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Marianne Bellotti - Building Empathy by Asking, "How Would You Write This in 2007?"

Marianne Bellotti - Building Empathy by Asking, "How Would You Write This in 2007?"

Maintainable 16 January 2023

Episode Description

Robby has a chat with Marianne Bellotti (she/her/hers), the Engineering Manager at Rebellion Defense. Marianne is the author of the books, “Hiring Engineers” and “Kill it with Fire”. She talks about the maintainability of software being about whether software can be changed and how easily changes can be made to it. She dives into her experience with legacy modernization and talks about how to effectively judge software.

Marianne also shares her insights on the challenges teams face when people don't understand how older code works, the value of developing a plan around tests to naturally build confidence within an organization, why it's important to have a safe space to break things (e.g., staging/QA environments), how onboarding metrics can be difficult to compare when dealing with regulatory systems, and building empathy toward previous engineers on a project. Tune in for that and a whole lot more in this value-packed 61-minute episode.

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Podcast Panel at RailsConf 2022

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Paula Paul - Getting People To Understand Is a Challenge

Paula Paul - Getting People To Understand Is a Challenge

Robby has a chat with Paula Paul, a distinguished engineer with Greyshore Associates, where she helps organizations adopt cloud-native technology and serves the community as an ABI Syster, diversity speaker, and mentor. Paula entered the workforce in the early ‘80s as a software engineer with IBM , where she shipped her first product on magnetic tape. She’s had roles in product development, engineering management, consulting, and she’s led several modernization efforts along the way. Paula will highlight readability and unit testing as the two most important characteristics of maintainable software, and dive into what legacy code really is, how technical debt has changed over the years, and how the industry underestimates the emotional and mental cost of context-switching. From her many years in the game, Paula will also talk about her long experience of software modernization and share her expertise on why engineers should pay enough attention to cleaning their code as they go, how organizations have to grapple with different challenges due to ineffective technical decision making processes, finding the right balance of automated testing, and so much more. For those of you who are trying to figure out what direction to head in where your engineering careers are concerned, Paula will share her wisdom in what it’s like to work in the consulting space versus a product-oriented organization. It’s going to be one very resourceful episode so don’t miss out. Book Recommendations: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau Helpful Links The Greyshore Website Paula on LinkedIn Paula on Medium Paula on Twitter Crucial Conversations The Practice of Adaptive Leadership Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

25 April 2022


Ben Halpern - Adventures In Open Sourcing Your Existing Application

Ben Halpern - Adventures In Open Sourcing Your Existing Application

Robby has a chat with Ben Halpern, the creator of Dev.to and a Co-Founder of Forem, a platform that Dev.to is based on. Ben shares from his experience, that well-maintained software needs to have a clear purpose and context that’s available as one is reading it and within the documentation as needed while also being flexible for future evolution. When it comes to dealing with the common challenge of naming variables and functions when we write, Ben says a glossary is fundamentally important. He then introduces us to Dev.to, shares the story of how they opted to open source the underlying platform, and what they needed to be ready to share it with the public. He also talks about how that open source software evolved out of Dev.to and became a core aspect of their financial success. Ben advises engineers to avoid overcorrecting each time they start up a new software project.  And for those of us who may be considering open-sourcing our software, Ben will enlighten us on the things we should consider beforehand (In particular, security). Tune in to our conversation for that and more! Book Recommendations: Creative Quest by Questlove Helpful Links Ben’s Twitter Ben on GitHub Ben on Dev.to Forem Website Forem on GitHub Dev.to Community Also…follow Robby on Dev.to! Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

18 April 2022


Avdi Grimm - Don't Be Too Clingy To Your Tests

Avdi Grimm - Don't Be Too Clingy To Your Tests

Robby has a candid conversation with Avdi Grimm, a software developer, consultant, coach, speaker, and author of the books, “Confident Ruby” and “Exceptional Ruby” He is also the creator and head gardener of Graceful.Dev. Avdi’s opinion on well-maintained software is that it’s more about teams than code and the fact that more attention need to be paid on documentation. He emphasizes the value of useful commit messages and conveying the why over the how. He also shares examples of executable documentation.  Robby and Avdi dive into what technical debt looks like for different teams and how it can either be taken as a serious course of action or just as a term for areas of friction in a codebase. Avdi shares his experience in organizing technical debt-type tasks and highlights the importance of teams being able to articulate and quantify friction. As organizations continue to adopt the DevOps mindset, there is lingering debate as to whether it is more of a philosophy or a role.  Avdi believes that DevOps is less a role and a philosophy, an approach to lifecycle management and how teams are organized around that outlook. Stay tuned to sample more of what Avdi had to share in this resourceful 44-minute episode. Book Recommendations: The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World Resources Mentioned: The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford  Team Topologies - by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'  by Sidney Dekker Confident Ruby By Avdi Grimm Exceptional Ruby By Avdi Grimm  Helpful Links Avdi’s LinkedIn Avdi’s Twitter Avdi on GitHub Avdi on YouTube Graceful.Dev Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

11 April 2022


Aran Khanna - De-risk Your Cloud Resources

Aran Khanna - De-risk Your Cloud Resources

Robby has a chat with Aran Khanna, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Archera, a company that helps organizations find cloud solutions that fit their companies. Aran starts off by sharing that great functional decomposition, brevity, and simple but high coverage tests are, from his experience, the three common characteristics of well-maintained software. He then shares his wisdom on the importance of brevity in code and documentation, when and where copy/paste is appropriate, and how to get a better handle on your costs of cloud resources to better predict future utilization and pricing. He also shares what problems Archera.ai solves for its customers and how Archera captures, estimates, and prioritizes its own technical debt. Stay tuned for more on that and to get Aran’s advice on how to propose investing time into paying down technical debt. As an added bonus, you can go to https://archera.ai/?modalId=request-demo-podcast to get a free demo of Archera’s services. Book Recommendations: Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity by Frank Slootman  The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks Helpful Links Aran’s LinkedIn Aran’s Twitter Aran’s Website Archera Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

4 April 2022


Jerod Santo - Having to Maintain Your Own Cleverness

Jerod Santo - Having to Maintain Your Own Cleverness

Robby has a chat with Jerod Santo, the Managing Editor and Partner of Changelog Media. Jerod helps lead and co-host Changelog’s flagship podcast, The Changelog, and builds all the cool stuff that makes Changelog awesome. Jerod shares his journey from being a typical networking engineer (Infosec) to the experienced programmer that he is today and his programming wisdom from the trenches. Tune in as he highlights the undeniable importance of automated test suites and code readability, describes the arc of an engineer’s career, and talks about the past experiences that make him lean more towards clarity over cleverness when coding. He also shares some of the things engineers should consider in regard to pulling in third-party code or writing from scratch, and so much more. Enjoy! Helpful Links Jerod’s LinkedIn Jerod’s Twitter Changelog Media Changelog Podcasts Robby's appearance on Changelog Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

28 March 2022


Idit Levine - Production is the Real Test

Idit Levine - Production is the Real Test

Robby speaks with the Founder and CEO of Solo.io, Idit Levine about scenarios where rewrites are appropriate so that you can pivot your technology startup, why cleaning up technical debt early-and-often is vital, and fostering collaboration within your open source community. Additionally, Idit introduces us to tools such as Istio for managing your Service Mesh. Helpful Links Idit's Twitter Idit's LinkedIn Solo.io and on twitter Idit's Github Idit's Book Recommendation: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

21 March 2022


Emily Giurleo - Maintaining Open Source vs Proprietary Software

Emily Giurleo - Maintaining Open Source vs Proprietary Software

Robby speaks with Emily Giurleo, Senior Software Developer and co-founder/organizaer of WNB.rb. In this episode, Emily shares the importance of software communicating its purpose, the differences between maintaining open source versus propritary software projects, and community building. Additionally, they discuss Emily's experience of being a paid maintainer of MongoDB's Ruby client library, the importance of useful CHANGELOGs, debugging tips for Rubygems, when to and/or not to use mocks. Helpful Links Emily's Twitter Emily's LinkedIn Emily's Website Emily's Github WNB.rb @wnb_rb, contact organizers Emily's talk at RubyConf 2021: To mock, or not to mock? Sandi Metz: Making is Easy, Mending is a Challenge Mongo Ruby Driver Emily's Book Recommendation: Radical Candor by Kim Scott Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

7 February 2022


Jean Yang - Not All Software is Meant to be Maintained

Jean Yang - Not All Software is Meant to be Maintained

Robby speaks with Jean Yang, Founder and CEO of Akita Software. In this episode, Jean discusses why software needs to be more honest with itself, recruitment tactics at small startups, and why we should be careful before doing what the big organizations are doing, what developer influences advocate versus what real developers do day-to-day. Helpful Links Jean's Twitter Jean's LinkedIn Akita Software Akita on Twitter Book Recommendation: Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

