36 posts tagged with "software engineering"


Consistency is Not the Goal

July 07, 2024
Putting too much stake into "one way to do things" can sometimes lead to the lack of critical thinking and inability to take necessary risks.

Culture Before Process

June 27, 2024
Bad process is everywhere. The best way to improve it is being focusing on your culture.

Picking the Right Tools

February 24, 2024
What I've learned about picking the right tools in software from watching Alone

Five Barriers Preventing a Great Developer Experience

January 16, 2024
Whether it's quality or communication, these are five barriers that is keeping your team from having a great developer experience with your codebase.

One Key to Better Software: Improving the Developer Experience

December 19, 2023
All the software design in the world doesn't matter if devs can't easily and safely contribute code.

Micro-habits of Great Engineers

October 09, 2023
Habits are a key part of building our identity and making it easy to do the right thing. These are some habits from great engineers that do just that.

Maximizing Your Observability

September 12, 2023
Observability can do more than just tell us if our "stuff is working." It can also be used as a tool to help us understand what features to build or bugs to work on, or even expose tell us the next thing we need to start tracking in our metrics.

What's the Point to Retrospectives Anyway?

March 14, 2023
Teams need to set aside time to reflect and recalibrate where they are headed. They need to consider how to continually improve their code, process, and tools. Retrospectices are the meeting to do just that.

Accomplishing Through Others

February 28, 2023
Accomplishing goals through others is an important aspect when moving from a invidiviual contributor to a leader (as a manager, director, or Staff+ role, etc.) But how do you do so? Here are four ways I've been finding success in my own career.

The Four Types of Code Reviews

January 31, 2023
Code reviewing has been going on long before the pull request model. Here are four methods worth knowing to help your team review code effectively.

What's the Point to Observability Anyway

October 17, 2022
Observability is more than metrics and cool dashboards. It is a fundamental shift in how you write software.

Stay Close to the Code

July 18, 2022
As we grow in our careers, we can't get too far away from the code. At least, not too quickly.

Surviving Opinion Whiplash

May 27, 2022
Everyone has an opinion about how to do anything in the software industry. This is how you can survive the whiplash of running in one direction and then be told to run the opposite direction

The Importance of Vision as a Developer

February 17, 2022
How to set a direction and build motivation as a software leader.

How to Get Software Documentation Right

January 17, 2022
What to write down, what to generate, and coming to terms that documentation is always out of date.

My Top Takeaways from Team Topologies

December 13, 2021
The most important things I learned from the popular book and how I'm trying to apply them.

What's the Point of Containers Anyway?

November 07, 2021
Containers are becoming more and more popular. Here is my take on why and if your team should to jump on the bandwagon.

My Obsession with Simple Code

September 03, 2021
Why I write the simplest code I can everytime.

Let's Talk About Trust

August 10, 2021
Trust is really important, but often illusive. How do we build it on our teams to help oursleves build great software?

Three Ways to Reduce Chaos on Your Team

July 29, 2021
Software development can be chaotic and full of frustrating situations. Here are some ways to reduce the unneccesary chaos.

I'm Changing How I Review Code

June 10, 2021
There is more to code reviewing the writing comments on the internet.

Version, Releases, and Deployments! Oh My!

May 15, 2021
Software is full of overloaded terms. Let's clarify what we mean by a few of them.

One File Improved My Team's Communication

May 07, 2021
How maintaining one simple file in our repository improved how my team communicated about the software we built.

Writing Software Is Like Growing a Garden

April 20, 2021
Gardens won't grow if neglected, and neither will your software.

Our Over Obsession With Patterns

February 27, 2021
Why I think we use patterns too much as the solution to all problems rather than what they were designed for.

What's the Point of Pull Requests Anyway?

August 28, 2020
Why pull requests are one of the best tools in modern software.

When Should You Refactor Your Code?

July 30, 2020
The simple answer: it's probably right now.

Don’t Focus on Coding Mastery — Focus on Getting Better Each Day

June 25, 2020
Why only focusing on the end game will disappoint you.

How to Introduce Kaizen to Your Team

June 06, 2020
Convincing your team to embrace continuous improvement.

What's the Point of CI Anyway?

May 05, 2020
Continuous integration (CI) is a powerful and neccesary tool to maximize your team's effort. This article explains what CI is and how to start leveraging it to it's full potential.

On Building Abstractions Too Soon

August 14, 2018
Why abstractions are emergent instead of dictated