refactoring – Software, Fitness, and Gaming

The Priority Pyramid - The 8 Tiers of Software Consulting Introduction

The Priority Pyramid is a tool I use to stay on track with new consulting clients. It prioritizes how, who, and what I engage in at any given time. It can be overwhelming when thrust into a challenging situation, a code base in dire straits, and a frustrated team. You need a strong pillar of guidance.

This article goes over what parts make up the Priority Pyramid from a high level. I’ll talk about what milestones make up each section and how you navigate back and forward between the priorities.

When done, you should know how to engage your client’s team and tackle working on a large code base at a frustrated client site with 99 problems.

Continue reading “Consulting Chronicles #7: The Priority Pyramid”

Refactoring Introduction

Refactoring is the discipline of applying a multitude of small, low-risk techniques to a code base in order fix and improve it. While corroborated by the software community, employing such techniques in a consulting context can be challenging because people are involved, often in a negative situation.

You need 2 weapons to win the refactoring battle. First, you need to understand what refactoring techniques are at your disposal and how to implement them. Below, I’ve listed the core ones I see needed time and time again. Second, you need to have a plan on how you engage the client company and their employees to allow you to do the first. That’s covered in the next article.

Continue reading “Consulting Chronicles #6: Refactoring”