13 December 2021


Shaundai Person: Work on Having a Short-term Memory

Shaundai Person: Work on Having a Short-term Memory

Robby speaks with Shaundai Person, Senior Software Engineer at Netflix and creator of TypeScript for JavaScript devs. In this episode, Shaundai shares her experience of moving from a career in sales to software engineering, traits of maintainable software, and how to make an impact when you join a new team. Helpful Links Shaundai's Twitter Shaundai's LinkedIn Shaundai's Polywork TypeScript for JavaScript Developers, that Shaundai is building. Talk: Simple Made Easy by Rich Hickey Book Recommendation: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized world by David Epstein Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

29 November 2021


Chris Birchall: Re-Engineering Legacy Software

Chris Birchall: Re-Engineering Legacy Software

Robby speaks with Chris Birchall, author of Re-Engineering Legacy Software and Lead Software Developer at 47 Degrees. They cover how to identify both dead and zombie code in your software, approaches to consciously taking on technical debt, and when rewrites might be appropriate. Helpful Links 47 Degrees Re-Engineering Legacy Software Follow Chris on Twitter Book Recommendation: Sherlock Holmes Series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

22 November 2021


Swizec Teller: What is a Senior (Engineer) Mindset?

Swizec Teller: What is a Senior (Engineer) Mindset?

Robby speaks with Swizec Teller, Senior Software Engineer at Tia and author of Serverless for Frontend Engineers. In this conversation, Swizec shares his thoughts on how startups need to learn how to leverage technical debt effectively, an introduction to his book, and the traits of a Senior Engineer Mindset. Helpful Links Swizec on Twitter Swizec on LinkedIn Serverless for Frontend Engineers The Senior Mindset Series Tia Blog post: How to rewrite your app while growing to a $100,000,000 series B Swizec's book recommendations: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Subscribe to Maintainable on: Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

8 November 2021


Heidi Waterhouse: Documentation: The Best Diff is a Red Diff

Heidi Waterhouse: Documentation: The Best Diff is a Red Diff

Robby speaks with Heidi Waterhouse, Transformation Advocate at LaunchDarkly and contributor to Docs for Developers. In this episode, Heidi shares the benefits of relying on documentation templates, getting over the paralysis of a blank page, why teams should consider hiring technical writers, speaking at conference, as well as her formula for outlining a tech talk idea. Helpful Links Heidi's Website Heidi's Twitter Heidi's LinkedIn Order the new book, Docs for Developer, that Heidi is a co-author of Blog post: When you stare into the blank page, it stares back at you Video: Lillian Gilbreth: First Lady of Engineering Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 November 2021


DHH: Celebrating Legacy Software as a Victory and the Story of How Humans Can't Estimate

DHH: Celebrating Legacy Software as a Victory and the Story of How Humans Can't Estimate

Robby speaks with David Heinemeier Hansson (aka DHH), Creator of Ruby on Rails and CTO of Basecamp / HEY. Disclaimer: Robby sat down with DHH in early March 2021 about ~5-6 weeks before Basecamp's policy changes were announced and the significant impact that had within our community. It's quite likely that some of Basecamp's internal software engineering processes have since changed. Topics covered Why we should celebrate legacy software as a victory..that means it was successful Why Basecamp has opted to release new versions of their Saas vs iterating on a single version How Basecamp handles pure maintenance work and accounts for security backports A high-level intro into ShapeUp and how Basecamp/HEY's team manages bugs and follow-up work during their two-week cooldowns Why Basecamp has a Security Infrastructure Performance (SIP) team that deals with tipping points, security patches, and reactive work Basecamp's Research & Fidelity team that focuses on building and extracting frameworks Why hasn't Ruby on Rails undergone a major rewrite? What types of testing does DHH find to provide the most value for effort in their Ruby on Rails applications? DHH's thoughts on Test-Driven Development (TDD) How budgeting is more valuable than estimating What is Ruby on Rails competitive advantage in the current field of technology platforms? Ruby on Rails isn't a talking-point anymore and why that is not a problem Book Recommendation: "The Manual" by Epictetus Helpful Links DHH on Twitter Shape Up Basecamp HEY Blog Ruby on Rails DHH on Github Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

4 October 2021


Matt Wynne: Cucumber and Why Is TDD Such a Challenge?

Matt Wynne: Cucumber and Why Is TDD Such a Challenge?

Robby speaks with Matt Wynne, who is currently a co-lead of Cucumber Open and a BDD Advocate at SmartBear. They cover an introduction to Cucumber and how it fits into a software team's toolbox, the importance of reliable tests and speedy tests for quick feedback loops, and why teams struggle to introduce TDD into existing software applications. Helpful Links Cucumber Smartbear Gherkin Technical Debt vs Technical Waste Follow Matt on Twitter Matt's blog Book Recommendation: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 August 2021


Tom Granot: Finding Your Style When Explaining Things to Technical Audiences

Tom Granot: Finding Your Style When Explaining Things to Technical Audiences

Robby speaks with Tom Granot, Solution Engineer at Lightrun. They discuss producing content for technical (and non-technical) audiences, why consistency in your communication style matters, and the importance of good bug reporting and resolution. Helpful Links: [Book Recommendation] The Hacker's Diet by John Walker Follow Tom on Twitter Tom's website Lightrun Monica CRM Async http client Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

19 July 2021


Andrew Watkins: How To Test What You're Trying to Build

Andrew Watkins: How To Test What You're Trying to Build

Robby speaks with Andrew Watkins, VP of Engineering at Buildops. They dig into what it means to be "easily testable", the downsides to being allured by new technology, and why rewrites are really, really tough. Helpful Links Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn Follow Buildops on LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Heroes Die Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

28 June 2021


Rodney Cobb: Repeatable. Testable. Scalable.

Rodney Cobb: Repeatable. Testable. Scalable.

Robby speaks with Rodney Cobb, Principal DevOps Engineer at Remine Inc. They discuss the three verticals of maintainable systems, the importance of mental health days, why all work needs to be visible and tracked, comparing DevOps to Hip Hop culture, and taking time to ask yourself, "when do I take the time to level up?" Helpful Links Rodney on LinkedIn Book Recommendation: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini PhD Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

21 June 2021


Dr. Michaela Greiler: Getting Awesome at Code Reviews

Dr. Michaela Greiler: Getting Awesome at Code Reviews

Robby speaks with Dr. Michaela Greiler, Founder and Trainer at Awesome Code Review Workshops.  They discuss the importance of taking time to revisit past technical decisions, what is/isn't technical debt, as well as the distinction between protecting the quality of the code and expanding the knowledge of what is changing in a software codebase. Dr. Greiler also talks about some mistakes that engineers make when conducting code reviews. She also shares helpful tips on how to provide meaningful feedback without making it personal and/or blaming. Helpful Links Dr. Greiler's Website Workshops Podcast Dr. Greiler on Twitter SE Unlocked on Twitter Dr. Greiler on LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Essentialism, Greg McKeown  Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

14 June 2021


Mark Kilby: Overcoming Challenges that Remote Technical Teams Experience

Mark Kilby: Overcoming Challenges that Remote Technical Teams Experience

Robby speaks with Mark Kilby, Distributed Agile Guide and Founder at K5 Labs. They discuss the benefits of healthy and reliable automated tests, symptoms of when things are not working, challenges that teams may face in different types of remote working scenarios, and what effective communication looks like amongst team members. Mark also gives advice on things to consider as an Agile coach and how to build your Agile toolbox. Helpful Links Mark's Website Mark on Twitter [Book Recommendation] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey [Book Recommendation] From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver, Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby [Article] Is hybrid-remote going backward or forward?  Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

24 May 2021


Kevin Stewart: Short-term Decisions That Need To Be Revisited

Kevin Stewart: Short-term Decisions That Need To Be Revisited

Robby speaks with Kevin Stewart, VP of Engineering at Harvest. They discuss fighting ideological battles, why time-to-deploy is one of the most valuable metrics to measure and improve, and why teams should be revisiting their technical stack decisions. Kevin also gives advice to developers and shares some approaches to running internship programs. Helpful Links Kevin's Website leaddev.com Kevin on Twitter Kevin on LinkedIn Careers at Harvest [Book Recommendation] The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

19 May 2021


Ken Fogel: What Are You Leaving Behind?

Ken Fogel: What Are You Leaving Behind?

