Picking the Right Type of Tool For the Job

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Picking the Right Type of Tool For the Job

  • In the construction tool world, I can go to my local home improvement store and rent a tool for as long as I need it, instead of having to buy the really expensive, but correct, tool.  In the software tool world, while some vendors offer free trial periods, others do not.  I have sometimes used the free trials to accomplish a task that is a one-off perfect fit for the tool but I probably will never use again.  It would be awesome if software companies would "rent" their tools for projects to those of us who don't have a budget to buy it permanently or don't have an ongoing use for the tool.

  • I often have the same conversations regarding database technologies.  With the rising popularity with NoSQL, many new developers have the opinion that it the right "tool" for every development project is MongoDB or Cassandra because it's shiny and new.  You need to understand the full requirements of the system before jumping into a DB technology.  Are the data elements fairly fixed record by record or is it fluid?  Are there 3 tables or 300?  Are there 100K rows or 100B?

  • Nice post! Any chance you can share the web based tools for project management that you liked the best?

    Thanks!

  • We used Toms Planner (https://www.tomsplanner.com/), but there are quite a few in that space that will import Project files. I think $45 for three months.

  • Andy Warren - Friday, September 28, 2018 10:20 AM

    We used Toms Planner (https://www.tomsplanner.com/), but there are quite a few in that space that will import Project files. I think $45 for three months.

    Great, thanks!

  • Wade_S - Friday, September 28, 2018 8:30 AM

    I often have the same conversations regarding database technologies.  With the rising popularity with NoSQL, many new developers have the opinion that it the right "tool" for every development project is MongoDB or Cassandra because it's shiny and new.  You need to understand the full requirements of the system before jumping into a DB technology.  Are the data elements fairly fixed record by record or is it fluid?  Are there 3 tables or 300?  Are there 100K rows or 100B?

    Kind of answered why many are choosing it for dev though. In many cases, it really is unknown and things are always changing. This is what many of these new technologies are good at, turning on a dime and accepting anything you throw at it. With that, you can refine the model from that tool into another tool like a properly designed RDBMS where you can better answer those questions.

    I've pretty much switched to using only those tools for my dev projects due to the fact things are constantly changing like the devs you're working with. Then later on, go to a more refined model that will almost always beat the the prior approach.

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