return null vs. throw exception

Its not wise to return null when any business logic is incorrect its best to throw an exception when there's a validation error or a required field missing.
This way you can propagate the error up the stack

Example:

  if(imageTicket == null) {
   throw new ImageTicketNotFoundException("Could not find a image ticket for the id provided");
  }

Regex string to match string that starts with XX and ends with YY

Below matches a string that starts with XX and ends with YY.
Case sensitive but doesnt account for spaces.
/g Global flag enabled

\bXX\S*YY\b

Example: (#1 and #4 are a match)

1. XXX-asdsd-sdsd-sdsdYY
2. -XX-asdsdf sdf df dgsdfgs-YYsds
3. XX-sd fsdg sdfg sdfgsfgh sdfg sdYY
4. XX-sdfd-sdfsdgb-sdgbsd-gbd-sdYY

Test:
http://www.regexpal.com/?fam=94689

DevOps - It's all about continuous testing !

Phases of Testing:

• Prior to code integration to trunk, developers pre-flight test their code to make sure it doesn’t blow up the trunk. 
• During the CI cycle and code commits from multiple developers integration testing is used to verify merges. During the continuous testing phase where nightly and weekend regression runs are automated for trunk and release branches it is testing that does the job of finding problems before the software release.  
• During the release deployment phase more testing verifies the release packages are ready for release.  

Whether the organization is using a test driven development methodology, behavior based test creation, model-based testing or whatever they use, testing is a vital part of the overall DevOps process — not only to ensure verify code changes work and integrate well — but to ensure the changes do not blow up the product.

Source: http://devops.com/2015/02/02/devops-continuous-testing/

Continuous Delivery

“When you can spin up an application in any environment in your ecosystem with any version of your application code — on demand — that is continuous delivery.” - Eric Shamow

Ref: https://puppetlabs.com/blog/build-a-toolbox-for-continuous-delivery 

Useful Tools you may need:

Version control

Git,

Subversion,

Perforce

Mercurial.

Code review

Gitlab

Stash

Gerrit

Configuration  Management

Chef

Puppet

Ansible

Salt

Cobbler

CFEngine

Metrics/Measurement

Graphite

Logstash

Nagios

Splunk.

Jenkins

Atlassian Bambo
Zabbix - Monitoring Platform

Release and Deployment

Jenkins

Capistrano

Bamboo

Puppet

S@#$ that doesn't work on Mac that's so simple in Windows

Started creating a list of things I find annoying about Mac. I am sure over time Apple will address or improve some of these but is really a pain coming from a Windows user.

1. Create new file on Finder in the folder you are in. Right click on a folder in Windows explorer will allow me to create a new file in the folder I am in. For OSX I had to create an Apple script to do this simple task
2. Excel for Windows allows me to import portions of a Web page using Web queries. This can be done directly in the Excel app. For OSX this functionality is not available and broken.
3. Drag and drop an email from Outlook Mac results in a html code .eml file instead of a properly formatted email that you can read later
4. Dock window to right or left of screen using the keyboard
5. Editing a cell in Excel. Pressing F2 allows me to edit the cell. In Mac I have to use a mouse
6. Windows handles multiple windows of a same app so efficiently. I can switch between windows easily using alt tab
7. Locking screen. Have to use mouse to click some icon to lock. Windows Control L works
8. Copy paste file into an email example outlook. Mac pastes the location of file rather than the file
9. Apple doesn't offer a Cut and Paste option for moving files in Finder (although you can Copy and Paste)
10. Finder cannot sort folders first
11. Microsoft Outlook is horrible on Mac. There are so many things I can do easily on Outlook on Windows. To do the same steps on Mac, it takes 3 times the effort
12. Try duplicating a meeting (not an appointment, a meeting)
13. Try creating a meeting and selecting attendees as optional. You have to mark them individually.
14. Try cutting a file and pasting at a different location. Command + X and Command + V dont work for this. There are different keys to do this.

A cheatsheet with 8 useful strategies for (vertically) breaking down user stories for your #Agile/#Scrum project.

Source: https://twitter.com/chrisverwijs/status/335109871802384385/photo/1

How Product Management Must Change to Enable the Agile Enterprise

Written back in 2009 and still applies to a lot of organizations

How Product Management Must Change to Enable the Agile Enterprise

When development teams adopt agile, product management is often caught off guard by the amount of work added to their already overflowing plate. Agile calls for new skills, and traditional staffing models do not typically accommodate the new...