Archive of Slightly off-topic Articles

• We found Steve’s poems first
• Then we read the Cranky ones
• First came Pivotal

What makes the best gadgets great? An understanding of goals and attention to design details. When we take a step back from writing requirements about software, and think about gadgets and goals – the perspective can help us write better requirements and make better prioritization decisions.

Joel on Software writes a great article about how to set the price for your software to maximize profits.

Joel does a good job of explaining and exploring the economic theories behind pricing and balancing supply and demand. He then dives into market segmentation and how it applies to pricing. Finally, he addresses the marketing elements of pricing and perceived value. He takes us on a fun journey with an enjoyable read, even if he doesn’t get to the conclusion we all need. The thoughts and analysis are still helpful when thinking about pricing your software.

For more actionable advice, and generally everything about pricing, check out the Dollars and Sense blog by Reuben Swartz. A lot of good stuff there! He has a categories on software pricing, pricing strategy, and a lot more.

The material in the presentation is off-topic, but the presentation is so good that you just have to watch it. I found this when researching about openID (mine is http://tynerblain.com/scott.sehlhorst/ – check out myOpenID to set up yours). Consider the open ID thing to be a tangent you might be interested in pursuing today, and will be interested in pursuing soon.

Regardless, you should watch this presentation. The delivery will knock your socks off. The topic is interesting, or perhaps not interesting at all – but delivered so well that you’ll be interested.

This is your third link to it. Last chance.

For folks who don’t read a lot of blogs – there’s a meme going on right now where people list five things that most people don’t know about them. This spreads virally, like the old email chain letters. After you share your five things, you tag five more people. Read on to see my five things…

topsyWidgetPreload({ “url”: “http%3A%2F%2Ftynerblain.com%2Fblog%2F2006%2F11%2F22%2Fgifts-for-geeks%2F”, “style”: “big”, “title”: “Gifts for Geeks: Pre-Black Friday” });

Many of us who are part of the Tyner Blain community are geeks, gadget hounds, and people who read books that make you think. All of us know someone like this. Tyner Blain is a mostly-for-free site – we just ask that [...]

A little Halloween fun – an homage to Edgar Allen Poe describing this week’s issue triage and prioritization meeting.

Twenty-One dysnfunctional definitions of things we encounter every day as part of the software development lifecycle. Check ‘em out and add to the list!

David, at 37signals, writes an interesting post about changing the way their company is managing the naming of new versions of their Backpack information manager product.

David starts with the premise that there is too much feature-creep when scheduling deliveries of software updates.

topsyWidgetPreload({ “url”: “http%3A%2F%2Ftynerblain.com%2Fblog%2F2006%2F07%2F20%2Firon-triangle-kills-in-boston%2F”, “style”: “big”, “title”: “Iron Triangle Kills in Boston…” });

… Skyline Unharmed
Short-sighted demands on software teams usually don’t kill people. Software development is often described with a construction analogy. The Big Dig construction project was under exactly that kind of pressure. On July 10th, 12 tons of tunnel ceiling collapsed [...]