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 Human DevOps - 5th May 2024 - Human Software
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It's the start of the party season in the Netherlands. Last weekend started with King's Day and it's Bevrijding's Dag today: liberation day. This marks the start of the summer period and it also marks the start of an important personal milestone. I've been writing a novel about software development and humans since the end of last year, and May 1st marked the end of the first draft. I was truly inspired after reading the Unicorn Project, and while I loved the Five Ideals it presented, I wanted to dive deeper into the lives of the characters and their families. Therefore, I decided to write something personal and something that resonated with my experiences in software engineering and DevOps. I wanted to explore the effects on individuals, families, and friends. So, last autumn, I started writing, and last week, I reached the end of the first draft. I will celebrate briefly before launching into the second draft. If you'd like to hear more about it you can head over to the book webpage - there's not much there but it gives you a few clues :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend! -- Richard Do you need to be a public speaker to be a great engineer?Published on May 5, 2024 I have observed that companies use industry conferences for different purposes. Sending engineers and architects to (often far-flung) events to attend as a reward, sending them there to learn and report back, or sending them there to speak. Big conference trips are showcases for projects, talent and networking. We learn from other companies about how… Read More »Do you need to be a public speaker to be a great engineer?
People Silos: Revisiting Conway’s LawPublished on April 30, 2024 Conway’s Law is a powerful underlying philosophy that informs how modern software organisations organise. Any system you build is actually a mirror of the system you use to build it. Therefore, the corollary is that it’s possible to design an organisation that informs your target architecture. This learning should be table-stakes for any software development… Read More »People Silos: Revisiting Conway’s Law
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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.
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,...
Three years ago, I started a podcast without much idea of its future. Before that, I'd started writing, wandering through automation, programming techniques, infrastructure, DevOps, and thoughts about management, leadership, and how companies are organised. Where was I going? While I'd read a few books, it was clear that I was searching for something. Was I just talking for the sake of it? It sometimes certainly seemed that way. And then, about eighteen months ago, I started writing a novel....