Robby speaks with Ken Fogel, College Instructor, JCP EC member, and Java Champion. They discuss the benefits of unit testing, how Dawson approaches internship placement, and the importance of code documentation. Ken also talks about how software is about more than just getting things to work, and why it's important to focus on the long-term impact of coding decisions. Helpful Links Omnijava.com Ken's Twitter Dzone Article Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

10 May 2021


Murray Steele: Maintainable Code Is Easy to Turn Off and Delete

Murray Steele: Maintainable Code Is Easy to Turn Off and Delete

Robby speaks with Murray Steele, Engineering Manager at CLEO AI. They discuss approaches to tracking down unused code in your system, working as a consultant vs within a product company, and why technical debt is good. Murray also talks about why we need to be cautious when we discuss prototypes and the importance of community  sharing experiences of helping co-organize London Ruby User Group. Helpful Links Murray's Website Murray's Twitter Murray's LinkedIn London Ruby User Group CLEO IA job openings Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

26 April 2021


Dr. Felienne Hermans: Looking Inside The Programmer's Brain

Dr. Felienne Hermans: Looking Inside The Programmer's Brain

Robby speaks with Dr. Felienne Hermans, Author and Associate Professor at Leiden University. They discuss the importance of building mental models, the difference between short-term and working memory, and how to take control of your own onboarding by confirming assumptions and asking effective questions. Dr. Felienne also talks about steps to understand a new-to-you codebase, as well as exercises to improve how you read code. Helpful Links Dr. Felienne's Website Dr. Felienne's Twitter The Programmers Brain [Book Recommendation] What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

19 April 2021


Bertold Kolics: Are You Carrying the Weight of Dead Code?

Bertold Kolics: Are You Carrying the Weight of Dead Code?

Robby speaks with Bertold Kolics, Software Quality Manager at mabl. They discuss the benefits of documenting software behavior, tracking down and removing dead code, and challenges that teams face when relying on 3rd-party APIs and libraries. Bertold also talks about the role of a Software Quality Manager, as well as tips on how to evaluate open-source components. Helpful Links Bert's Website Bert's Twitter Bert's LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] The Economics of Emotion: How to Build a Business Everyone Will Love, Kyle M.K. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

12 April 2021


Kent C. Dodds: AHA Programming and Testing JavaScript

Kent C. Dodds: AHA Programming and Testing JavaScript

Robby speaks with Kent C. Dodds, software engineer and teacher. They discuss the benefits of duplication, Kent's journey to becoming an educator, and what it's like managing a community of engineers. Kent also talks about flipping the test pyramid upside down and focusing on fewer, longer tests. Helpful Links Kent's Podcast Kent's Twitter Kent's LinkedIn https://epicreact.dev/ https://testingjavascript.com/ https://kentcdodds.com https://kentcdodds.com/discord https://kentcdodds.com/podcast https://epicreact.dev/articles https://epicreact.dev/podcast [Blog Post Recommendation] AHA Programming  Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

7 April 2021


Mark Adams: HOWTO Prepare (Your Nails) for Burning Man

Mark Adams: HOWTO Prepare (Your Nails) for Burning Man

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 06 Robby speaks with Mark Adams, who is known by his friends and family as, "Mark." On this episode, he shares his lessons from having attended Burning Man several times, taking care of your infant's nails, and bridging the gap when two people move-in together and need to intermix their nail tools. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Amy Sorensen: Nail Baths vs Nail Soaks

Amy Sorensen: Nail Baths vs Nail Soaks

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 05 Robby speaks with Amy Michelle Sorensen, former NedX speaker and self-described "nails for life" coach. Amy digs into her research findings from a several year study on wine and nails, long-term care, supplements, and navigating remote nail coaching during a global pandemic. Helpful Links Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Logan Luke Tyler Tanner: Overcoming Nail Biting During a Pandemic

Logan Luke Tyler Tanner: Overcoming Nail Biting During a Pandemic

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 04 Robby speaks with Logan Luke Tyler Tanner, acclaimed motivational life coach, author, and speaker. Logan Luke Tyler shares his rationale for why it's important to focus, first, on clean nails and then to focus on the additional layers, overcoming nail biting,  and the future of keyboards. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Erica Tafavoti: Adding Density to Extend Their Life

Erica Tafavoti: Adding Density to Extend Their Life

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 03 Robby speaks with Erica Tafavoti, food blogger, beverage temperature conisseur, and podcast host. Erica shares her perspective on maintenance before sporting, those awkward, tender...moments, mental health during before and during a global pandemic, getting the perfect hand photo, and discuss her new podcast. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn Podcast: Unwell with Erica Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Duncan Thorpe: Disrupting the Mammalian Industrial Nail Complex

Duncan Thorpe: Disrupting the Mammalian Industrial Nail Complex

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 02 Duncan doesn't think Robert is asking a good question, but it isn't the right question. In this discussion, they dig into the tyranny of the mammalian genetic legacy, the future of maintainability, investing in new ventures, pandemic vaccines, and being an ethical consumer on Earth and in space. We steer clear of any current legal disputes that Duncan is involved in. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Shannon Jackson: Oh, Wait, Nope...Those Aren't My Gutter Nails

Shannon Jackson: Oh, Wait, Nope...Those Aren't My Gutter Nails

Maintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 01 Robby speaks with Shannon Jackson about existing in the life you have vs the one you want, long-term maintenance, the benefits of stickers, remote consultations, frito dust, and gutter nails that don't belong to you. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Untamed, Glennon Doyle Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 April 2021


Brian Scanlan: Improving Oncall Support with Meaningful Alarms

Brian Scanlan: Improving Oncall Support with Meaningful Alarms

Robby speaks with Brian Scanlan, Principal Systems Engineer at Intercom. They discuss the benefits of having consistent software patterns across an organization, how run books are a must-have (and why they should be tested), and optimizing for developer productivity. Brian also talks about approaches to reducing deployment time and why it is so vital to be responsive to their customers. Helpful Links Intercom's Engineering Site Brian's Twitter Brian's LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, William Glasser Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

29 March 2021


Alexandre Omeyer: Removing the Barriers to Track Technical Debt

Alexandre Omeyer: Removing the Barriers to Track Technical Debt

Robby speaks with Alexandre Omeyer, Co-founder and CEO of Stepsize. They discuss how high-quality software requires team ownership, some traits of well-maintained software, and the different sizes of technical debt. Alexandre also shares advice on how engineers can step up and take action today. Helpful Links Stepsize's Website Stepsize on Twitter Alexandre on Twitter [Book Recommendation] Drive, Daniel H. Pink Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

22 March 2021


Roopak Venkatakrishnan: The Importance of Optimizing For Local Development and Build Systems

Roopak Venkatakrishnan: The Importance of Optimizing For Local Development and Build Systems

Robby speaks with Roopak Venkatakrishnan, Engineering Manager at Bolt. They discuss why it's important to document the weird things and strategies for keeping your system easy to begin developing in. Roopak also talks about why we end up with silos of knowledge and how to alleviate that problem. Helpful Links Roopak's Website Roopak on Twitter Roopak on LinkedIn Swissknife CircleCI orb Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

15 March 2021


Benjamin Wood: Rescuing Ruby on Rails Projects

Benjamin Wood: Rescuing Ruby on Rails Projects

Robby speaks with Benjamin Wood, CEO and Co-Founder of Hint. They discuss the importance of being able to iterate quickly, and the optimal code-to-test ratios. Benjamin also talks about the pros and Cons of using Monkey Patching, as well as suggestions for where to prioritize tests on a legacy Ruby on Rails application. Helpful Links Hint.io Github.com/hintmedia/railsdock Benjamin on Twitter [Book Recommendation] The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

8 March 2021


Johanna Rothman: No, Great Developers Aren't Destined to Be Great Managers

Johanna Rothman: No, Great Developers Aren't Destined to Be Great Managers

Robby speaks with Johanna Rothman, President at Rothman Consulting Group, Inc. They discuss traits of healthy teams, how to respond to colleagues who vent and/or complain to you, and strategies for growing a team. Johanna also talks about the importance of understanding that moving into management is a career change vs a promotion. Helpful Links Johanna on LinkedIn Johanna on Twitter Johanna's Website [Book Recommendation] 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change, Ester Derby [Book Recommendation] The No Asshole Rule, Robert I. Sutton, PhD Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 March 2021


Helen Scott: Strategies For Measuring Developer Experience (DX)

Helen Scott: Strategies For Measuring Developer Experience (DX)

