Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
Friday 2nd February - The DevOps Team
It's February. So, what's going on with your project? What's happening in your organisation? Are people happy? Are improvements being made?
Over the last few weeks, I had a few thoughts about improving from the ground up. I work day-to-day as a DevOps engineer, and from there, I can shape interactions we have as a team with other teams and also what products (or platforms) we offer. I feel lucky to have this role as I get to work with many developers with different challenges in multiple languages and frameworks, and I have a significant degree of freedom on what to do next. I feel this is a win-win. I get to do what I enjoy most, and the organisation gets to have organised help for its less expired dev teams. However, some people might think that a DevOps team shouldn't exist.
In fact, many experts see a DevOps team as an antipattern.
But if your organisation is still trying to get to grips with the concept of the cloud, then a DevOps team can be invaluable. A team comprising people who can both speak as a developer and understand systems and operating systems, networks and more advanced cloud ideas can help and support development teams get to the next level - even if that means just learning to google more effectively for solutions to problems.
DevOps is about pragmatism, getting things done when you need to, and taking ownership. A DevOps team can help you achieve that by providing coaching, platforms, and a crystal clear focus on the customer- in this case, the software product development community.
Therefore I wrote a couple of articles over the last few weeks. One about how to let your best techies (your architects) loose among your dev teams. And one about how to build lasting psychological safey in your organisation.
I hope you get something out of them.
Have a great weekend,
-- Richard
The Value of Socially Driven Architecture
Published on February 1, 2024
Even if it seems like the right thing to do, just putting people to work is not always the most effective way of improving your systems. Can we start to understand the value of a more socially driven architecture? Here’s a scenario. The software architect is at work. After reviewing the current state of the… Read More »The Value of Socially Driven Architecture
Building Resilience: How to form lasting psychological safety
Published on January 15, 2024
This is the first of a two-part post about building individual resilience in software engineering. Today is Blue Monday. According to experts this is mentally the toughest day of the year for knowledge workers in the Northern Hemisphere. The low point of the year for many of us due to the long dark days, the… Read More »Building Resilience: How to form lasting psychological safety
The Human Software
Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
I've spent the last two months (a short trip to Iceland aside) working on the next set of edits for HUMAN SOFTWARE. In all honesty, I thought I'd just be doing a little bit of light word work when it came to this round but as it transpired, I ended up changing about a third of the content. A few chapters were discarded, and numerous rewrites were made in the name of pacing and tension building. What I hope we've ended up with is a more intriguing and interesting journey for Beth and Chrissie...
Writers are terribly impatient. We are so fragile, we crave attention all the time. So, for us, writing into a vacuum and not getting anything back is the worst. We will happily take anything including "wow, it really sucked" or "how could you be so old and so feeble at writing?" At this point in the journey of Human Software, I'm so desperate for feedback, I'm even willing to pay for it! So that's what I did. In January, I hired an editor, and he's been great. He helped me with the...
Over the last week, I drew a map of Kent reimagined as if the 1286/7 floods hadn't happened. According to the history books, those large storms and tidal events significantly changed the coastline of eastern England. The former Wantsum Channel became blocked with alluvial mud and sand, turning the once important seaport of Sandwich into a landlocked town too far away from the sea to accept large boats. Further afield Dunwich in Suffolk suffered a similar fate: In the Anglo-Saxon period,...