Category: Software Engineering
-
Balancing Metrics and Perceptions: Assessing Developer Experience in Software Delivery
Reading Time: 7 minutes I’ve recently had the opportunity to lead on measuring aspects of the developer experience of my engineering organization. Specifically, I focused on how efficiently we deliver software to our customers and what the experience around delivering software looks like for the engineers. I think the rationale is common to many organizations:…
-
Presumed technical debt: how to recognise it and avoid it
Reading Time: 7 minutes The programming community unanimously considers technical debt an aspect of our work to keep under control and reduce. Personally, I’ve been vocal about the perils of technical debt in one of my early blog posts about the organizational issues it can cause. While I still stand by the majority of what…
-
How to communicate efficiently as software engineers
Reading Time: 5 minutes Efficient communication is key to maximise the flow of information within an organization and facilitate valuable outcomes. Still, it might be an overlooked soft skill for engineers. This blog post explores some key recommendation on how to become more efficient communicators as software engineers.
-
The best teams I’ve worked with
Reading Time: 6 minutes Discover the keys to building successful teams: autonomy, customer focus, accountability, psychological safety, and continuous improvement. Explore how empowered teams drive projects to success, require minimal management, and adapt often. Learn how effective leadership fosters a culture of transparency and continuous improvement, empowering teams to deliver exceptional results. Unlock the potential…
-
How to miss a delivery date
Reading Time: 2 minutes Estimating a delivery date is hard. Missing it, on the other hand, is quite easy. When it happens try not to focus on pleasing stakeholders by committing to a new date that is very close to the original one.
-
Embracing genuine deadlines as software engineers
Reading Time: 11 minutes Genuine deadlines are there to help the organization seize an opportunity. Let’s explore how they impact engineering organization and how not to antagonize them.
-
Is software quality attainable in Agile contexts?
Reading Time: 8 minutes What does quality software mean in Agile? Does it make sense to invest in upfront design and architecture to guarantee higher quality? In this post I try to dissect what Quality means in Agile.
-
Yes, TDD slows you down
Reading Time: 3 minutes TDD is a strict software development methodology that might make you feel as if you’re doing things slower than you actually could. Is it a bad thing?
-
How to keep your Amazon MQ queues clean
Reading Time: 2 minutes Amazon MQ queues might fill up if you use them in your tests but don’t take care of cleaning them up. Let’s explore together a way of addressing this issue. I was hoping to avoid writing dedicated code to just consume all the messages enqueued during tests so I started looking…
-
The Mythical DevOps Engineer
Reading Time: 8 minutes I’m always a little suspicious of job specs looking for the so-called DevOps Engineer role. They often mention a vast variety of duties and responsibilities. Are they hiring for a single role or a whole team? Roles having DevOps in their title hardly share the same meaning. They often have something…