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.
Human DevOps - 28th April 2024 - Bad Week, Good Week
|
When you turn up to work you have a choice. Your choice is to enjoy the work that's put in front of you or to fight the work. If you fight the work, then be sure you're up to the fight. Some weeks, you're just not in the shape to do the fight, so then leave it. Here's the always-interesting John Cutler talking to Hazel Weakly about software engineering. My favourite quote from Hazel: "Local choices move everything forward in the right direction. Can I give [people] the ability to make decisions [so] that I don't even have to check in with them? [..] That is true multiplication of not just the force, but of the system's synergy." Let's construct a future where we don't need to fight the work. -- Richard Don’t Overthink ItPublished on April 28, 2024 There is a lot of talk about programming. There is also a lot of talk about improving the craft of programming through architecture, TDD, DDD, Agile, pairing, or any host of frameworks or protocols for improving our practice. We can discuss engineering vs. programming. Automation and DevOps as methods that impose feedback mechanisms to improve… Read More »Don’t Overthink It
|
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.
The Horizon Post Office Scandal is one of the biggest IT failures in recent times, directly responsible for thirteen of the wrongly accused taking their own lives after prosecutions were brought against them. There is a highly technical deep dive into the findings made by Computer Weekly in this incredible Corecursive podcast episode. It is worth a detailed listen if you want to understand how this could come about and what systemic failings caused it to be covered up for so long. Software...
Working in software you get to see some pretty stupid stuff. And I mean crazy, stupid stuff. Decisions that float down from on high from multiple disparate spheres of influence - sales teams, other business units or just vice-presidents with a Great New Idea[tm] or a pet project. The narrative goes a little like this - the important people get to make choices and us techies have to live with consequences them. Sometimes these decisions are on a whim, an industry hype, a desperate attempt to...
If you happen to be in London next week then I'll be having a little launch party on Wednesday October 15th. It's not just any pub as well, it's the pub that I used to go to when I was working in my first job in software development thirty years ago in 1995. The famous "Wheatsheaf" just off Oxford Street in London. This was the pub where many conversations got technical and many times got heated. I feel that Peter and Dominic would approve of the location. If you're in the area, please drop...