OK, now it is time to go deeply into business domain of Evejob – Social Job Board and made small Agile project management.

What we know about Job Boards in general:

• Company (managed by Employer User) seek for Job Candidates that can fit to some available positions by review / search Job Candidates profiles and / or resumes.
• Job Candidates Users / Anonymous Users seek (search) opened Job Positions published by Companies (Employers Users) – i.e. review Companies profiles / Job Posts and contact Companies / apply to available positions.

This is “base, common, required” functionality that looks like MUST be present (with some adjustments)  in any Job board so both Companies and Job Candidates found board useful!

Despite the fact that I have very important extension to such “base” functionality which will made Evejob project Unique and more “Social”, I still understand that base functionality must be done before… In any case, I will need to use such business domain entities, like “Company”, “Job Candidate”, “Job Post” etc.  So instead of spend my time now describing what made “Evejob” really unique let’s just start “base” implementation and move forward…

But how to start?! This is most problematic question… Do I need to made “big design upfront” or? Do I need to describe all use cases (made 100s  screenshots etc) or I need to start coding right now etc? In general answer as always: “it depends!”.  But in my case, I can simply start from small and using iterative approach continue development… But anyway, at least small plan will help me to be on track and help readers to understand what will be in next iterations.

So here is the plan that I take from project backlog for Release #1 (at least like I see it right now… I did not want to put here full project backlog for some trivial reasons…):

Release #1. Base Job Board

• Sprint #1. Employer Users: Registration, Profile
• Sprint #2. Employer Users: Manage Companies
• Sprint #3. Employer Users: Manage Job Posts
• Sprint #4. Employer Users: Dashboard
• Sprint #5: Job Candidates: Registration, Profile
• Sprint #6: Job Candidates: Resume Management
• Sprint #7: Job Candidates: Dashboard

You can ask: why this specific order??? Why I am going to build for example Employer stuff before Job Candidates? Answer – from business point of view! Our goal to build software that can be used even after just few iterations, so what sense if for example I will made first Job Candidates resume management and made release of this? Who can use this? Nobody – it will be just catalog of Job Candidates resumes… Nobody will want to register, nobody will add own resume if he will understand that nobody will search for it as search still does not implemented on site!

But look at order that I select: if we implement first Companies catalog, then we can made release, even put application to hosting servers and  start fill it with local or even worldwide companies –  start to promote site to such companies, let them send us description information, add this information to our database… etc… Maybe even made some “special” pages for huge companies like Google or Microsoft And while we will made next X iterations, we will simultaneously improve our companies catalog, extend our public relations  and promote our business! Here we follow principle: “Release Early” (feel free to overview also other important principles that I follow in my projects). Also it is very important that doing such “early” release we will start getting feedback and start to dial with real production environment! It is specially important in cases, where you plan to host your application in “special” environments - Azure, Google App Engine are some examples of such environments – you simply don’t have full control, so as early you start, as much “problems” you will face and fix in initial steps!

I put Sprint #1 – Sprint #7 into “Release #1″ because I think (at least now) that we can call “Evejob” project “version 1″ only after Spring #1 – Sprint #7 will be done and not before as all this functionality required for any job board application! As I tell before – it does not mean that I will put site into production only after complete all 7 sprints – I will be Agile and at least for now I see that it make sense to put site into production right after sprint #2…

For those who want to know little more, I will put here overview for next few releases:

Release #2. Following

This what will made site unique – “Follow” principle, something like Twitter but for Job Boards Want to know more – just stay with me

Release #3. Search

This release will be dedicated to different simple and advanced search features.

In next posts I will go deeply into each sprint, so stay tuned!

All books are MUST read for .NET developers / architects or product managers (and even for SCRUM masters or XP practicionists)

1) Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# (Robert C. Martin Series) by Robert C. Martin
Read!!! If you not read this book (or same book for Java or C++) – you lost whole world!
MUST read book!

