployed by companies or the state. It's rare that I deal with an actual person a lot of the time (which is sad, but that's another story).

Re: Against Best Practices

#149

Post by graemep »

KineticLensman wrote: post #147
c22 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US president, a civilian, is in command of the US military. This is, in fact, the inverse of a country being run by its military.

Also true in the UK. Even in a war the UK armed forces are ultimately tasked by and report to politicians.

Its true everywhere except for military dictatorships.

Re: Against Best Practices

#150

Post by graypegg »

I have an on-going topic with friends at work about what accessibility "means".

It annoys me to no end when devs talk about some specific technical change "increasing accessibility". The accessibility best practices are used as a checklist where more checks = more accessibility points = better. It results in people gaming the score with meaningless repetitive metadata or low-impact tweaks, rather than actually improving the descriptive/alternative/touch/visual interface. Usually never even trying any alternative method of interacting with an interface.

The best practice is "always include metadata", but it leaves off "... that adds context about the element rather than noise, and integrates with a surrounding application that uses consistent metadata labelling. Remember, this is a portion of a complete descriptive interface someone has to use."

These best practices being driven into people's brains verbatim means conversations devolve into inane on-or-off taxonomy discussions like "is this colour accessible?" or "have we added accessibility? Do you need a ticket for that?" where pushing back isn't seen as caring about users, it's seen as being "against accessibility".

https://graypegg.com/2023/11/25/the-private-definition-of-ac...

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