Recipes4Linux 

Cookbooks

Home of the Open-Source Ambassadors™

Cookbooks services include (1) training in the use and development of computer software and hardware as well as (2) software development, customization of computer hardware and software, technical support services, and trouble-shooting of computer hardware and software problems.

Part of what makes our approach to project work and trainings unique is the belief that all projects benefit from maintaining Project Cookbooks.  As with a traditional kitchen, our cookbooks are designed to make it easy for a project team to replicate common or frequent tasks.

How often has a key component of your project been entrusted to a single engineer, who nurtures a job-security mentality of only keeping the steps in his/her head?  Or equally likely, the corporate culture is such that documentation is not valued and an engineer's time spent on documentation is viewed as wasted time?

Perhaps this culture has evolved because in the past there has either been too much or too little documentation for a given project.  Some engineers and managers believe that everything needs to be written up, so the diamonds are lost in the coal deposit.

Some examples of steps (recipes) that should be in a Project Cookbook include:

1. How to add a new engineer to the project?
   • The new user should be part of what groups?
   • The new user's environment should be composed of what?
   • The new user should be trained in what project procedures and policies?
2. What policies control the project's use of version control?
   • What unit-testing is required prior to check-in?
   • How often are check-point releases generated?
   • What project members are allowed to check-in files?
   • What is the recovery procedure when the code in the repository is broken?
3. What project roles are assigned to individual project members?
   • Is there a single lead?
   • Is there a unit-test lead?
   • Is there a snapshot system test lead?
   • Is there a make expert?
   • Is there a version control expert?
   • Is there a System Administrator lead?
4. What are the required steps to follow to build the system from scratch?

Many R&D groups have general guidelines for some of the above steps (recipes).  We have rarely seen department-wide procedures that survive the gauntlet of being applied to all projects undertaken by the department.  We advocate maintaining these procedures on a per-project basis in an easy format for engineers to read and digest.  We advocate creating Project Cookbooks for all phases of a technical project, including:

1. Design
2. Development
3. Test
4. Deployment
5. Maintenance
6. Support

Contact mailto:tmike@recipes4linux.com

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