2) Code Complete 2: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell
No comments – same MUST read book, like was first edition!!!! For any developer / designer or architect! Book out in 2004, but looks like will be actual at least 4-5 more years, until author probably (and hopefully) will write 3-rd edition!

3) Getting Real by 37signals
Must read book (with a lot of essays) in case if you going to make your own business some day! Sure even if you not (i.e. just want to work for somebody and GET REAL results of your work) you also welcome to read it!

to be continue…

“Evejob” is a Web 2.0 style Social Job Board Open Source web application developed in few frameworks / programming languages simultaneously and released under GPLv2 license.

Why another job board application?

First – every developer understand naturally such business domain because at least one time in his live he was a “Job Seeker” and some day probably also become (will or already) an “Employer”. So I (and readers) will not spend time to learn business domain in developing Job Board application! (sometimes really huge amount of time team or independent developer just learn business domain of application… It’s actually wrong to think about this as “time waste” because as much developers understand the business as more better software they usually made!).

Another reason why I decide to create another job board open source application(s) is absence of such project developed in true MVC architecture (at least by now). Try to search open source Job Board software? You will found huge amount of poorly written PHP scripts (most are not open source) and for sure you will not found any good ASP.NET MVC or Ruby on Rails implementations… Social Job Board software have a huge “potential” and I don’t want to lost opportunity to develop good open source version of such application (and even more – first few versions powered by different platforms!).

Last reason which I want to list here (in reality I have much more reasons for sure), is that I have some cool ideas how to make really SOCIAL Job Board and want to at least try such ideas on practice!

Evejob Application Versions

So, there will be few major versions of Evejob applications:

• EvejobDJ (powered by Django -  high-level Python Web framework)
• EvejobDJG (powered by Django -  high-level Python Web framework and ready to be hosted on Google App Engine)
• EvejobRoR (powered by Ruby on Rails – open source MVC web application framework which leverages the Ruby programming language)
• EvejobRoRG (powered by Ruby on Rails – open source MVC web application framework which leverages the Ruby / JRuby programming language and ready to be hosted on Google App Engine)
• EvejobGoG (powered by Grails -  open source MVC web application framework which leverages the Groovy programming language that based on the Java platform)
• EvejobGoGG (powered by Grails -  open source MVC web application framework which leverages the Groovy programming language that based on the Java platform and ready to be hosted on Google App Engine)
• EvejobNET (powered by Microsoft ASP.NET MVC framework and written on C# programming language under Microsoft .NET platform)
• EvejobAzNET (powered by Microsoft ASP.NET MVC framework and written on C# programming language under Microsoft .NET platform and designed to be hosted in Azure)

All versions will be developed and updated in parallel with comparisons between frameworks / languages  features, platforms and even IDEs in the way …

Why I will release project as Open Source? Sure primary reason because I want other developers will get benefits from it, like I now get benefits from all open source software that I use every day. Another reason – I want to made this application better, so I need feedback, and not only from end users, but also from other developers! In my case, because I get used few different programming languages, I will probably get really huge feedback – at least few times more then if i will write code using one language! I will get feedback from developers with different cultures (Unix vs Windows environment), different preferable coding styles (dynamic language or static) etc… Think project will benefit from this (and actually I never see something like this before so it will be at least interesting to get a try … ) !

Agile Development

As you probably understand by now, I am a huge fun of Agile development (and even Agile life).

What this means for selected project:

• ANY feedback, both positive and negative highly appreciated!  (just please make sure that it’s “constructive” – I don’t want to start a wars between platforms, I don’t want to get feedback about my English level etc – just stay concentrated on the project)
• I will try to get releases every month  (just be aware that like most of developers I do this open source project at free time at home after hard work… )
• I will follow DRY principle (as well as many other Agile principles) and sure will always try to keep things Simple! Please correct me in case if I go in wrong direction!

Integrated Development Environments

One thing where I really don’t want to go most simple way is usage of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) … While all development can be done using even simple text editors (notepad, vim, Emacs etc) I decide to implement this project using rich IDEs available for selected platforms.

