Farewell and thanks for all the fruit

After a wonderful full 6+ years at IRIS and then IBM, I have decided to go out on my own. I will be starting with a week in London, UK where I just flew into - the superbowl is on but I guess I miss the million dollar commercials here.

Thanks to all my wonderful friends and workmates at Westford and beyond. I had a really nice last week and had a chance to talk to almost everyone and wish them well.

The new support site my team was working on will continue to change the IBM world for the better and Notes/Domino is going to continue to be the leader in groupware. I had a unique opportunity to see how truly professional software is written, tested and supported and learned and grew so much there.

The last project I worked on really drove home the importance of the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern. It is really important that complicated web applications or portal sites have a solid pattern in place from the start in order ensure quality code. I also learned that the View should be given to two different skill sets: user interface (UI) and development. It is probably possible to have the html and backend code generated by the same person but I expect this to be the exception rather than the rule.

I also really appreciated the UI team that can produce really clean compliant XHTML code. Having such a clean base to build on really makes all the difference when putting together complicated sites. I also learned just how important the UI team was in the development process and would encourage all UI teams that are working in the web space, to be able to provide XHTML rather than just photoshop or png files. If you cannot produce the HTML, then the chances are slim the development team will make a site that looks how you intended.