Logic Bureau » Process

New London Flash User Group…sort of

seanmcsharry — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:30:59 +0000

I’m a reasonably regular attendee of many of the community events and user groups. I believe firmly that the uniquely strong community spirit that exists in the Flash world is one of it’s great strengths. I know I would never have been as successful a Flash Platform developer as I am without the selfless help and advise I received over the years from countless friends and colleagues.
And that spirit is contagious. I now give back to the community myself through things like going on to forums and answering as many questions as I have time for, attending user groups and running community events like PokerCoder.com. This all helps raise the general level of expertise within the industry and is good for all of us.
I recently discovered a London Flash user group based in South Bank University run by a very nice guy called David Wright: The London Flash Developers and Designers user group. It’s a stone’s throw from Elephant and Castle tube station. It has around 350 signed up members – though obviously not all of them turn up and it’s actually been around for quite a long time.

But wait, I hear you say, there’s already the London Flash Platform User Group (LFPUG) run by Tink in Clerkenwell Road and the Flex London User Group (FLUG) in Brick Lane run by Mike Jones and Drew Martin. Both do an awesome and tireless job in showing what boundaries people are pushing in the Flash Platform world, so who needs another Flash user group? …Right? …WRONG!

LFPUG and FLUG are both high end development groups, catering for those who know the Flash Platform well and want to explore the higher end of it’s capabilities and methodologies. The very nature of the people who attend and run these groups ensures that they are advanced user groups and I know I find them very informative, but no one group can be all things to all men.

What’s been missing for a very long time is a group that caters specifically for beginners and intermediates: those who want to learn or improve their understanding of the Flash Platform (Flash, Flex, FMS etc) in a development and design capacity. Those who are trying to swap to Flash platform technologies, those who are learning them on their digital media courses but want real world experience or those who have mastered many of the basics but now want to move on to real world application of that knowledge. This user group is the nursery for user groups like LFPUG and FLUG. It also caters for designers as well as developers and as I believe very strongly that Flash platform developers should have an appreciation of both development and design, this seems like a well balanced beginner and intermediate group.

If you want to understand things like:

Patterns,
OOP,
moving from AS2 to AS3,
how to begin using Flex,
how to start to work with video and audio in Flash and FMS,
how XML and E4X work,
how to do your first Augmented Reality piece,
what best practices you should follow,
how to work with 3rd party hardware like the Wii,
getting started with 3D,
code for designers

and much more, then this is definitely the group for you.

Better still, make a request for a topic to be covered (design or development). There’s a lot of sharing goes on to, with people being encouraged to show the group any work or solutions they have made. It’s an open and friendly forum. No judging and lots of support.
The group meets once a month, normally around the middle of the month. They have a fantastic set up: meeting rooms, over head projectors and several networked labs at their disposal. The group can and will be running workshops along side presentations so you’ll be able to get your hands dirty with real code and design and take them home to play with after. There are prizes to: Apress/ Friends of Ed have kindly agreed to give us books on Flash platform technologies to give away on the night.
The beginner and intermediate community is huge and poorly catered for. This Meetup group group addresses that gap. If you want to learn or improve your Flash-craft then go check out the group. Sign up, and come along.

Why the timeline is NOT evil

Logic Bureau — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:00:24 +0000

It seems that recently people, good people, are coming out of the woodwork to point out that they might not always like to deliver their Flash Platform solutions as OO solutions. I hear the collective gasp of horror and revilement from the community of Actionscript developers who have spent years refining their coding and OO methodologies to a point where they can code in Java with little effort. I myself am one of those coders. However, I am forever using the term ‘Pragmatic’ when I speak to staff and peers alike. Look at the big picture. Not everyone wants a solution that takes 2 months to deliver because you have to develop redundant, reusable, unit tested OO code. Many clients want throw away solutions and have no likelihood of code reuse. The problem is that we’ve become enamored with the idea of perfecting and using only code. Anyone who speaks of the timeline does so with contempt and some even call for it’s removal altogether, suggesting that it is the province of antiquated, knuckle dragging wanna-be coders. Not like us ‘real’ coders.

