Maintainable

Robby speaks with Tudor Girba, CEO and Co-Founder at Feenk. They discuss how engineers work in the decision-making business, what skills are essential to build in engineers, and get an introduction to the concept of Moldable Development and the Glamorous Toolkit.Helpful LinksGlamorous ToolkitFollow Girba on TwitterFollow feenk on TwitterGlamorous Toolkit on Github[Book] Man's Search for MeaningSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Jeff Haynie, Co-Founder and CEO at Pinpoint. They discuss boundaries around APIs and contracts, useful and less-useful metrics for development teams to focus on, and more. Jeff also gives an introduction to Pinpoint's tooling for software development teams and stakeholders, and shares a story about how he had to reverse-engineer a proprietary application in under 24hours to keep the trains running on time.Helpful LinksFollow Jeff on TwitterFollow Jeff on MediumPinpointConnect with Jeff on LinkedInPinpoint Insights[Book] Hard Thing About Things BuildingSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Vladimir Khoriko, Tech Lead, Architect & Author. They discuss all things unit tests – what they are, the four pillars of good ones, examples of low-value unit tests, and more. They also discuss the age-old debate of rewrites vs. refactoring, and how to effectively prioritize maintenance work.Helpful LinksVladimir's books: Use promo code: podmaintainable20 for 20% off!Enterprise CraftsmanshipPainless Unit TestingVladimir's Pluralsight courses[Book] Atomic HabitThings You Should Never Do, Part 1Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Bryan Helmkamp, Founder and CEO at Code Climate. Bryan discusses the use of the term "technical debt" now vs. 15 years ago, what he's learned from having thousands of engineering teams use their tools, and the long-term benefits of choosing to build their main application in Ruby on Rails. You'll also get an overview of Code Climate's main products.Helpful LinksCode ClimateThe Code Climate blogBryan on TwitterCode Climate on TwitterSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Dr. Aino Vonge Corry, founder of Metadeveloper, technical conference editor, and agile retrospective facilitator. They discuss effective vs. ineffective communication with stakeholders, how to prepare for retrospectives, and why it's important to focus on "What should we do better?" when reflecting on work.Helpful LinksDr. Aino Vonge Corry on TwitterMetadeveloper[Book] Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew WalkerHow to Facilitate Distributed RetrospectivesSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Trisha Gee, Developer Advocate at JetBrains. They discuss Trisha's role as a Developer Advocate, how open source library maintainers are underappreciated, and how developers can overcome their fear of writing, speaking, and contributing back to the community.Helpful LinksFollow Trisha on TwitterTrisha's blogIntelliJ IDEARubyMind[Book] 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know[Book] Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing by Mar HicksSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with author, speaker, and 40-year programming veteran Sandi Metz. They discuss why it's hard to teach maintenance skills, how humans tend to get themselves into messy situations, Sandi's "Rules for Developers", and more. You'll also hear You'll also hear some thoughts on Ruby and Rails, and how Sandi uses the phrase, "Lambs to the Slaughter".Helpful LinksFollow Sandi on TwitterWorking Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael FeathersRefactoring by Martin FowlerCodeDevotional projectPractical Object-Oriented Design99 Bottlessandimetz.com[Book] Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Clare Sudbery, Lead Engineer with Made Tech. They discuss how to document and prioritize technical debt with a visual tool, trunk-based development patterns, and the importance of getting fast feedback.Helpful LinksFollow Clare on TwitterIn Simple TermsClare's upcoming workshops and speaking engagementsMadeTechClare on MediumRefactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition) by Martin FowlerDelusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia FineSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Kelly Sutton, Software Engineer at Gusto. They discuss how to deal with technical debt from the pre-product/market fit era, the benefits of monoliths and knowing when to begin abstracting to micro-services, and the challenges of keeping Ruby on Rails applications up-to-date. Kelly also gives advice for developers who want to convince stakeholders to invest in refactoring projects – a common challenge.Helpful LinksFollow Kelly on TwitterKelly's website[Book] Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottTalk on Desirable TestsSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks to Jonathan Abourbih, Engineering Team Lead at the BBC in Voice & AI. They discuss how to conduct blameless post-mortems, what's technical debt vs. bad code, and the challenges of measuring your success as a manager after years of being a developer. Jonathan also shares stories about large Java apps in a pre-Garbage Collection world.Helpful