Art & Logic

How We Work

2009-06-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

by Brett Porter, Chief Engineer

Many of the clients who we work with either have little experience with software development, or have experience with development, but not using an external custom development shop like Art & Logic. As a result, there can sometimes be misconceptions and confusion about what it's like to work with us on a project.

Estimates and Proposals

The first step in any project that we do will be to work with the client to determine the list of features that will be needed for the project to be successful. We can build this list in a number of ways, whether from an existing specification document, using emails and phone calls, sketches, or looking at existing versions of similar projects. Once we know what it is that needs to be built, we'll have one or more developers break those features down into a number of individual pieces that are as small as possible, and then estimate the effort that would be required to implement each of those pieces.

One problem that is typically seen on software development projects is that developers are often overly-optimistic about the amount of time needed to perform a task, failing to account for unanticipated difficulties or prerequisites that aren't readily apparent during the estimation process. One way that we compensate for this is by using an estimation technique called 'Pessimistic PERT'. For each item called out in the estimate, the estimator assigns three values; the best-case amount of time to complete the task, the most likely amount of time, and a worst-case amount of time. We apply a formula to those three values and calculate an 'expected case' value for each item. The sum of those tasks estimates, plus additional factors for other required activities like project management and testing the project add together to create a estimate for the project.

Staffing up the Project

Every project that we work on has people filling the following roles:

Account Manager: The Account Manager for your project is usually the same person who was your primary contact during the estimate and proposal process. He will be your point of contact for all matters relating to the business aspects of the project, and will remain in contact over the life of the project to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

Project Manager: The Project Manager is responsible for planning and managing the design and execution of the project. On small projects, the Project Manager may also be the entire development team, or he may be working as a member of a larger development team within Art & Logic. We find that projects are most successful when all technical discussions about the project are handled directly between the Art & Logic Project Manager and a single technical counterpart within the client organization. By requiring that all these discussions go through this channel helps ensure that there are no surprises from contradicting messages being sent between various people in the two companies.

Development Team: When assigning developers to the team for a project, we take into account many factors, including the client's schedule needs, desired monthly burn rate, how well-defined the project is, and what the ideal team size for the project would be. For example, a project that starts out with many unknowns will most likely kick off with just a project Manager and a designer, who will work together to develop one or more prototypes to help the client explore their real requirements. Once the required features for the project become more stable, we would only then assign additional developers to the team. We're able to react quickly with different team sizes as conditions warrant. A common misconception among clients is that be staffing their project with a larger team, the project will be completed more quickly; in software development, this belief is known as "The Mythical Man-Month" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythical_man_month). We've found that small teams of highly skilled developers can finish projects more quickly and adaptively than larger teams could. All of our developers and project managers are trained to follow a common set of development practices, including our programming Style Guide (see http://www.artlogic.com/careers/styleguide.html) that make it easy to bring new team members in to work on projects already in progress.

Communication within the team and between Art & Logic and our clients is mostly done using a collaboration server called "FirstClass". This provides for each client a secure and private conference that's only visible to authorized client contacts and our developers. This conference is used to contain the complete history of all written communication relating to the project. It's much easier for everyone involved to be sure that details aren't being forgotten about when there's a single place to hold all discussion of those details.

Project Lifecycle

Once the project is in progress, we break the project down into a number of iterations, generally between 2 and 4 weeks in length. Each iteration is run as if it were its own little project, with these stages happening every time:

Preparation: The Project Manager and development team meet to go through the list of features and tasks that aren't finished yet, and re-estimate the work required to complete them. Typically, as we get deeper into a project, the requirements change at least subtly in ways that have impact on the number of hours required for the project. Just as often, as clients start seeing development releases of their project, new requirements are added to the project. By performing this re-estimation at the beginning of each iteration cycle, we have an opportunity to resynchronize everyone's understanding of where the project is, where it's headed, and our estimate of how much the remainder of the project will cost after factoring in new or changed requirements, our improved understanding of the known requirements, and our performance with regard to estimates so far on the project.

The team selects tasks from the list of undone work to be performed in the next iteration. This selection is done based on criteria like reducing any known technical risks (for example, if the project requires that we interoperate with new hardware or protocols, or uses externally provided programming interfaces that are still in development), creating any modules or subsystems that would block future work, or developing prototypes for client feedback as early in the project as is appropriate. For projects that are deployed to end users, client feedback will guide the team to work on features that will provide the most immediate value.

Execution: The bulk of each iteration is taken up with an execution phase, where the Project Manager assigns tasks to the development team, and the team does whatever work is needed to complete the tasks.

