Transcript: This week on developerWorks: Oct 25, 2006

This transcript is from a PodTech.net podcast at:
http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/1369/this-week-on-developerworks-oct-25-2006

Guest: Mike Perrow - Rational Edge ezine
Host: Scott Laningham - developerWorks

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
You're listening to this week on developerWorks for October 25th, 2006. I am Scott Laningham and we're IBM's technical resource for developers with tools code and education on IBM products and open standards technology. This week we have Mike Perrow, editor of the Rational Edge ezine back for a visit. We'll talk about what's in the just released October issue of the Rational Edge. But, first here are the developerWorks, home page feature and highlights this week, which you can find at ibm.com/developerworks. The feature is from the rational zone 'Using mock objects for complex unit tests.' For the highlights from the Linux zone 'Debugging Make'; from the open source zone 'Develop an application with Apache Derby, Apache MyFaces, and Facelets'. We have a new software development platform, 'Tutorial: Hello World -- Rational Functional Tester' from the WebSphere Zone 'Build flexible ESB mediations with WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository'. From the XML zone we have the 'Tutorial: XML and Related Technologies certification prep, Part 5 -- XML testing and tuning'. We also have another XML piece, 'Sensible alternatives for novices to RSS and Atom'. All that new content highlighted this week on our home page at ibm.com/developerworks. Next Mike Perrow joins us, Mike is editor of the Rational Edge ezine, a monthly online magazine that features substantial articles on Rational Technologies and Methodologies. Mike, good to talk to you again.

Mike Perrow - Rational Edge ezine
Thanks for having me Scott.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
Maybe it would be a good idea for you to kind of remind us as to the reason for publishing in the magazine format that's really outside of that regular DW zone contents schedule.

Mike Perrow - Rational Edge ezine
Sure, we created the Rational Edge as a, what you might call a push vehicle to reach customers with the concepts that are behind IBM rational products as oppose to just telling our readers, how to use the products themselves? We actually want to promote and explain the concepts behind many of these products unless you are well versed in iterative software development. Chances are good that you need a little explanation around some of the areas of the life cycle in software development. So, for instance requirements management, configuration management, various techniques in iterative software coding and testing are the areas that we find, it just need a little more explanation then can be had simply by reading product information. So, we email announcements to our subscriber base once a month and we have a new issue for our readers every month with somewhere between 50 and 150 PDF pages monthly.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
That's great and the new issue, the October issue just came out about a week ago, right?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
That's right.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
Now, there are couple of items from that issue that have been highlighted on developerWorks one last week and one this week. I am wondering if you give us a taste what those items are about, starting with the one that's featured on the home page this week?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Sure, both of these articles that were picked up by developerWorks haven't come in our need to explain and promote certain concepts although the one that was picked up this week is fairly technical. It's called “Using mock objects for complex unit test”. The point behind this article is to try to get software coding teams more accustomed to creating unit test as a part of their iterative process not leaving all the testing up to test teams. But, actually to create unit test to improve software code prior to handing it over to the test team. Mock objects are simply objects that are created for the purposes of testing, they're actually substitutes for the real object that would be part of a more full scale test and we have Gary Pollice, who is a former rational colleague now a professor of software design and engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute weighing in on this topic.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
That sounds like a great piece. Now, how would they find it after this week once it drops of the homepage, where is the best place to look for it in the Rational Zone?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Yeah, the best place is to go to the Rational Zone and find the Rational Edge ezine it's one of the first three tabs that you'll see on the front page of the Rational Zone and then beyond that you can find all of our content in our archives.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
Now, what about the item that was highlighted last week on Lean software management?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Yeah, this is an interesting piece written by Clay Nelson from our Atlanta office. Lean thinking is as many of our readers will know is a concept grew out Toyota manufacturing in Japan from the -- well really from the 1950's onward. In this particular article Clay applies the concepts of Lean thinking to software design and delivery. The basic idea behind Lean thinking for software development is to eliminate waste and to create a kind of just in time manufacturing process within software management and software development to ensure that you've got a real need for whatever is been developed and that creates what s called pool (ph) in the overall process.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
That sounds very interesting. I could use some of that Lean thinking this weekend we went on a camping trip and we had too much stuff in the camper and there was no place to stand but… Well, that's definitely one worth checking out. What about any other quick highlights from this latest October issue of the Rational Edge, you'd like to mention?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Well, sure I think some readers would be interested in ways to build the benefits case for investing in the rational solution if you're in a situation where you need to conveyance the boss that rational might have an approach that's right for your overall software development organization. We have a piece that's featured on “Building the benefits case”. We also have an article that explains IT governance, which is an important topic in today's IT world and it explains this from the advantage point of portfolio management and then we have an interesting somewhat speculative piece on the future of Service Oriented Architecture looking at how that paradigm might be enhanced by what's going on with Web 2.0. These two topics may seem antithetical, one being very structured and the other lose but our author Eddie Dutta speculates that there maybe a time in the future where these two paradigms can combine.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
And again people can find their way to all that content in the Rational Zone on developer works, right?

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Yes, under the Rational Edge tab on the Rational Zone.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
Mike, it's always great to talk to you. Thanks for coming on this time and we'll make sure we get in touch with you next month.

Mike Perrow -- Rational Edge ezine
Thanks a lot Scott.

Scott Laningham - developerWorks
Again that was Mike Perrow editor of the Rational Edge ezine. Subscribe or listens to this week on developerWorks and our developerWorks interview series at ibm.com/developerworks/podcast. You'll also find this on iTunes, TechTalkNetwork, Podcast.Net, Blueberry and other popular podcast portals. Leave your comments and suggestions in my blog, which you'll find a link too on our podcast page, again ibm.com/developerworks/podcast. That's it for this week from Mike and everyone at developerWorks, I am Scott Laningham, talk to you next time.