Robby speaks with Helen Scott, Java Developer Advocate at Jet Brains. They discuss tips on how to measure team satisfaction, what is/isn't technical debt, and the impact of being remote during a pandemic. Helen also talks about her background as a software engineer and being a technical writer. Helpful Links Helen on LinkedIn Helen on Twitter Helen's Website [Book Recommendation] Word Perfect: Curious Coinages and Etymological First Aid For Every Day of the Year, Susie Dent Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

24 February 2021


Robert Kaufman: Running a Consultancy and a Coding School

Robert Kaufman: Running a Consultancy and a Coding School

Robby speaks with Robert Kaufman, Senior Partner at Notch8 and Cofounder of LEARN Academy. They discuss the importance of treating software development as a craft, tips on helping peers troubleshoot via pairing, and how technical debt can be used as an excuse. Robert also talks about keeping a healthy junior to senior ratio (2:1) and how to be a good guest in another team's codebase. Helpful Links Learn Academy Notch8 Blog Robert on Twitter Robert on GitHub [Book Recommendation] Brain Rules, John Medina Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

16 February 2021


Heidi Helfand: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams

Heidi Helfand: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams

Robby speaks with Heidi Helfand, Director of Product & Technology Excellence at Procore Technologies. They discuss how to reduce fear when making changes, understanding the importance of supporting roles for technical teams, and why we should all keep a living document that lists all of our accomplishments. Heidi also talks about different ways to benchmark a team and how to build alliances. Helpful Links Heidi's book Heidi on Twitter Heidi's Website [Book Recommendation] Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Kerry Patterson and Joseph Genny Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

8 February 2021


Jutta Eckstein: How Software Impacts Our Planet

Jutta Eckstein: How Software Impacts Our Planet

Robby speaks with Jutta Eckstein; coach, consultant, trainer, speaker, and author. They discuss the importance of being able to deliver continuously, the difference between technical debt and gold plating, and the challenges of synchronous vs asynchronous communication during a global pandemic. Jutta also talks about why teams need to consider the carbon footprint of their cloud infrastructure and doing what we can to reduce e-waste. Helpful Links Jutta's Website Jutta on LinkedIn Jutta on Twitter [Book Recommendation] Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado Perez Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 February 2021


John Cech: How To Mentor Interns On Software Projects

John Cech: How To Mentor Interns On Software Projects

Robby speaks with John Cech, Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer at Planet Argon. They discuss examples of technical debt, how John catapulted his professional development via mentoring, and the benefits of having consistent coding conventions as a team. John also talks about how he helped a software project increase test coverage while also reducing the speed to run them. Helpful Links More About John [Book Recommendation] 1Q84, Haruki Murakami  Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

25 January 2021


Theresa Neate: Testing != Quality

Theresa Neate: Testing != Quality

Robby speaks with Theresa Neate, Director of Quality Engineering at Slalom Build Australia. She shares an overview of the Quality Engineer role, why quality isn't something you can assure in software, and why we shouldn't hire junior developers and toss them into a testing role. Helpful Links [Book] The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis [Book] 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Expert Follow Theresa on Twitter Theresa's website Connect with Theresa on LinkedIn Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

19 January 2021


Michael Springer: Vetting External Dependencies

Michael Springer: Vetting External Dependencies

Robby speaks with Michael Springer, Software Engineer at JazzHR. They discuss the importance (and challenge) of naming things in your code, how to adopt a package vetting procedure as a team, and strategies to simplify comprehension for new team members. Michael also shares the long-term impact on all dependencies and their dependencies. Helpful Links Michael on Twitter Sprngr.com [Book Recommendation] Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

11 January 2021


Jason Swett: Refactoring Is Necessary to Keep Your Blade Sharp

Jason Swett: Refactoring Is Necessary to Keep Your Blade Sharp

Robby speaks with Jason Swett, Software Engineer at Meadows Eye. They discuss the value of understandability, differences between loose and tight coupling in code, and creating a shared vision as a team. Jason also discusses how teams struggle to retain quality engineers and how to teach testing to Ruby on Rails developers. Helpful Links Jason on Twitter Jason's Website The Rails with Jason Podcast [Book Recommendation] How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

4 January 2021


Sudhir Reddy: Don't Be Afraid to Slash and Burn

Sudhir Reddy: Don't Be Afraid to Slash and Burn

Robby speaks with Sudhir Reddy, VP of Engineering at Chef / Progress. They discuss what Sudhir calls "legacy debt", some challenges of managing open source projects with over 500 Github repositories, and how Chef built cohesive governance and EOL programs for open source contributions. Sudhir also shares advice for developers who are looking for a way to begin introducing automated tests in environments where that's not yet considered a valuable practice by the team. Helpful Links Sudhir on Twitter Chef's Website [Book Recommendation] What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint, Nicholas Webb Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

28 December 2020


Monica Lent: Progress Is More Important Than Perfection

Monica Lent: Progress Is More Important Than Perfection

Robby speaks with Monica Lent, Software Engineer, Founder, Speaker, and Travel + Technical blogger. They discuss the importance of clear boundaries between teams, Monica's participation in the 12 startups in 12 months challenge, and why it is okay to say "I don't (yet) have an opinion on that." Monica also shares advice for developers on coming up with topic ideas for blogging, and introduces us to her free email course. Helpful Links Monica on Twitter Blogging for Devs Monica's Website [Book Recommendation] The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

21 December 2020


Trae Robrock: Understanding Your Risk Tolerance As An Engineer

Trae Robrock: Understanding Your Risk Tolerance As An Engineer

Episode Notes Robby speaks with Trae Robrock, Software Developer Engineer at GoDaddy. They discuss why readability matters (and how Ruby on Rails aligns well with this), the importance of implementing good team processes and communication channels, and the differences between explicit and non-explicit tradeoffs. Trae also share stories of successful and not-so-successful software rewrites.  Helpful Links Trae on Twitter Trae on LinkedIn Trae's Website Green Bits [Book Recommendation] Atomic Habits [Book Recommendation] The 4-Hour Workweek Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

14 December 2020


Mark Erikson: Accidentally Becoming an Open Source Maintainer

Mark Erikson: Accidentally Becoming an Open Source Maintainer

Robby speaks with Mark Erikson, Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman and Redux Maintainer. They discuss common characteristics of well-maintained software code, documentation best practices, and advice for developers on how to begin contributing to open source projects. Helpful Links Mark on Twitter Mark on LinkedIn Mark's Blog Redux Site Divio Site Vue.js Site [Article] 7 Pieces of Information to Include in Technical Blog Posts Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

7 December 2020


Bonnie Brennan: Building Community

Bonnie Brennan: Building Community

Robby speaks with Bonnie Brennan, Angular GDE and Founder of Angular Nation. They discuss the importance of keeping things modular, avoiding large files, and embracing DRY. Bonnie also shares her journey as a single mom and making a career change in her 30s, along with tips on how to ask for help within technical communities. Helpful Links Bonnie on Twitter Bonnie on LinkedIn Angular Nation Hack Your Future [Book Recommendation] A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

30 November 2020


Khaled Souf: Track Down Dead Code and Delete it

Khaled Souf: Track Down Dead Code and Delete it

Robby speaks with Khaled Souf, Software Crafter and Software Coach at Zenika Montreal. They discuss the importance of tracking down dead code and deleting it, the benefits of a reliable automated test suite, and Khaled's journey of becoming a coach. Helpful Links Khaled on Twitter Khaled on LinkedIn Khaled's Website [Book Recommendation] Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

23 November 2020


Adrianna Chang: Using the Strangler Fig Pattern at Shopify

Adrianna Chang: Using the Strangler Fig Pattern at Shopify

Robby speaks with Adrianna Chang, Software Developer at Shopify. They discuss the benefits of using SOLID principles. Adrianna also shares how Shopify has been turning a Ruby on Rails monolith into a module monolith, along with an overview of Shopify's Dev Degree Program and her experience through it. Helpful Links Adrianna on Twitter Adrianna on LinkedIn Article: Refactoring Legacy Code with the Strangler Fig Pattern [Book Recommendation] The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

16 November 2020


Mark Downie: Balancing The Promises That Open Source Projects Make

Mark Downie: Balancing The Promises That Open Source Projects Make

Robby speaks with Mark Downie, Program Manager at Microsoft. They discuss the benefits of frameworks and approaches to making your open source project accessible and welcoming to new contributors and users. Mark also shares how Visual Studio's workflow for navigating customer requirements and getting early feedback, along with an introduction to what a Program Manager role is responsible for on the Visual Studio team. Helpful Links Mark on Twitter Mark's Blog [Book Recommendation] The Customer-Driven Playbook Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

