BEC Systems

We have been discussing document, test, and release-driven development (doing these things first before implementing features).

Building on TDPD and RDPD, Document-driven product development (DDPD) offers another perspective.

Yesterday we talked about Test-Driven Product Development.

We’re familiar with TDD (test-driven development) in the software world.

I recall a quote from the book The Soul of a New Machine that describes “Mushroom Management” and goes something like this: “Keep them in the dark, feed them sh**, and watch them grow.”

How do we look at a product release?

Git + Git hosting platforms enable both local and cloud-based workflows.

Some people are wildly successful without writing.

There are three levels of workflow: Personal (what you do to get things done) Department/Discipline (How multiple people who do the same thing get things done – Example: PCB design) Cross-functional (How people who do different jobs interact - Example: En…

I wrote my first Claude plugin that packages up some commands that I use in about every project I work on.

We live in a world of powerful tools.

Do you deploy 10’s to 1000’s of devices and need to quickly identify them in the field for configuration, maintenance, or troubleshooting?

Product is what you build.

An intense discussion about part/version numbers driving application logic surfaced an idea to create a simplified version of the product metadata that simplified the programming logic.

As scale increases (# of people, # of technologies, # of products, # of teams, life cycle of product, experience, amount of knowledge, etc.), what does the value produced look like?

In the last couple decades, we’ve observed the success of SaaS web applications (Google Docs, Salesforce, Basecamp, Trello, etc.).

Recently, effective communication has been discussed.

In conversation, I find myself saying: “what is the context of your comment?”

Lessons from AI-coding a 10,000 line app BRun is getting usable.

Less code is not the ultimate goal Consider the following byte to binary C program: int main(int b,char**i){long long n=B,a=I^n,r=(a/b&a)>>4,y=atoi(*++i),_=(((a^n/b)*(y>>T)| y>>S)&r)|(a^r);printf("%.8s\n",(char*)&_);} Unless you are trying to win the Int…

Yesterday, we discussed aligning the happy path in code.

An idiom that I learned in the Go community is to align the happy path.

An effective process, team, or organization should be able to continue on if any individual steps away for a bit, or forever.

Not using new tech when applicable.

Finding and leveraging existing technology.

Technical debt is like any other kind of debt – it accrues when nothing is done.

Design files (mechanical, electrical, or software) contain the technical details that allow us to manufacture something in the moment, but they often don’t contain the “why”.

A wise developer once said: Code is a liability, not an asset.

YAGNI - “You ain’t gonna need it!”

Kernighan’s Law: Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.

My wife makes sourdough, which is a multi-day process and at times unpredictable.

There is an ongoing shift in data analysis tools.

AI is really good at updating documentation after implementation.

I find it works best to keep documentation as close to the code or design files as possible.

Be kind to others (and your future self) and document why you did something.

What are some ways we can close the loop in engineering efforts?

Rod’s thoughts on Riding a Bike are thought provoking. … A decision that might be bad.

What are some ways we as humans can close the loop?

Closed loop systems are stable.

There is a fascinating statement in a recent MIT study that claims 95% of organizations are getting zero return from GenAI investments.

AI is not free, as there are significant costs associated with training and hosting modern AI models.

Product Data Management (PDM) is how you manage and publish your product data.

Git, which was created 20 years, and various hosting platforms, has revolutionized software development workflow and collaboration.

The thing you get with Git* is a sane way to manage files: organization (team/repo/directories) documentation (excellent support for Markdown) efficient navigation (links in READMEs and other markdown files) history (who changed what when) collaboration (…

There is this movement against files in most disciplines.

Starting with good documentation is often a better way to use AI.

There are two ways to use AI: Start with a vague prompt and keep prompting until we get the result we want.

With Claude Code (and likely many other AI technologies), anyone can write scripts now.

Sketching is kind of like writing cursive—it engages a dynamic in our brains that inspires creativity.

We’ve already explored 4 modes of communication (audio, written, images, video).