In test-driven development, we use tests as executable specifications of what is required of the software we create.

For this to work effectively, our tests have to convey the underlying intent. And this requires us to ponder the relationship between a test and a specification.

First of all, what is a specification? Well, in simple terms it's just a rule. A rule that the software must obey. For example, it might be a rule that says that we cannot transfer money...

A real-world illustration of the importance of choosing your words carefully...

It's demonstrably true that software developers - and ex-developers - make the worst customers on software projects.

I think we just find it too difficult to stand back from the details of the solution and focus on communicating the business problem.

The danger for projects is that developers are run ragged addressing trivial technical concerns - like naming conventions or the use of design patterns - while the big fish slip past our nets unnoticed.

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I just loved this advertisement for a senior architect. Here's a clue as to how "hands-on" they expect him or her to be:

You will also have a proven ability to make sound decisions in high pressure environments and possess the ability to think laterally across many resource requests within complex projects. You will have high standards of written and oral communication skills and proven experience of people performance management techniques. You will...

You can find a draft of an article I'm writing about the trend towards getting feedback about software quality ever faster and more cheaply. The end vision is one regular blog visitors might be familiar with - that of the continuous background tsting and code quality analysis I've spoken about in the past.

My argument is that, just as background compilation has freed our minds from the minutiae of syntactical...

Remote collaboration can be fiddly stuff.

Right now I'm sitting in a client's videoconferencing suite in London staring at a huge LCD monitor showing a video feed from a similar room in Birmingham.

There's nobody there, of course. Despite all the marvels of modern communication technology, we still can't get folk to turn up meetings on time...

And I can't help noticing what looks like a bowl of sweets on the table at their end. I've just got tea...

So today is my final regular day working with the good folk of BBC Worldwide, and as well as tying up a few loose ends - I find it's always a good idea to keep the final day or two of a gig free for loose ends - I'm also turning my mind to the dark road ahead and what the future might hold.

I have some outstanding client commitments to take care of this summer, and then - well, who knows?...

Patrick explains here with more authority than I could how to use new features in NDepend to weed out any untested code that's been added or changed since your last build.