Well, let me stop you right there. It could equally be argued that components are the province of lazy or just plain bad coders who won’t or can’t do the code them selves. Of course this is not true, or at least it’s not true of well written components. They serve to reduce development time, simplify solution requirements and yes, in some cases, allow less skilled developers to produce the same results as highly skilled developers whilst learning better coding practices at the same time. No one disagrees with the use of components for all these reasons, in fact they extol them. Interestingly, the very same arguments can be used for the use of timeline solutions, where timeline solutions are appropriate and employ their own best practices. How then can this be a bad thing?

As is being pointed out a lot recently, Flash/Actionscript, is NOT java or C#. It’s getting there, but let’s not forget that it has it’s own unique, inherent strengths and believe it or not, the timeline is one of them! Let’s not abandon the old strengths of Flash / Actionscript for the sake of the emperor’s new clothes. Using OO based code solutions when appropriate and timeline when it’s pragmatic allows us to produce the right work in the right time for the client’s requirements. This is an example of good process at work. Flash is an amazing tool, capable of an entire spectrum of solution options. This diversity of solution options is a strength, not a weakness. If you want to be a Java developer then by all means be one, but if you want to be a Flash developer then extol it’s great diversity of strengths, from full on OO to timeline. Don’t be cajoled into admitting that Flash is a glorified coloring in tool by code snobs. Tell them they’re wrong! We can produce the same solution in 2 or 3 equally valid and completely different ways. Imagine how hard it would be to produce a coding tool that actually allowed for all 5 members of the Dreyfus Model of Skills Acquisition to operate. I seriously believe that there is no other software tool that does this. It should be celebrated with pride, not hidden in shame and though many of us use best practices, good process and pragmatism to produce the right solutions for our customers actual needs, Flash’s diverse solution palette is all to often reduced to just OO class file options in an effort to look professional.

Adobe need to stand up and support their huge Flash developer base on this matter to. For to long they have pushed Flex as the right choice and insinuated that if you prefer Flash then you are a Mickey Mouse developer. The reality is that we have all options and can help developers from novice all the way through to expert. I’m not condoning using the Flash API for coding as Adobe have failed to improve their actionscript code panel in line with their Flex one (some might say this was deliberate).

Good Process – Part 1

Logic Bureau — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:40:34 +0000

We lecture on good process endlessly, but one of the initial stumbling blocks we have is that the right people don’t know what the term ‘process’ encapsulates, or they interpret a different or incomplete meaning to the word.

So, what is process and more importantly, what is good process?

Generally speaking it’s the process of understanding a clients requirements, managing and enhancing them where appropriate and possible, creating a strict agreement of product and delivery schedule based on a solid understanding and explanation of those requirements. Setting realistic milestones and creating comprehensive documentation to deliver the agreed product or service in a timely fashion and to an agreed budget, requiring no one to do over time. Leaving the client feeling happy, the staff feeling valued and fulfilled, the management feeling empowered and reliable, and everyone feeling like they are one big team.

No unsatisfied customers. No late deliveries. No slavish, unpaid overtime. No scope creep. No runaway project costs. No last minute client changes with impunity and without due consideration and articulation of the consequences to the client. Everyone, every team accountable and focusing on the business delivery requirement (not just their own personal/departmental agendas).

It requires optimal interdepartmental logistics, pragmatic client management and a firm hand to keep everyone’s eye on the ball and steer them toward a common goal, not just a department’s or a person’s. Crucially, it requires team work across your entire delivery network.

At this point you’re either thinking that this is an impossible magic formula or it’s bleeding obvious. If you are the former, then part 2 of this article will address some of the Common Causes of Bad Process and hopefully make a believer out of you. If, like us, you are the latter, then take comfort in this: You are not alone, and it is absolutely possible to kill bad process. The perfect antidote is to have exposure to multiple sectors, roles, companies and continents. Have decades of experience and knowledge. And of course, know where to hide the bodies along the way .