Is PHP an Agile Programming Language?

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:58:00 +0200

In raising the question about whether a specific programming language is agile I want to avoid exploring what makes a language agile, or comparing PHP with other languages. The intention here is not to associate PHP to agile as a natural relationship, as much as to try and understand if we can find the ingredients in the PHP world, for creating an agile environment.

Agile in the context of software development is no more than a set of principles and values as they were identified by a group of people (The 17 Agile Manifesto's signatories) who were then developing software in ways that somehow contrasted with the traditional processes. They had introduced into their development, practices which focused on delivering early and often, favoring constant feedback and change, low overhead, reduced ceremony and flat hierarchy.

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Book Review: The Seven Day Weekend

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:33:00 +0200

Who doesn't like to have weekends that last for seven days, each week? I've just read a book written by Ricardo Semler, it's called "The Seven Day Weekend". I have to say, it's really inspiring!

Ricardo Semler is the owner of Semco, an organization that is globally known for its non-standard way of working. Semler has divided the book into five parts.

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Shapeways: Print objects in 3D

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:31:37 +0200

I'm sure most of you created one yourself once: the T-shirt, mousepad or mug with your custom print. There are so many webshops and creation tools available, Been there, done that. Ibuildings has been working on the Shapeways project, that is taking us one step (or even a few steps) further: the online creation of your own 3D objects.

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Intimate PHP Seminar

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:05:44 +0200

So we decided that in order to get to see all the people who are interested in PHP leadership topics, we should run an intimate seminar and invite our contacts along. If there is demand, we could run these every month. Here is the invitation that went out:

Free Seminar: Enterprise PHP and Zend

Title: Enterprise PHP and Zend
Date: 10th June 2008
Time: 9:00 - 13:00
Location: King's College London (Hodgkin Building, Guy's Campus
Speaker: Ivo Jansch, CTO of Ibuildings and leading PHP expert

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Looking back at FOWD 08

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:02:32 +0200

So there we were, april 17th, in the middle of London, making our way to The Future of Webdesign Conference. As one of three webdesigners amongst 30+ PHP developers at Ibuildings, you don't often get the chance to visit an event with the focus on your expertise. So, it was an early flight, but after 4 hours or so, webdesigner collegue Norman van der Mull, me and about 850 other design geeks arrived at Kensington Great Hall...

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Dutch Joomla Days 2008

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:31:00 +0200

A little over a week ago I visited the Business Day of the Dutch Joomla Days 2008 in Utrecht with a colleague. This year's theme was "Building Bridges".

The day started with an introduction by Henk van Cann about professional Open Source.
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Less is more

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:09:23 +0100

A couple of general rules for programmers are: do not put too much code in one function and use a name that covers the content of it. If you still have a lot of code, try to split it up in different functions and move specific low level code to separate files. And remember: a good programmer doesn't hesitate to throw away superfluous code.

Too much information
However, the Less is More rule does not only apply to programmers and their code.

Right after posting this blog, a colleague asked:
"Can't you just tell me what your blog is about, so I don't have to read it completely?"
Well.. that's exactly what this blog is about!

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Other customers and projects

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:50:00 +0100

A few years ago we worked for other customers, had fewer projects and a smaller geographic workfield than today. Today we operate in the whole country and also in Belgium, the UK and Scandinavia. We obviously have expanded our work field. Furthermore the assignments we do today have a shorter lead time, are larger and more complex than before.

A few years ago we focused more on the development. We started an assignment without or with only a small description of the required functionality. Today we are really convinced that a project won't succeed without a comprehensively functional and technical design. When we noticed the need of the designs we specialized developers in this initial part of an assignment . We also added the design phases, functional and technical, to our standard process.

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The usability of a use-case

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:12:00 +0100

A impressive website is not only nice to look at and packed with technological wizbang, but is also usable. Usable not only by the people who wrote it, but by the actual users that are going to visit the site.

This is why it's important to think about usability while designing a website, while building the functionality and while putting in the content and the final tweaks.

A good way to analyze the usability of a website is by asking yourself questions about the visitor; Why did they stumble upon the site? What are they expecting? What can they do once they get there, and how can we communicate that as fast as possible.
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Development projects @ Ibuildings

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:58:03 +0100

For several years Ibuildings is known as a partner in PHP development projects for our clients. Last year the type of customers and the type of projects have changed. Several 'New media' customers found their way to Ibuildings and asked for specific custom made front-end and back-end solutions within a fixed budget and time scale.

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