A developer since 1973, Bob Riddle shares lessons learned about writing code, developing applications, time to market, and "rules for the road."

1. © 2015 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Tips from a Fellow Traveller…on
the Road of Application
Development
Bob Riddle, Technologist bdr@umich.edu
Oct 15, 2015
Presentation to xHub Addis (talk abstract)
Slides are at: slideshare.net/tag/xhubaddis

2. What is a technologist?
• http://www.thefreedictionary.com/technologist
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technologist
– 16 definitions, including the name of a European magazine
• http://curioustechnologist.com
– a General Technology Specialist, skill-sets in many different areas
• bobriddle.notcom : someone who knows a little about a lot of
things
Swiss army knife is Image public domain from
Specialist Technologist
“someone who has deep, specific skills in one area” “someone has an intense curiosity in technology in
general, thus developing skills and experience in a variety
of fields.”
“The result of spending years of education and experience
on a single thing, an “expert” in that area”
“The result of becoming familiar with many different
aspects, a good person to know if you’re trying to solve a
problem and you’re not quite sure how to go about it.”

3. Why listen to me?
• I have experience – writing code,
developing applications since 1973
• What is experience?
–Oxford English Dictionary: “Practical contact with
and observation of facts or events”
–Riddle’s Unpublished Dictionary: “What you learn
from making mistakes, proceeding with
ignorance, and joining the “methodology of the
month club”, and watching others as they do
similar things”
• “If I had to do it all over again, I would …”

4. How do I know if this is a great idea?
• Google phrase - > 387,000,000 results
• Feel free to read all of these … one must be right!
• If I knew the answer to this, I would be giving
a different talk!
• It’s up to you to peer into your own crystal
ball
–Things I missed that made millions of dollars:
• Pet rocks, Snuggies, Doogles
• Chia pets, dog wigs, Big Mouth Billy Bass
• So … let’s move on to something I know …

5. Time to market matters!
• Big difference I discovered when moving
from corporate world to academic world:
–Banking example: Government changes law on
interest calculation/reporting that takes affect in
90 days … if bank is not compliant, they are
“closed”.
–Provost insists on new student registration system
and wants it deployed in 2 years. If it is not
deployed in 2 years, the university is still “open”
• In the “real” world, time to market matters!
–Being the 2nd, 3rd, nth to market is rarely profitable!

6. so … some “rules” for the road
• Focus on what matters – avoid scope creep
• My “nail in the wall” proposition, can you truly “hang” it
there?
• Build a “car” before you build a “factory” to build cars
• Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you
should do something – avoid the “techie” temptation
• Iterative development allows ongoing feedback,
remember the “customer” is always right even when they
are wrong
• Form (appearance) matters as much or more than function
• Providing less sooner is usually better than providing more
later – learn the difference between done and finished
• Know when to wave the “white flag” and to move on

7. Questions?

8. © 2015 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Thank you!
Contact me:
Bob Riddle– bdr@umich.edu - + 1 734.330.2533
www.msis.med.umich.edu
Terms of use: This presentation is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Swiss army knife image is …..