Project Planning and Scrum

 One of the major drawback of the Scrum Method is that it overlooks the fact that many changes have to be done in a longer period of time and those big project has to be managed in a different lifecycle across multiple sprints.

Here are some possible ways:

Best Practice: JIRA, source code, and build integrations

1. When a developer is closing a JIRA ticket, the checkin to the Git should be mentioned.

QA would typically like to know which build the fix is in.  However, it is hard to get the build number yet when the build has not yet done.  So the checkin number should be mentioned in the JIRA, and later we can use the checkin to locate the build.

Some systems can update the JIRA ticket automatically from the source control system or even from the build tool.  It will be ideal.

Identify test plan availability for each bug

It was a good practice followed by QA in the company I worked before.

It is enforced by the QA manager but also known by several Dev Managers.  It is for close loop analysis.

Differences between a main release and a patchset

A product feature that requires the full cycle of planning, designing, test planning, test execution, packaging, documentation, etc. should be put into the main releases.

A patch or a patchset that are release vehicles for delivering the fixes to the products and we should avoid to put product features into it.  It will makes the cycle of of delivering patches becomes longer and will actually introduce uncertainties to the patch.

A developer who want to put the features into a patch typically does not mean to create any harms.  They have eagers to contribute to the product and should not be discouraged.

We  just need to help people to get familiar with the development methodologies.

That is why the in-job training is important for the quality of the products.

Writing a SQL Parser using JavaCC

A parser can read the text, put into parts, and help you interpret the meaning. It is a tool for writing a programming language.

JavaCC is a tool I used earlier for application integration.  At that time, there is no XML and EAI vendors started emerging.  Oracle participated in the Open Application Group and helped define the standard business object document (BOD) format that can be used in exchanging data between different application vendors.


I wrote a BOD parser to take the data from the text file.  This experience later helped me in understanding XML and JSON.

Requirements for a software source control and version control system

You can keep the software codes in a local environment.  You can periodically back up your files and you may not feel that you need a source control system.

Here are the reasons why we need a source control system and what a source control can do for us:

Jython or Python?

I like Jython.

It supports unicode. Python does not support it well by default until Python3.

However, I still would prefer if we have Jython support for Python 3.

C:\>cd jython2.5.1
jython.bat

c = '斌'
c
'\xe6\x96\x8c'
print (c)
斌