For the past decade, our team here at Webapper has been delivering specialized software services focused on ColdFusion performance and stability. Up until now, we had only offered that expertise in the form of “retail” consulting services. This model works roughly like conventional medicine–wait until you’re sick, then call a doctor. Sure, docs can do [...]

My CFUnited presentation went very well – the room was pretty full and I had a bunch of great questions from the audience. If you were there, thank you for showing up! Here are the materials: Reviving the Lost Craft of Writing Specifications.zip, a zip-up of the PowerPoint presentation. It’s 144 slides and about a 14 MB [...]

Here’s another section from my presentation at CFUnited: // This segues into the question of what to do when the customer needs an “estimate” or requires a “fixed bid”? I think I just answered that one – you write a thorough spec doc, break it down into tasks and provide an estimate based on your anticipated schedule. [...]

There’s a pretty good article about job titles in the current ColdFusion Developer’s Journal: Are the Job Titles “Web Designer” and “Web Developer” Too General? – There are a lot of professions that have emerged from the web: designers, developers, strategists, search engine optimists, information architects, usability and accessibility consultants, the list goes on… Today, [...]

I was reading with some amusement Doug Boude’s retort to a Java purist that was dismissing ColdFusion for being too… simple? to be considered a “real” language, and I was reminded of a topic I commonly rant on. It’s what I call the Three Phases of Programmer Development. Phase One A novice programmer is happy to [...]

I’ve been working on my CFUnited presentation titled “Reviving the Lost Craft of Writing Specifications” and want to publish another teaser that might make it into the final version. This is raw, rough, uncut and unedited so beware. // What About Data-Centric Applications? Early in the project, you need to determine whether this is a data- centric [...]

I’ve been working on my CFUnited presentation titled “Reviving the Lost Craft of Writing Specifications” and thought I’d publish a teaser that might make it into the final version. This is raw, rough, uncut and unedited so beware. // Sometimes, a client knows what they want in the end, but really truly can’t tell you all the [...]

We’re adding two new categories to the Webapper blog. I’ve always been fascinated with user interface design challenges, not least of which because the browser has always been a difficult place, to say the least, to build software. So one of my resolutions in 2008 is to do more writing on the topic–book reviews (currently [...]