Question

I am pretty alone at my workplace when it comes to thinking about the overall design of the applications we’re building. I don’t have anybody to discuss the pros and cons with different frameworks, technologies, patterns, layering and so on with. The other programmers either don’t care or thinks “the old way” is fine, which it isn’t because those applications are hard to maintain, not testable, etc.

Any thoughts on how I can find like-minded, get applications reviewed or…? I’d rather not change employer but that is not excluded.

Answer 1

It’s definitely sad when other programmers care little about good software design. The only things I can suggest to do are:

1. Follow some of the excellent developers around the world on their blogs to gain insights into their ideas
2. Continue to encourage those around you to become interested in good design
3. If there is no one local to validate your designs you can make friends with other developers online and ask them the validate ideas for you
4. Participate in open source software and use that as a source of validation for your ideas
5. Ask questions on stackoverflow.com about your ideas
6. Keep programming and learn from your experiences
7. Don’t stay at your current company too long. Moving companies is a great way to keep yourself from getting comfortable and complacent
8. Get involved in a local user group filled with like minded developers

Hope that helps.