My Development Philosophy

I design, develop, test, and maintain web sites and custom software applications. I do this by working closely with project stakeholders to determine their needs. Through either iterative prototyping or a more rigorous specification process, I ensure that the stakeholders and I share a common vision of their goals, and then develop a design for meeting those goals. I implement and test the design, and with approval from the stakeholders, install and maintain the completed web site in a production environment.

I enjoy this kind of development work for several reasons. I find it rewarding to work with clients to transform their visions of a web presence into reality. I like being able to bridge the gap between technology and my clients' business needs. Also, especially when a client doesn't already have a detailed understanding of the Internet, I enjoy explaining, at a level appropriate to the client, how the technology works. I find that when clients have at least a very basic understanding of the capabilities of technology, they can better envision the kinds of business needs we can design their web sites and applications to meet.

What development methodology do I follow? It depends on the circumstances. In general, I think that rigidly following any single methodology is a recipe for trouble because no one methodology applies to all situations. Rather than espouse a single methodology, I prefer to borrow principles that are common to most methodologies, such as "unit test whenever possible" and "think before coding." The details, important and otherwise, should be worked out in conjunction with the project team.