9 November 2020


Glenn Vanderburg: Don't Ask For Small Things

Glenn Vanderburg: Don't Ask For Small Things

Robby speaks with Glenn Vanderburg, Executive Director of Software Development at RE/MAX. They discuss what types of documentation should go in the repository vs external content tools and the importance of acknowledging how helpful older code was to get you to here. Glenn also shares the benefits of hiring developers who had made a career change prior to becoming a developer, along with the challenges for software engineers and organizations during COVID with everyone being distributed. Helpful Links Glenn on Twitter Glenn’s Website [Book Suggestion] Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 November 2020


Suzan Bond: Embracing Discomfort and Navigating Transitions

Suzan Bond: Embracing Discomfort and Navigating Transitions

Robby speaks with Suzan Bond, Leadership Coach. They discuss how to advocate for your growth within your existing teams and the responsibilities of the individual and the organization. Suzan also shares how COVID is resulting in the fear of burnout and indicators that you might be nearing it yourself, along with advice to managers and developers on how to approach their next one-on-ones. Helpful Links Suzan on Twitter Suzan’s Website [Book] Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

26 October 2020


Nicolas Carlo: Changing Messy Software Without Breaking It

Nicolas Carlo: Changing Messy Software Without Breaking It

Robby speaks with Nicolas Carlo, Senior Tech Lead at BusBud. They discuss the tradeoffs when testing out new features and the benefits of using feature toggling/flags to keep code getting merged into main branches. Nicolas also shares how Busbud has quarterly sustainability weeks to work on improving things, along with advice for listeners who might feel like they are at a loss for how to get stakeholder buy-in on dealing with technical debt challenges. Helpful Links Nicolas on Twitter Nicolas's Website Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

19 October 2020


Brittany Martin: How to Quit Your Job and Leave Your Code in Good Hands

Brittany Martin: How to Quit Your Job and Leave Your Code in Good Hands

Robby speaks with Brittany Martin, Engineering Lead at TextUs. They discuss the mistakes that developers make when discussing technical debt with stakeholders and why it is important to write automated tests against a live/production API. Brittany also shares how she became the host of the 5by5 Ruby on Rails podcast, along with her recent journey of changing jobs and passing technical knowledge over to peers and a future replacement. Helpful Links Brittany on Twitter Brittany's website 5by5 Ruby on Rails podcast Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

12 October 2020


Luke Redpath: User Stories Should Prompt Conversations

Luke Redpath: User Stories Should Prompt Conversations

Robby speaks with Luke, experienced software developer and consultant. They discuss the challenges of being an iOS developer and what effective user stories should look like. Luke also shares how he is navigating the world of looking for full-time employment after a decade of freelancing. For interview practice, Robby asks Luke an interview question that Planet Argon asks prospective Ruby on Rails developers — hear his response! Helpful Links Luke on Twitter Luke's Website Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

5 October 2020


Hampton Lintorn Catlin: Only Add Complexity When Necessary

Hampton Lintorn Catlin: Only Add Complexity When Necessary

Robby speaks with Hampton Lintorn Catlin, CEO at Veue. They discuss how to reframe technical updates as investments and lessons learned from collaborating in open source. Hampton also shares how why he avoids the phrase "technical debt", along with his first-hand story of how he helped invent the open-source projects Haml and Sass. Helpful Links Hampton on Twitter Hampton's website Veue Hampton's Wikipedia [Book] Cryptonomicon [Book] Snow Crash Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

28 September 2020


Pat Kua: The Challenges that Come with Becoming a Tech Lead

Pat Kua: The Challenges that Come with Becoming a Tech Lead

Robby speaks with Pat Kua, Advisor, Mentor, and Coach at Patkua.com. They discuss good documentation and the consequences of the hero culture. Pat also shares how he transitioned from an individual contributor to his current role, along with the benefits of finding mentors and seeking advice from people in other fields. Helpful Links Pat on Twitter Pat on LinkedIn Pat's Website Level Up Newsletter Courses [Book] Drive [Book] Thinking in Systems Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

21 September 2020


Aaron Blohowiak: The Myth of the Sufficiently Smart Engineer

Aaron Blohowiak: The Myth of the Sufficiently Smart Engineer

Robby speaks with Aaron Blohowiak, Senior Software Engineer at Netflix. They discuss mistakes teams make when refactoring too much before finding a product-market-fit and how Netflix deals with technical debt. Aaron also shares some early era Ruby on Rails stories, along with reasons why developers might be intimidated to apply at top-tier organizations like Netflix. Helpful Links Aaron on Twitter Aaron on LinkedIn [Book] Radical Candor [Book] Thinking in Systems Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

14 September 2020


Magda Miu: Building a Technical Leadership Career Around Teaching

Magda Miu: Building a Technical Leadership Career Around Teaching

Robby speaks with Magda Miu, Squad Leader Developer at Orange. They discuss the benefits of a healthy pull-request & review process and the unique challenges of mobile device app development. Magda also shares how she transitioned from being a day-to-day code contributor to team leader, as well as her strategies for keeping her technical skills sharp when she is not coding on a regular basis. Helpful Links Magda on Twitter Magda on LinkedIn Magda's Website Magda on dev.to Magda on Medium [Books] Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging Practices of an Agile Developer: Working in the Real World Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

7 September 2020


Gant Laborde: Technical Debt — Trading Risk for an Advantage

Gant Laborde: Technical Debt — Trading Risk for an Advantage

Robby speaks with Gant Laborde, CIO of Infinite Red. They discuss the unique challenges of maintaining React Native apps and the importance of sync points in an asynchronous work environment. Gant also shares an overview of the types of projects that Infinite Red focuses on and his experience being an open-source maintainer. Helpful Links Gant on Twitter Infinite Red on Twitter Gant's Website AI-FYI Website [Book] The War of Art Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

31 August 2020


Karen Lee Rigg: Where Are the Bad Habits Coming From?

Karen Lee Rigg: Where Are the Bad Habits Coming From?

Robby speaks with Karen Lee Rigg, Engineering Lead at Permutive. They discuss being a good guest in another team's code base and dealing with imposter syndrome. Karen also shares how she moved from the consulting world to a startup working on a product, along with her journey from being a code contributor to a team lead. Helpful Links Karen on Twitter Karen on LinkedIn [Book] How to Win Friends & Influence People Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

24 August 2020


Gianluca Arbezzano: Technical Debt Beyond Code & Your First Contributions to Open Source

Gianluca Arbezzano: Technical Debt Beyond Code & Your First Contributions to Open Source

Robby speaks with Gianluca Arbezzano, Sr Staff Software Engineer at Packet. They discuss the value of consistent documentation (and why deciding where to document something is so difficult for developers!), how Gianluca began contributing to open source projects early in his career, and share tips for those who are intimidated about the idea of contributing to open source. Helpful Links Follow Gianluca on Twitter Gianluca's website Connect with Gianluca on LinkedIn [Book] Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One by Emily Heyward Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

13 July 2020


Ali Spittel: Junior Developers and Helping Unlock Their Potential

Ali Spittel: Junior Developers and Helping Unlock Their Potential

Robby speaks with Ali Spittel – podcast host at Ladybug Podcast, writer, and Faculty Lead at General Assembly. They discuss mentoring Junior Developers, how she built a community around her written content and daily coding puzzles, how to build your writing as a developer, and her experience being a digital nomad. Helpful Links Follow Ali on Twitter Follow We Learn Code on Twitter Ali Spittel's website Zen of Programming Ladybug Podcast Follow General Assembly on Twitter What Productivity Looks like to Me Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

6 July 2020


Robby Russell: Turning the Mic Around with Kayla Reopelle

Robby Russell: Turning the Mic Around with Kayla Reopelle

The mic is turned around on Robby for this special episode of Maintainable. Robby is interviewed by guest host Kayla Reopelle, a Ruby on Rails Developer at Planet Argon. They discuss the need for more conversations about improving existing code in the community, learning to manage client expectations as a consultant, and when he learned he was a mender, not a maker. Helpful Links: Robby's Maintainable Rails email course Planet Argon's Rails Upgrade service [Book] Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss Oh My Zsh Follow Robby on Twitter About Robby Russell Connect with Robby on LinkedIn Connect with Kayla on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

29 June 2020


Ryan Cromwell: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

Ryan Cromwell: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

Robby speaks with Ryan Cromwell, Technical Director at Sparkbox. They discuss the importance of simplifying deployments, technical debt in the client-services industry, and the traits to seek when hiring software engineers for client-services based work. Helpful Links Follow Ryan on Twitter Sparkbox [Book] Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps Michael Feathers on Maintainable [Book] Working Effectively with Legacy Code Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

22 June 2020


Camille Fournier: How Does a Developer Become a Manager?

Camille Fournier: How Does a Developer Become a Manager?

