tapan_k

Thank you!

> I tell students that the best way to make an impact is to focus on the details

Thank you for the insight in your last paragraph. Do you have references that will help me explore this even more?

> Confusion about roles can lead to conflicts.

Agree. Accountability is the key here (this is not about authority). If things do not pan out as expected, the PM must be answerable, and to be in that position, [s]he must have the ability to make the final call in most situations.

My email is in my profile. :) tapan (AT) karecha (DOT) com

I can take take a look. (Thanks for the $10 offer, but no thanks).

> This year saw the publication of the fourth and final volume of Samuel Beckett’s letters, The Letters of Samuel Beckett: 1966-1989, representing his correspondence from the age of 60 to his death at the age of 83.

History has many examples of beautiful revelations from letters written by famous people. I have to wonder what is a modern equivalent of this phenomenon. People seldom write letters these days, leave alone keep a copy for posterity. Emails are private, and are unlikely to be opened up for the general public after the owner is gone. The closest something else gets to this is bloging. However, the author is cognizant of the fact that she is writing for public, while a letter is intended to be read by the recipient alone, thereby influencing the tone accordingly. Is there a way for the future generations to ever learn from the personal message exchanges of today's greats?

> I miss Seattle, the weather, the city, and the people :-)

Rare for someone to appreciate the weather in Seattle. Can you tell us more about your perspective?

And, there are 15 more days to go in 2016

I find it much more helpful to think in terms of why and what we will test rather than how much will we test. This approach resolves a few of the frequently debated issues around testing, such as:

1. Should I test first, or test later?

2. What is the right amount of code coverage?

3. Should I write more unit tests or integration tests?

4. Should I use mocks or not?

and so on...

The above questions can have an arbitrary answer that makes sense in a certain context but may not yield the best cost / benefit ratio in other contexts. Hence, the guiding star needs to be: why are we writing a test.