The Electric Cloud Blog

Efficiency sure is popular, especially in the business of software development. NetApp would like to help you track storage efficiency. Nokia Siemens Networks hopes you’re thinking about network efficiency And Cisco points out that energy efficiency should be at the top of your cost-cutting strategy list.  Infrastructure vendors are on a singular quest to improve efficiency, and reduce cost.

Yet, by far the most expensive cost in software development is probably slacking off in the hallways, waiting for code to compile. Joel Spolsky – who writes the JoelOnSoftware blog, and manages the dev team at Fog Creek Software, recently wrote about his quest to shorten a thirty-second compile for the developers on his team. Thirty seconds! I have a hard time getting engineering managers to think about improving thirty-minute builds; reducing a thirty-second cycle time feels like an awfully small gain. Read the rest of this entry »