Robby speaks with Camille Fournier, Head of Platform Engineering at Two Sigma and author of The Manager's Path. They discuss the importance of avoiding overly clever code, onboarding developers to existing software projects and teams, and how to start approaching mentoring others and be a good mentoree. They also discuss topics from her book, like determining if a path toward management is right for you and navigating career growth in a technical role. Helpful Links Follow Camille on Twitter Camille on Medium The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change Camille's Blog: Elided Branches [Book] What Got Your Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter 97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

15 June 2020


Gonçalo Silva: How A Fully-Remote Team Builds and Maintains Software

Gonçalo Silva: How A Fully-Remote Team Builds and Maintains Software

Robby speaks with Gonçalo Silva, CTO at Doist. They discuss embracing continuous improvements, having a healthy level of skepticism about rewrites. Gonçalo also shares how Doist onboards new engineers to their team, along with the challenges of hiring remote junior developers. Helpful Links Gonçalo on Twitter Laws of software evolution Doist Doist's blog Open positions at Doist Twist App [Book] Atomic Habits [Book] The Art of Learning Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

1 June 2020


Tudor Girba: Moldable Development and Software Environmentalism

Tudor Girba: Moldable Development and Software Environmentalism

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 Links Glamorous Toolkit Follow Girba on Twitter Follow feenk on Twitter Glamorous Toolkit on Github [Book] Man's Search for Meaning Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

25 May 2020


Jeff Haynie: How Can We Make Software Development Better for Dev Teams?

Jeff Haynie: How Can We Make Software Development Better for Dev Teams?

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 Links Follow Jeff on Twitter Follow Jeff on Medium Pinpoint Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn Pinpoint Insights [Book] Hard Thing About Things Building Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

18 May 2020


Vladimir Khorikov: 100% Test Coverage is an Artificial Metric

Vladimir Khorikov: 100% Test Coverage is an Artificial Metric

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 Links Vladimir's books: Use promo code: podmaintainable20 for 20% off! Enterprise Craftsmanship Painless Unit Testing Vladimir's Pluralsight courses [Book] Atomic Habit Things You Should Never Do, Part 1 Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

11 May 2020


Bryan Helmkamp: Don't Let Perfect Be The Enemy of Good

Bryan Helmkamp: Don't Let Perfect Be The Enemy of Good

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 Links Code Climate The Code Climate blog Bryan on Twitter Code Climate on Twitter Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

4 May 2020


Dr. Aino Vonge Corry: Why Do We Have Retrospectives, Again?

Dr. Aino Vonge Corry: Why Do We Have Retrospectives, Again?

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 Links Dr. Aino Vonge Corry on Twitter Metadeveloper [Book] Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker How to Facilitate Distributed Retrospectives Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

27 April 2020


Trisha Gee: Developers Should Invest More Time Into Learning Their Tools

Trisha Gee: Developers Should Invest More Time Into Learning Their Tools

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 Links Follow Trisha on Twitter Trisha's blog IntelliJ IDEA RubyMind [Book] 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know [Book] Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing by Mar Hicks Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

20 April 2020


Sandi Metz: Making is Easy, Mending is a Challenge

Sandi Metz: Making is Easy, Mending is a Challenge

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 Links Follow Sandi on Twitter Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers Refactoring by Martin Fowler CodeDevotional project Practical Object-Oriented Design 99 Bottles sandimetz.com [Book] Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

13 April 2020


Clare Sudbery: Refactoring Should Be Part of Your Daily Work

Clare Sudbery: Refactoring Should Be Part of Your Daily Work

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 Links Follow Clare on Twitter In Simple Terms Clare's upcoming workshops and speaking engagements MadeTech Clare on Medium Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition) by Martin Fowler Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

6 April 2020


Kelly Sutton: Custodians of the Monolith

Kelly Sutton: Custodians of the Monolith

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 Links Follow Kelly on Twitter Kelly's website [Book] Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott Talk on Desirable Tests Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

30 March 2020


Jonathan Abourbih: Creating a Culture Where It's Okay To Take Risks

Jonathan Abourbih: Creating a Culture Where It's Okay To Take Risks

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 Links Jonathan on Twitter The Prime Directive BBC Careers Google's Project Aristotle Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce The Power In Agile Talk by Sarah Mei [Book] The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

23 March 2020


Jessica Kerr: Software Is Not A Craft (or an Art)

Jessica Kerr: Software Is Not A Craft (or an Art)

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 Links Follow Jessica on Twitter Jessica's website Jessica's blog Symmathecist, Noun by Jessica Kerr [Book] Team Topologies book Arty's suggestion about "escalating risk": [Book] Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective by Robert Ulanowicz The Myth of the Sufficiently Smart Engineer by Aaron Blohowiak [Book] The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg 7 Rules for Positive Productive Change by Esther Derby Systems thinking: Mel Conway on Twitter Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

9 March 2020


Jon Thornton: Technical Debt is a Good Thing (Sometimes)

Jon Thornton: Technical Debt is a Good Thing (Sometimes)

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 Links Three Kinds of Good Technical Debt Careers at Squarespace [Book] Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg Jon on Twitter Jon on Github Jon's website Jon on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 March 2020


Ben Orenstein: "Someday We'll Go Clean That Up" Doesn't Work

Ben Orenstein: "Someday We'll Go Clean That Up" Doesn't Work

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 Twitter Tuple Tuple on Twitter [Book] The Great CEO Within Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

24 February 2020


Ernesto Tagwerker: Tracking Technical Debt With Metrics (aka Stink Score)

Ernesto Tagwerker: Tracking Technical Debt With Metrics (aka Stink Score)

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 Twitter FastRuby blog Ombu Labs Ernesto's site Escaping 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 Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

17 February 2020


Marit van Dijk: How Are We Going to Test This?

Marit van Dijk: How Are We Going to Test This?

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 Links Marit on Twitter Careers at bol.com Test Automation University Use Testing to Develop Better Software Faster Marit on Medium Testing on Production – deep backend edition The Wall of Technical Debt Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

10 February 2020


Mike Perham: How Developers Underestimate Long-Term Costs of External Dependencies

Mike Perham: How Developers Underestimate Long-Term Costs of External Dependencies

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 Links Mike on Github Mike on Twitter mikeperham.com Contribsys Sidekiq [Book] Rising by Elizabeth Rush [Book] The Watch, Thoroughly Revised by Gene Stone and Stephen Pulvirent Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

3 February 2020


Ev Haus: Good Code Can Be Easily Deleted

Ev Haus: Good Code Can Be Easily Deleted

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 Links Ev on Twitter Ev on Linkedin Ev's writing on Medium Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

27 January 2020


Adam Tornhill: Prioritizing Technical Debt With Behavioral Code Analysis

Adam Tornhill: Prioritizing Technical Debt With Behavioral Code Analysis

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 Links Follow Adam on Twitter Adam's Website Empear CodeScene [Book] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Your Code as a Crime Scene [Book] Software Design X-Rays Adam's TedX Talk on Code, Crime, Complexity Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

20 January 2020


M. Scott Ford: Menders In Hiding and the Joy of Legacy Code

M. Scott Ford: Menders In Hiding and the Joy of Legacy Code

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 Links M. Scott Ford on Twitter Corgibytes Legacy Code Rocks [Book] Lehman’s Laws of Software Evolution and the Staged-Model [Book] Radical Candor Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

13 January 2020


Gitte Klitgaard: Making Space For Psychological Safety in Software Teams

Gitte Klitgaard: Making Space For Psychological Safety in Software Teams

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 Links Native Wired Gitte on Twitter Gitte on LinkedIn [Book] I Thought It Was Just Me by Brene Brown Brene Brown's Ted Talk on vulnerability Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

6 January 2020


Nathaniel Bibler: Communication Strategies Between Developers and Clients

Nathaniel Bibler: Communication Strategies Between Developers and Clients

Robby speaks with Nathaniel Bibler, CTO at Envy Labs. They discuss how to talk about technical debt as a team, navigating communication challenges with clients, and how to be a good guest in another team's code base. If you work – or want to work – at an agency, you should listen to this episode. Helpful Links Follow Nathaniel on Twitter Insights by Envy Labs Nathaniel on Github Connect on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

23 December 2019


Abby Bangser: Building Trust In Your Deployment Pipeline

Abby Bangser: Building Trust In Your Deployment Pipeline

Robby speaks with Abby Bangser, Senior Test Engineer on the Platform Engineering Team at MOO. They discuss how maintainable code leans on a dependable build and test process, what metrics Moo's platform engineering team measures, and codifying your pipeline – including having pipelines build on a regular basis. Helpful Links Follow Abby on Twitter Careers at Moo Tester by Choice Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

