At a Bahá'í retreat on Conversations on the Way: Kindling Hope in a Time of Despair, the conversation following a presentation on the environmental crisis turned to the notion of hastening the collapse of the old world order. There is a thesis out there, amongst some Bahá'ís and in parts of the Christian community, that environmental destruction is a signpost on the way to a better world; it is seen as a crucial element of the retributive calamity that ushers in the promised day of God.

Then it follow, so some say, that we should not try to stem the tide of climate change, of ecosystem degradation, of the loss of biodiversity. Moreover, why should we not actively work to bring about that collapse by purposefully over consuming — so that the day of reckoning, when we must transcend our baser natures in order to survive (or achieve the rapture, in another theology), will arrive that much sooner?

Hypothesis: at the beginning of their careers (and perhaps well into them), most software developers think written/verbal language skills are of little importance to their field. To the contrary: as with most science and engineering fields, where language arts and communications classes are seen as secondary at best, the truth is that communication skills are critical to success. Being "coherent" means that one is able to express himself in clear terms, logically and consistently. This ability is essential in both code and "regular" language.

Like many, when I first encountered the term "agile software development," I thought it was an excuse for a cowboy culture: low planning, low documentation, run as fast as you can and assume that each person's brilliance will take care of everything. Since it came up in the context of a very large client asking us about our methodology ("what's a software development methodology?" I asked myself), I thought I should dig into a little more. Integrating Agile Development in the Real World, by Peter Schuh, quickly showed me it is not that simple. Agile development is, in fact, all about fostering a systematic, right-sized, just-in-time development process. For me, being "agile" means embracing change instead of being locked into preconceived notions (requirements). But don't throw everything out the window either.

Executable tests are the best form of requirements documentation. They improve quality through early discovery of bugs and by fostering a more detailed "what-if" analysis: what if we have this input X? What if the user does Y?

Configuring a WCF service across security boundaries can be a tricky business, or so I learned recently. Testing went well, but the move to production failed for a WCF client/server scenario, with the client application encountering an error: SOAP security negotiation with '<myEndpointAddress>' for target '<myEndpointAddress>' failed. See inner exception for more details. Inner exception: The Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI) negotiation failed.

Follow-up to Building a Test Script Environment with C# and IronRuby, pt 1, wherein we change emphasis from coding tests in Ruby to writing them in English (Gherkin) with the help of SpecFlow.

After that October post, I managed to construct a full system/regression test suite for a key data-management application, using the combination of Ruby and C# as described. My team has been able to go through several cycles of…

A co-worker overheard the comment that "agile [software development] is not always a good fit for introverts," or something along those lines, while listening to a webinar on agile testing. On the surface, it is hard to deny that claim. Right there in the Agile Manifesto we have two obvious yellow or even red flags:

• Individuals and interactions, and
• Customer collaboration

Now jumping over to the Principles, we find two more orange flags:

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

The closing from one of the many beautiful essays in Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril is incredibly moving (as is the rest of the essay), illustrating the beauty of simplicity and oneness with the world around us:

"When I die, wash my body with a cotton cloth. Bury me in a split-wood coffin crafted from trees that died a natural death. Lay me to rest in clothes I have already worn thin. Do not seal out the water and bugs and burrowing critters. Let me be absorbed back into the Earth. Let my body turn to soil. Even when I'm dead, let me nourish the future." (p107, by Carly Lettero).

A year ago I began a personal journey that I had long wished to start: a journey of integration, practice, cooperation, and learning, all in the name of playing a small part to unite the strands of science and faith on the "common ground of stewardship of life", to paraphrase E.O. Wilson [1]. In the uncaring and inefficient sprawl of Dallas, I set out to find those who share my belief that sustainable living would only be achieved when individuals and society re-connect with the divine, with the highest potential of human nature. From many such personal journeys, Dallas Interfaith Power & Light has been organically emerging as a moral and practical social space for addressing the great challenge of our times, climate change.

In a letter dated 2 March 2013, to the Bahá'ís of Iran, the Universal House of Justice wrote:

"… the principle of the oneness of humankind, as proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh, asks not merely for cooperation among people and nations. It calls for a complete reconceptualization of the relationships that sustain society. The deepening environmental crisis, driven by a system that condones the pillage of natural resources to satisfy an insatiable thirst for more, suggests how entirely inadequate is the present conception of humanity's relationship with nature…"

This of course begs the question, what should humanity's relationship with nature be? We explored this to some extent in the devotions for the Feast of Dominion in February. Now we ask you to continue that exploration here, with the Feast of Glory, by considering how the Glory of God is revealed through, and yet extends far beyond, Nature, which is also called Creation and Existence, and how our relationship to this Creation must be one of humility and moderation.