Reason – most of developers DO use IDE at work (companies simply buy it) and I think this will help developers to make total compare of PLATFORMS, not just frameworks or programming languages. While a lot of people can argue that IDE does not make any difference (and probably they are right in some cases),  I think usage of IDE can significantly decrease developing time ones you get use of functionality they have and sometimes even improve discipline (with tools like ReSharper for C# for example) of developers.

So here is the list of IDEs I am going to use:

1. IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/) for Django (using Python plugin), Grails development (build-in support) and Ruby on Rails development (using Ruby Plugin). Version for Open Source development available for free at JetBrains site, for personal development costs 249$, while version for commercial developing costs 599$. But you can simple start with 30 days Trial version for now, exactly like I do.
2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products) for ASP.NET MVC development in C#. Standard edition cost 299$, while professional cost 799$. For our needs it’s enough to have just standard edition. Also sure thing you can download 90 days Trial version for now – after you try it (if never try before), you will 100% buy it as there is no alternative for .NET !

Why I choose IntelliJ IDEA, but not Eclipse or Netbeans (really good free alternative to IDEA) or Wing or Komodo etc? For .NET development, Visual Studio is STANDARD and Express Edition that available for free simply “for users other than professional software developers, such as hobbyists and students.” (but even so Express Edition should also work for you). Because my goal is to be at least “professional software developers” (and readers I think also) I must use at least Standard version of Visual Studio that is not free (except cases when Microsoft give it for free for start-ups etc, like on http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ for example)… So to make fair comparison I must use something not free for other versions also… This means that great tools like Netbeans or Eclipse simple can’t be used in this case (as both are completely free). Sure if you going to made your own projects you can use Netbeans or Eclipse because both have good support for both Ruby on Rails and Grails development and even Django (with some additional external tools / plugins). Regarding Komodo / Wing etc, they are too specific for selected languages or does not support all frameworks I need (at least by now).  While it is available free IntelliJ IDEA version for open source developing, because I (and readers) some day going to make a money, it’s make sense to compare versions for commercial development.

Application Hosting

Hosting… Yes, while I can leave this decision for later in theory, in practice it can (and will) effect our architecture… So let’s made it clear now: I am going to host Grails, Django and Ruby On Rails versions of Evejob application in Google AppEngine. Google AppEngine support Python natively so we can run Django here. Also last version of AppEngine support  Java as programming language. So because Grails leverages Groovy (which written on Java), we can also run Grails applications in AppEngine. Same for Ruby On Rails – it is available JRuby implementation of Ruby on Java so we can run Ruby On Rails applications in Google App Engine. To host ASP.NET MVC application in I am going to use latest Microsoft Azure platform.

Operation System

I am going to make all development under Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit Operation System (OS). Visual Studio 2008 does not work on any other non-Windows operation system directly (and I don’t want to use virtualization for such case – IDE must work on operation system for which it was written to get maximum performance… but, while IDEA works on almost any OS, Visual Studio does not!). Even so, It is still exists option to use Mono (cross platform Open Source development framework) to run ASP.NET MVC on other OS except Windows, and to use MonoDevelop instead of Visual Studio for example. Unfortunately I decide to port application to Mono AFTER development will be completed. (primary because I just want to wait until Microsoft legally allow to use Mono or finally will just “close” it, so I will not need to release another version for this wonderful framework).

Project sources, links and documentation

• Projects hosting
• Evejob Open Source Projects homepage (under construction currently)
• Public domains for implementation sites (sites will be hosted only after Evejob reach first release version):
  - Worldwide: http://evejob.com, http://evejob.net, http://evejob.info
  - Israel: http://evejob.co.il
  - Mobile Clients: http://evejob.mobi
  - USA: http://evejob.us
  - Ukraine: http://evejob.com.ua
  - Russia: http://evejob.ru
  - “СНГ” http://evejob.su