LinksJonathan on TwitterThe Prime DirectiveBBC CareersGoogle's Project AristotleGrowing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat PryceThe Power In Agile Talk by Sarah Mei[Book] The Phoenix Project by Gene KimSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Jessica Kerr, Symmathecist at Jessitron LLC. They discuss why working on existing projects is more interesting than greenfield ones, the overuse and harm of the term "technical debt", and how software is not a craft. Jessica also gives an introduction to being a Symmathecist.Helpful LinksFollow Jessica on TwitterJessica's websiteJessica's blogSymmathecist, Noun by Jessica Kerr[Book] Team Topologies bookArty's suggestion about "escalating risk":[Book] Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective by Robert UlanowiczThe Myth of the Sufficiently Smart Engineer by Aaron Blohowiak[Book] The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg7 Rules for Positive Productive Change by Esther DerbySystems thinking: Mel Conway on TwitterSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Jon Thornton, Engineer at Squarespace. This discuss examples of good technical debt, implementing a new monolith alongside another monolith (and when to extract to a microservice), metrics to track within your engineering team, and more.Helpful LinksThree Kinds of Good Technical DebtCareers at Squarespace[Book] Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. RosenbergJon on TwitterJon on GithubJon's websiteJon on LinkedInSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Ben Orenstein, CEO and Co-founder of Tuple, a remote pair programming app. They discuss why saying, "someday we'll go clean that up" doesn't work in reality, the downsides to putting maintenance work into a backlog, and implicit vs. explicit knowledge. Ben also gives an intro to Tuple.Ben on TwitterTupleTuple on Twitter[Book] The Great CEO WithinSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Ernesto Tagwerker, Founder and CTO at FastRuby.io and Ombu Labs. They discuss the challenges of Ruby on Rails upgrade projects, running a software consultancy, hiring and mentoring junior developers, and more.Ernesto on TwitterFastRuby blogOmbu LabsErnesto's siteEscaping The Tar Pit: Introducing Skunk v0.3.2 at RubyConf 2019[Book] The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Marit van Dijk, Software Engineer at bol.com. They discuss effective communication with stakeholders about technical debt, Marit's scenic route to becoming a software developer, and automated testing strategies when dealing with several services. They also cover lessons in mob programming and touch on README file best practices.Helpful LinksMarit on TwitterCareers at bol.comTest Automation UniversityUse Testing to Develop Better Software FasterMarit on MediumTesting on Production – deep backend editionThe Wall of Technical DebtSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Mike Perham, Founder and CEO at Contribsys and author of Sidekiq and Faktory. They discuss the pros and cons of using external dependencies, how Mike built a business off of his open source project, Sidekiq, and the dIfference in maintaining Ruby vs Go software projects.Helpful LinksMike on GithubMike on Twittermikeperham.comContribsysSidekiq[Book] Rising by Elizabeth Rush[Book] The Watch, Thoroughly Revised by Gene Stone and Stephen PulvirentSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Ev Haus, Head of Technology at ZenHub. They discuss how to get to zero technical debt, metrics an engineering team can measure, good pull-request etiquette, and more.Helpful LinksEv on TwitterEv on LinkedinEv's writing on MediumSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Adam Tornhill, founder of Empear and CodeScene. They discuss the benefits of having clear boundaries between teams, strategies for prioritizing where to start tackling technical debt, and how to improve the onboarding experience for developers new to a software codebase. Adam also shares a rare example of a successful rewrite project.Helpful LinksFollow Adam on TwitterAdam's WebsiteEmpearCodeScene[Book] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceYour Code as a Crime Scene[Book] Software Design X-RaysAdam's TedX Talk on Code, Crime, ComplexitySubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with M. Scott Ford, CTO and Chief Code Whisperer at Corgibytes and co-host of the Legacy Code Rocks podcast. They discuss the difference between Makers and Menders, how to prioritize a technical debt backlog, and how to provide feedback to other developers.Helpful LinksM. Scott Ford on TwitterCorgibytesLegacy Code Rocks[Book] Lehman’s Laws of Software Evolution and the Staged-Model[Book] Radical CandorSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Robby speaks with Gitte Klitgaard, Agile Coach and Owner of Native Wired. They discuss how to create space for psychological safety, the importance of sharing mistakes and fuck-ups of the week, and understanding, coping and taking advantage of your Imposter Syndrome.Helpful LinksNative WiredGitte on TwitterGitte on LinkedIn[Book] I Thought It Was Just Me by Brene BrownBrene Brown's Ted Talk on vulnerabilitySubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.