16 December 2019


Viktor Klang: Condensing The Codebase Over Time

Viktor Klang: Condensing The Codebase Over Time

Robby speaks with Viktor Klang, Deputy CTO at Lightbend Inc. They discuss how to avoid constant firefighting, effective use cases of TODO and FIXME comments, and how to create a safe space for developers to make mistakes. Helpful Links Follow Viktor on Twitter Viktor's website Lightbend Cloudstate Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

9 December 2019


Beth Long: Maintainable Code Prioritizes How Humans Interact With It

Beth Long: Maintainable Code Prioritizes How Humans Interact With It

Robby speaks with Beth Long, Software Engineer on the Build & Deploy Tools Engineering team at New Relic. They discuss the origin of the technical debt metaphor, considering when a rewrite is necessary (spoiler alert – it rarely is), and speak about the limitations of agile across modern engineering teams. Helpful Links Beth's website Follow Beth on Twitter Connect with Beth on LinkedIn [Book] Beyond Human Error by David D. Woods [Book] Sources of Power by Gary Klein Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

2 December 2019


Emily Bache: It's Always More Fun to Code with Others

Emily Bache: It's Always More Fun to Code with Others

Robby speaks with Emily Bache, Technical Agile Coach at ProAgile. They talk about her experience coaching teams on how to improve the long-term maintainability of their software – including how to still see your direct impact when coaching instead of coding. They also dig into the social aspect of development, mob programming, and how coding is a social activity. Helpful Links Follow Emily on Twitter [Book] Training From the Back of the Room by Sharon Bowman Coding is Like Cooking Connect with Emily on LinkedIn ProAgile Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

25 November 2019


Zee Spencer: How Can We Reduce Carrying Costs?

Zee Spencer: How Can We Reduce Carrying Costs?

Robby speaks with Zee Spencer, owner of Zinc Cooperative, and programmer at Cohere. They speak about how social systems impact software maintainability, why legacy code is profitable code, and consulting within a timebox constraint. Helpful Links [Book] Mental Models: 30 Thinking Tools that Separate the Average From the Exceptional. Improved Decision-Making, Logical Analysis, and Problem-Solving [Book] Observing the User Experience Zee on Twitter Cohere Cohere on Twitter Zinc Cooperative Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

18 November 2019


Ana Nelson: Writing Maintainable Code Documentation with Automated Tools and Transclusion

Ana Nelson: Writing Maintainable Code Documentation with Automated Tools and Transclusion

Robby speaks with Ana Nelson, a software developer, writer, improv performer, and creator of Dexy — an open-source tool for writing any kind of technical document that incorporates code. Helpful Links Ana's website Dexy Follow Ana on Twitter Ana on Github Connect with Ana on LinkedIn What is Transclusion? The Modern Scholar by Professor Michael D. C. Drout [Book] On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction [Book] The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

4 November 2019


Dave Aronson: Putting the M in ACRUMEN

Dave Aronson: Putting the M in ACRUMEN

Robby speaks with Dave Aronson, Owner, Consultant (and T. Rex) at Codosaurus. Helpful Links Codosaurus Dave on Github Follow Dave on Twitter [Video] The Six Key Aspects of Software Quality [Book] The Pragmatic Programmer Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

28 October 2019


Michael Feathers: Be Curious & Chase The Rabbit Holes

Michael Feathers: Be Curious & Chase The Rabbit Holes

Robby speaks with programmer, speaker, and author Michael Feathers, most notably known as the author of the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code. Helpful Links [Book] Working Effectively with Legacy Code Follow Michael on Twitter R7kr Research & Conveyance R7kr Research & Conveyance on Twitter Socio-Technical Seeing: Modeling The Dynamics Of Code And Attention Michael's blog Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

21 October 2019


Justin Searls: Learn To Understand The Runtime

Justin Searls: Learn To Understand The Runtime

Robby speaks with Justin Searls, Co-Founder at Test Double. Hear Justin's experience digging into technical debt, learn why software is like a sedimentary rock, and more. Helpful Links Follow Justin on Twitter Test Double Ruby gem: Suture Justin's Legacy Code talk at Ruby Kaigi Justin on Github Connect with Justin on LinkedIn [Book] Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community

14 October 2019


Patricia Aas: Intersection of Programming & Security

Patricia Aas: Intersection of Programming & Security

Robby speaks with Patricia Aas, Programming CTO at TurtleSec AS about how programming and security are intertwined. Helpful Links Turtlesec Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn More about Patricia Patricia on Twitter Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

7 October 2019


Nate Berkopec: Why You Should Treat Performance Problems as Bugs

Nate Berkopec: Why You Should Treat Performance Problems as Bugs

Robby speaks with Nate Berkopec, owner of the Speedshop and Rails consultant. Nate speaks about speed in Rails, along with how to prioritize performance in your day-to-day development workflow. Helpful Links: Speedshop Follow Nate on Twitter Patterns of Enterprise Architecture Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

30 September 2019


Victor Rentea: Never Separate The Refactoring From The Deliverable

Victor Rentea: Never Separate The Refactoring From The Deliverable

Robby speaks with Victor Rentea, an independent technical trainer and Lead Architect at IBM based in Romania. Victor talks about teaching other engineers about legacy code, calling yourself an "expert", and what to do when you're rushed to deliver features but are dealing with refactoring challenges. Helpful Links: Victor's website Follow Victor on Twitter Connect with Victor on LinkedIn [Book] The Business of Expertise [Book] Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman [Book] Extreme Programming Explained [Book] Refactoring (2nd Edition) [Book] The Software Craftsman Clean Coders Training Videos Youtube: Best Talks by Victor Rentea Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

23 September 2019


Sandro Mancuso: Technical Debt is Anything Preventing You From Developing Fast

Sandro Mancuso: Technical Debt is Anything Preventing You From Developing Fast

This week's guest on Maintainable is Sandro Mancuso, Software Craftsman & Co-Founder of Codurance. Robby and Sandro cover topics like how to avoid technical debt, what skills make for a successful software consultant, and more. Helpful Links: Follow Sandro on Twitter Sandro's Book The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride Keyboard Katas  A Case for Outside-In Development Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

16 September 2019


Bryan Liles: Create an Issue for Everything

Bryan Liles: Create an Issue for Everything

This week we're excited to have Bryan Liles, Senior Staff Engineer at VMWare, on Maintainable. Robby and Bryan chat about representation in the industry, how to use your job title to your advantage, and more. Helpful Links: Bryan on GitHub Follow Bryan on Twitter Follow VMWare on Twitter Pragmatic Programmers Book Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

9 September 2019


Liz Keogh: The Power of Asking, "Can You Give Me An Example?"

Liz Keogh: The Power of Asking, "Can You Give Me An Example?"

This week's episode features Liz Keogh, Lean & Agile Coach and Trainer. Robby and Liz talk about behavior-driven development (BDD), what it's like to be a coach, and more! Helpful Links: Follow Liz on Twitter Visit Liz's website The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

2 September 2019


Colin Jones: Software Consulting: Being a Good Guest

Colin Jones: Software Consulting: Being a Good Guest

On this week's episode, Robby talks to Colin Jones, CTO at 8th Light. They chat about software consultancy, what it means to be a good guest in someone else's codebase, and more. Helpful Links: Follow Colin on Twitter Follow 8th Light on Twitter Connect with Colin on LinkedIn Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

26 August 2019


Jonathan Cutrell: Healthy Teams Know How to Eradicate Fear

Jonathan Cutrell: Healthy Teams Know How to Eradicate Fear

This week Robby interviews the host of the Developer Tea podcast, Jonathan Cutrell. They discuss what constitutes debt, how to build a strong team, and more! Helpful Links: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Developer Tea Podcast Follow Jonathan on Twitter Jonathan on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

19 August 2019


Karolina Szczur: The Importance of Documentation for Remote Developers

Karolina Szczur: The Importance of Documentation for Remote Developers

This week Robby chats with Karolina Szczur about what people get wrong about technical debt, best practices for documentation for remote developers, and more. Helpful Links: Book: Radical Candor Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

12 August 2019


Liran Haimovitch: The Benefits of Observability

Liran Haimovitch: The Benefits of Observability

This week Robby chats with Liran Haimovitch, co-founder of Rookout. Liran discusses things like how the term "technical debt" is misused, as well as how to overcome it. Helpful Links: Contact Liran Rookout Book: The Phoenix Project Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

5 August 2019


Robert Meaney: Building Software That is Easy to Test

Robert Meaney: Building Software That is Easy to Test

Robby speaks to Robert Meaney, Head of Testing & Test Coach at Poppulo. Robert explains the difference between technical debt and testing debt, the importance of observability, and more! Helpful Links: Follow Robert on Twitter Robert on LinkedIn Testability Book Follow Testability Book on Twitter 3X with Kent Beck Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

29 July 2019


Melissa Eaden: It's Never a One Person Job

Melissa Eaden: It's Never a One Person Job

Robby speaks with Melissa Eaden, Tech Lead in Quality at Unity 3D. She shares her experience working with legacy code as it relates to testing. Helpful Links: Follow Melissa on Twitter Melissa's blog Melissa on LinkedIn A Vigilante for Quality [Book] Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Unity Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

22 July 2019


Steve Poling: The Real Enemy is Murphy

Steve Poling: The Real Enemy is Murphy

Robby speaks with Steve Poling, Senior Technical Consultant at Excelon Development and long-time Software Developer. Steve describes whether he's team rewrite or team refactor, shares his definition of technical debt, and why uniformity of code matters. Helpful Links: Steve Poling on LinkedIn Excelon Development [Book] Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software Reduce Technical Debt by Using Unit Tests as Documentation Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

15 July 2019


Matt Weagle: What Will It Enable Us to Do in the Future?

