38 posts tagged with "software engineering"
Speed Through Competence
March 01, 2025 | 5 minutes reading time
Being a fast software engineer doesn't mean you're sacrificing quality (if you know what you are doing).
What's the Point to Feature Flags?
February 16, 2025 | 6 minutes reading time
Why feature flags can help improve your velocity, reduce your risk, and help you build better software
Consistency is Not the Goal
July 07, 2024 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 4 minutes reading time
Bad process is everywhere. The best way to improve it is being focusing on your culture.
Picking the Right Tools
February 24, 2024 | 5 minutes reading time
What I've learned about picking the right tools in software from watching Alone
Five Barriers Preventing a Great Developer Experience
January 16, 2024 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 9 minutes reading time
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 | 6 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 7 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 8 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
How to set a direction and build motivation as a software leader.
How to Get Software Documentation Right
January 17, 2022 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
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 | 6 minutes reading time
Containers are becoming more and more popular. Here is my take on why and if your team should to jump on the bandwagon.
What's the Point of the Software Development Lifecycle Anyway?
October 12, 2021 | 5 minutes reading time
The importance of a guide for how you build software.
My Obsession with Simple Code
September 03, 2021 | 3 minutes reading time
Why I write the simplest code I can everytime.
Let's Talk About Trust
August 10, 2021 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
There is more to code reviewing the writing comments on the internet.
Version, Releases, and Deployments! Oh My!
May 15, 2021 | 6 minutes reading time
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 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 5 minutes reading time
Gardens won't grow if neglected, and neither will your software.
Our Over Obsession With Patterns
February 27, 2021 | 4 minutes reading time
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 | 4 minutes reading time
Why pull requests are one of the best tools in modern software.
When Should You Refactor Your Code?
July 30, 2020 | 3 minutes reading time
The simple answer: it's probably right now.
Enforcing a Changelog with GitHub Actions
July 15, 2020 | 2 minutes reading time
How to keep your team's changelog up to date.
On Sustainable Software Development
July 11, 2020 | 4 minutes reading time
“Hero” programming only lasts so long.
Don’t Focus on Coding Mastery — Focus on Getting Better Each Day
June 25, 2020 | 4 minutes reading time
Why only focusing on the end game will disappoint you.
How to Introduce Kaizen to Your Team
June 06, 2020 | 4 minutes reading time
Convincing your team to embrace continuous improvement.
What's the Point of CI Anyway?
May 05, 2020 | 6 minutes reading time
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.
Why Simple Code is Better Than Reusable Code
October 05, 2019 | 3 minutes reading time
Simple is always the priority.
On Building Abstractions Too Soon
August 14, 2018 | 4 minutes reading time
Why abstractions are emergent instead of dictated
What's the Point to Code Reviews Anyway?
February 19, 2018 | 2 minutes reading time
Hint: it's not aboutt bugs.