One of the coolest things about working at patterns & practices, is getting to bump into Ward Cunningham (inventor of CRC cards, wiki and much of the ideas and thinking behind Extreme Programming). Last month I went to see Ward give a talk over at MS Research. During the presentation I tried to type into my phone many of the funny and insightful things he shared with the group. Here are some of my favorites.

Talking about software development methodology…

"I don't claim to be a methodologist, but I act like one only because I do methodology to protect myself from crazy methodologists."

Talking about the lack of data on pair programming effectiveness…

"When a manager asks for hard data, that's usually just his way of saying no."

Talking about code smells…

"There is a programming smell here… which is kind of like the smell in your refrigerator, you know. There's a sign that there's something wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on it. But you know if you leave it there, its only going to get worse."

Talking about testing, TDD, etc…

"What I'm really doing is I'm trying to preserve the right for a programmer to think while he's typing. If you feel that it’s not going well, you can stop and say 'What did I get wrong? Let me correct it.'"