Matt Weagle: What Will It Enable Us to Do in the Future?

Robby speaks with Matt Weagle, Engineering Manager at Lyft. Matt discusses how his engineering teams have handled technical debt in small iterations vs. a major rewrite, why a whiteboard is the best tool for architectural challenges, and the most common mistakes he sees when engineers approach legacy code bases. Helpful Links: Follow Matt on Twitter Matt on LinkedIn Some Thoughts on Security After 10 Years of Gmail A Taxonomy of Yak Shaving [Book] The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier [Book] Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software by Michael T. Nygard [Book] The Phoenix Project, A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim , Kevin Behr [Book] The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Alan Cooper [Book] Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole Forsgren Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

8 July 2019


Mariah Howard: How To Discuss Technical Debt With Product Managers

Mariah Howard: How To Discuss Technical Debt With Product Managers

Robby speaks with Mariah Howard, Senior Product Manager at Thinkful, to discuss technical debt from a product management perspective. Mariah touches on Google's metrics framework, leading vs. lagging indicators, and technical debt in products outside of the world of code. You'll also learn more about Thinkful's mission and methodology as an online school for engineers. Helpful Links: Thinkful Mariah on LinkedIn Google HEART framework [Book] Design Thinking [Book] The Principles of Product Development Flow Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

1 July 2019


Anne Marie Kirby: Selling the Upside of Improving your Codebase to Management

Anne Marie Kirby: Selling the Upside of Improving your Codebase to Management

Robby speaks with Anne Marie Kirby, CEO & Co-Founder of CoreHealth Global. She shares questions to ask before a software rewrite, evolving 10+ year old code, and proving a business case when pitching software improvements as a developer. Helpful Links: Core Health Follow Anne Marie on Twitter Anne Marie in Forbes Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

24 June 2019


Marco "Ocramius" Pivetta: What Senior Devs Should Spend More Time On (It's Not Writing Code)

Marco "Ocramius" Pivetta: What Senior Devs Should Spend More Time On (It's Not Writing Code)

Robby speaks with Marco "Ocramius" Pivetta, a software consultant specializing in PHP. Marco gives his input on different types of technical debt he's seen, working with less experienced developers as a senior, and getting "kicked in the teeth" as a developer. He also shares what great senior devs should spend more time on (hint: It's not writing code). Helpful Links Follow Marco on Twitter Marco on Github [Book] Effective Java by Joshua Bloch [Book] Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide by Miran Lipovaca Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

17 June 2019


Lisa Crispin: Agile Testing & Technical Debt

Lisa Crispin: Agile Testing & Technical Debt

Robby speaks with Lisa Crispin, co-author of Agile Testing and Testing Advocate at Mabl. Lisa speaks about "thinking skills" for developers, why testing professionals should be integrated into dev teams, testing and development cycles, and how to start building automated tests on a legacy application. Helpful Links Follow Lisa Crispin on Twitter Agile Testing Fellow Agile Testing with Lisa Crispin DevTestOps Community The Nightmare Headline Game by Elisabeth Hendrickson [Book] Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams [Book] More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team [Book] More Fearless Change [Book] A Practical Guide to Testing [Book] Explore It!: Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

10 June 2019


Pim Elshoff: Refactoring How Engineers Communicate With Management

Pim Elshoff: Refactoring How Engineers Communicate With Management

Robby speaks with Pim Elshoff, Software Developer at Procurios. Pim explains why developers should improve their communication skills when speaking with management, recalls his biggest mistake as a developer, and gives tips on explaining your side of an argument and how to listen to empathize. Helpful Links Follow Pim on Twitter Procurios Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software by Eric Evans The Developer's Model for Talking to Managers at WebCamp Zagreb 2018 Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

3 June 2019


Morgan Senkal: Using Epics to Improve Code Quality Within Sprints

Morgan Senkal: Using Epics to Improve Code Quality Within Sprints

Robby speaks with Morgan Senkal, Software Architect at Metal Toad. Morgan recalls a challenging 15-year-old legacy project that was reminiscent of a Stephen King story and explains what to think about when considering a software rewrite. Morgan and Robby keep a running analogy of technical debt and automotive repairs. Helpful links Metal Toad Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages by Bruce Tate Black House by Stephen King Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

27 May 2019


Eileen M. Uchitelle: Upgrading Ruby on Rails At Github And How To Stay Updated

Eileen M. Uchitelle: Upgrading Ruby on Rails At Github And How To Stay Updated

Robby speaks with Eileen M. Uchitelle, Senior Software Engineer at Github and member of the Rails Core Team. You'll hear about Eileen's work upgrading Github from Rails 3.2 to 5.2, how Github prioritized the upgrade, and why teams should get ahead and upgrade to Rails 6. Helpful links Follow Eileen on Twitter Upgrading GitHub from Rails 3.2 to 5.2 Eileen's blog The Success of Open Source by Steven Weber Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

20 May 2019


Charity Majors: Deploys Are Just The Beginning

Charity Majors: Deploys Are Just The Beginning

Robby speaks with Charity Majors, CTO of Honeycomb about her work as an Infrastructure Engineer, how Honeycomb was created, all about working and testing in production, and why software engineers should be "on call" for their code. Helpful links Follow Charity on Twitter Honeycomb The Honeycomb blog Charity's blog Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Database Reliability Engineering Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Loving Maintainable? Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help grow our reach. Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

13 May 2019


Sahil Lavingia: Pushing Forward Through Technical Debt After a Massive Layoff

Sahil Lavingia: Pushing Forward Through Technical Debt After a Massive Layoff

Robby speaks with Sahil Lavingia, Founder and CEO of Gumroad. Sahil has been transparent about the challenges of building a company – speaking on VC investments, layoffs, and more. Sahil talks about why he built Gumroad, adjusting development processes when your staff shrinks, working with VCs, and the future of Gumroad, including the pros and cons of potentially open sourcing the product. Helpful Links Follow Sahil on Twitter Gumroad Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion Dollar Company High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

6 May 2019


Coraline Ada Ehmke: The Role Of Empathy In Engineering Teams

Coraline Ada Ehmke: The Role Of Empathy In Engineering Teams

Robby speaks with Coraline Ada Ehmke, Principal Engineer at Stitch Fix and author of The Compassionate Coder. Coraline speaks about the social side of coding and empathy in open source and legacy projects. Robby and Coraline also walk through some possible scenarios on development teams and how to handle them with empathy. Helpful links: Follow Coraline on Twitter Coraline's website The Compassionate Coder by Coraline Ada Ehmke and Naomi Freeman Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton & André Arko Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

29 April 2019


James Smith: What if We Measured Software with a Stability Score?

James Smith: What if We Measured Software with a Stability Score?

Robby sits down with James Smith, Co-Founder and CEO at Bugsnag, to discuss how to look at technical debt as a business cost, engineering processes in a startup vs. a stable company, and how the Bugsnag engineering team gets things done as a team with offices on two continents. Helpful Links: Bugsnag James Smith on Twitter Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

22 April 2019


Anna Filina: How Every Decision Introduces Technical Debt

Anna Filina: How Every Decision Introduces Technical Debt

Robby speaks with Anna Filina, a software consultant at Zenika Montreal who specializes in legacy code. They discuss why engineers don't have to ask permission to write tests, why convincing people to get on board with your technical plans matters, and what a "software archaeologist" really does. Helpful links: Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers Zenika Montreal Anna Filina on Twitter Anna Filina on Youtube Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Brought to you by the team at Planet Argon.

15 April 2019

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