Transition: The end of each iteration includes any work that's required to verify that the new work done in this iteration was completed correctly (by testing) and cleanly (by performing peer code reviews). If the planned output at the end of the iteration was a release to the client, the release is prepared and delivered, along with release notes. In an ongoing project, this phase of the iteration will usually overlap with the Prep phase of the subsequent iteration, as the team works together with the client to plan the work that will be done next.

Long Term Relationship

In reality, most software projects don't really end; as users work with the first release of a software product they quickly begin identifying improvements. We take pride in the number of our clients who continue to work with use over many years and versions of their products to provide these enhancements.

Transparency

2009-04-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

by Paul Hershenson, President & Co-Founder

I often hear clients complain that their projects with other development companies are behind schedule. That's normal enough. Most software projects take longer than anticipated. What surprises me is when they wonder if the developers are actually working on their projects. My first question in response is to ask if their contract with the development firm is time and materials or fixed price. The answer is always "fixed price".

Time and materials projects are transparent. If you're wondering whether your developer is working on your project, just review the timesheets. If they're only working 10 hours per week, you're only being billed for 10 hours per week. Provided you trust your developer to report their time honestly (and if you don't, you should fire them immediately), you always know where you stand with a time and materials project.

Not so with fixed price contracts. You can't see inside your development partner's resource management. You can't know whether the developers assigned to your project are also working on 2 other projects. You can't know whether a project is late because it is harder than anticipated, or because the developers are over-committed. Both problems look the same from the client's perspective, but have dramatically different implications for the relationship.

It is common practice in the software development outsourcing industry to over-allocate developers. Labor costs are high and margins are slim. It's tempting for development firms to increase their profits by grinding every last ounce of productivity out of their developers, especially if they're exempt, salaried employees. I was recently told, in confidence, by a friend who used to work for a prominent Los Angeles outsourcing firm that he was 300% allocated at the time he left. No wonder why he left. He was working 3 full-time jobs simultaneously and only getting paid for one.

Fixed price projects add an even more insidious factor into the mix. Development firms normally are paid when they achieve milestones. Earlier milestones are generally easier to achieve than later ones. This is the old adage about the last 10% of the project requiring 90% of the effort. If you're desperate for cash to make payroll and you have a choice between working on the new project with an easy to achieve early milestone or an old project with a thorny, complicated, final deliverable, which one are you going to choose?

The answer is obvious. It doesn't mean that the development firm is dishonest or unethical. It just means they were naive enough to have gotten themselves into a very difficult situation with no positive outcomes. This is one of several reasons why Art & Logic simply won't agree to a fixed price contract. It may be counter-intuitive, but a fixed price contract is a classic lose/lose proposition for both the developer and the client. It's best for everyone involved if they are simply avoided.

Mobile App Development is Hot

2009-01-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

We may be in a recession, but the rush to develop applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Google Android is stronger than ever. Art & Logic is one of the worldwide leaders in mobile application development. More than a dozen companies have recently hired us to develop their mobile apps. One of them was nominated for the 2008 Best App Ever Awards. View the recent project stories & screenshots.

iPhone SDK Apps

2008-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

The iPhone SDK is one of the most highly anticipated new platforms in years. Our developers are *very* excited about iPhone development, and have been eagerly learning the details of this new environment through our partnership with Apple. Fortunately, iPhone programming isn't a very big stretch from Mac OS X programming, and we've been developing Mac apps for more than 17 years. That may help to explain why our developers are so excited about this platform, and why we have already been hired to develop our first iPhone/iPod Touch SDK application!

New Data Center

2008-01-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

We're not a hosting company, but many of our projects have hosting requirements of some kind. We currently manage more than 80 servers, including 25 physical machines. Until recently, all of these machines were located at the Art & Logic headquarters in Pasadena. With the company continuing to grow, we decided it was time for a better solution.

On December 27, we began working with a co-location facility located two miles from downtown Los Angeles. The new data center is equipped with two 10 gigabit connections, redundant HVAC cooling systems, inline UPS, a diesel backup generator, and 24/7 on-site staff. Preliminary testing shows ping times about 10ms faster than before. We're very happy with the new facility, and plan to move most of our servers over the next several months.

iTunes Plugin for SRS Labs

2008-01-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Art & Logic was hired by SRS Labs to develop an iTunes plug-in so they could bring their WowHd audio processing technology to Mac users. The plug-in (including a free trial version) is available here.

Fitness Website

2007-08-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of iTrain.com. In the two years that Art & Logic and iTrain have worked together on this site, it has grown to become the most popular website in the world for downloadable music for workouts. Art & Logic was responsible for all aspects of the project, including user interface design, layout, and construction; administrative tools, setting up e-commerce, testing, and project management. Most of the user interface is done in Flash. The server-side code is PHP/MySQL. There are multiple servers, with load balancing. Note that you’ll need to register to get a password to log into the site. Registering is quick, simple, and free at www.itrain.com.

