Delivering IT Projects

Design Patterns Explained, by Alan Shalloway and James Trott

This is the first software engineering book I’ve read in years. As a project manager, I rarely become involved in software design, except perhaps to sit in on reviews, but it is useful and interesting to improve one’s understanding of the other important disciplines involved in projects.

Design patterns had their origins in architecture, and the work of Christopher Alexander, who is an architect (of buildings) and has had enormous influence on design, in both computer science and architecture. A design pattern is a conceptual solution to a common problem, and a good working knowledge of the ones which have been identified, according to both this book and the developers I’ve asked while reading it, essential for any developer designing software now.

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Brainstorming Online

I’ve used interactive, online tools like Google Spreadsheets often, but I’m about to start a little exercise with a colleague and we’re looking for an online brainstorming / mindmapping tool.
I’m looking for something which :

• is free
• allows multiple people to access the same map at the same time across the internet
• allows notes, sketches and links (I like to scribble as well as mindmap tidily)
• can be rendered into a general format, such as a PDF, for printing and using elsewhere
• simple and stable

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