Flash Application for Boat Control

2007-08-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Maretron is shipping N2KView, a boat engine (and more) monitoring program. Of course it handles most any raw NMEA 2000 data in a boat’s backbone, including J1939 engines via Maretron’s gateway. But an extra neat feature is that N2KView is actually a server, able to deliver the goods to all sorts of Flash clients, including that WiFi enabled phone.

Check out the N2KView screenshots (and maybe even buy one, if you’re a boat enthusiast!) at:
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|344|302025|750989&id=808159

iPhone Application Development

2007-07-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is currently developing a retail sales application for mobile web users. One of the targeted devices is Apple’s industry-changing iPhone.

We're Growing!

2007-07-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is growing. We now have more than 50 developers in our virtual office, throughout the United States and Canada, in addition to a small support staff in our Pasadena office.

Flash Application for Home Entertainment System Design

2007-07-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

If you’ve bought a widescreen plasma TV, you know that installation is more complicated than it seems. No one wants a bunch of cables hanging down the wall. You can drill holes and run them inside the wall, but what happens when you buy a new component? And what if the new component increases the total load to beyond the capacity of your mount? You have to take everything down and start over. Getting that Blu-Ray player is supposed to make your day, not ruin it!

Fortunately, one of our clients, Vantage Point, has developed a high end solution to all of these problems. The Evo System is a modular, flexible, patent pending system for wall mounting home entertainment systems. You can add and re-arrange modules as your entertainment system grows. Check out our Flash application, The Evo Designer, that lets you build and configure your own Evo system before you buy. Go to www.theevosystem.com and click on the Designer link.

Social Networking for Music

2007-06-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Johnson-McCormick Technologies hired Art & Logic to develop the user interface and consult on the architecture of their rVibe music social networking/eCommerce system. The rVibe system brings together the best attributes of social networking systems (users can browse though the music collections of other users on the system, recommend tracks, albums, artists, or playlists to other users, and create groups with common interests). All content available digitally on the system is fully licensed; content that is not licensed for digital sale may be purchased on CD.

JMT wanted the user experience and rapid development that was possible using a web-based interface, but also wanted the ability for the client application to operate when not connected to the internet. Art & Logic developed a hybrid desktop/web application architecture, using an embedded web browser to display the user interface, but driving that browser directly from an application written in C++.

Introducing John Palinski

2007-06-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic has hired John Palinski, an Oracle/SQL Server expert, to assist in tuning and optimizing database applications. John has an MBA, is an Oracle trainer, and is the author of Oracle9i Developer: Developing Web Applications with Forms Builder. He has also authored numerous articles available here.

Illustrator CS3 Plugin Development

2007-06-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

PublishASAP hired Art & Logic to create an Illustrator CS3 plugin that will automate processing of “jobs”, each of which consists of a series of Illustrator files. The plugin manages the job workflow and calls JavaScript to do the actual processing.

Parallels Between Cathedrals and Software

2007-05-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Having just returned from vacation in Italy, I felt inspired to write about the parallels between cathedrals and software. Who knows; perhaps in the future people will look back on today’s custom software applications with the same admiration that I had for the Duomo in Florence. Here was a project that lasted hundreds of years, give or take a few dozen years if you count the gaps when funding ran out (sound familiar?). For a project of that duration, turnover was of course an issue; each time, the new project manager had their own ideas, often meaning that some of the previous team’s work had to be redone. But what struck me most of all was that the original design for the building called for an impossibly large dome; it was assumed that when it came time to add the dome, the necessary technology would have been developed. Talk about a risk item!

Looking for Software Testers

2007-03-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is expanding its development team: We’re looking for software testers. But in typical A&L style, we’re not just looking for people with experience in QA or test engineering; in fact, we’re mostly focusing on musicians and other creative types who are already using some of the world’s most complex commercial software as they produce music and video in their home studios. We believe that this experience combined with the right kind of “dogged approach” to finding and reporting problems could be just the right fit for our team.

Web-enabled Room Controller

2007-03-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

One of our clients, SP Controls, just shipped a new version of their PixiePro Networked Room Controller. The NRC is a web-enabled device that controls A/V equipment (screens, projectors, DVD players, etc.) over RS-232 and IR. We were hired to create the web interface, which required AJAX, Java, and some tricky cross-platform JavaScript.

It’s always exciting to see a client’s product released to the market. Thanks to all the A&L’ers who worked on this!

Welcome!

2007-03-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Art & Logic blog!

Old Art & Logic news can be found in the news archive.