Podcast: Weekly Dev Tips – Software Quality Defense in Depth
I had the opportunity to record a podcast appearance with Steve Smith back in January where I discuss the concept of defense in depth as ... Read More
How to Start Your New Job Strong
Starting a new job can be exciting, intimidating, and frustrating. The first few weeks can set the tone for how you are perceived in the ... Read More
Video: .NET Unit Testing Libraries
I've uploaded a technical talk on unit testing .NET code and some strategies and libraries that can be helpful when working with .NET and .NET ... Read More
Learning Guide for Remote Work
This week with more and more people trending to remote work as a preference and now, with COVID-19, out of necessity / responsibility, I partnered ... Read More
Changing Careers
Career changes are huge, but you don't have to go into them blind. In this article I'll discuss some strategies I've used recently to evaluate ... Read More
Upcoming Talk: Technical Debt Must Die @ Stir Trek
I am pleased to announce that I have been accepted as a speaker at Stir Trek 2020. This will be an expanded and revised version ... Read More
The Myth of the T-Shaped Developer
In this article I'll explore the pros of cons of generalizing, specializing, being a so-called T-shaped developer, as well as introducing the term "comb-shaped" which ... Read More
Laptop Performance Matters
Let's cut to the chase: the performance of developer machines matters a lot more than many people think it does ... Read More
Test Angular Components in Storybook
Have you ever wanted a quick way of inspecting the appearance and behavior of Angular components in your project? Storybook is a free library that ... Read More
Game Design with Event Modeling
Watch a first time event modeler apply event modeling to game design as he tries to design an interactive fiction game ... Read More
Personas in Writing
Some software engineering organizations rely on something called "User Personas" to help the organization keep users in perspective. It's a decent concept, but I think ... Read More
Conway’s Law and Cross-Functional Teams
In this article, I'll explore and explain Conway's Law and the effects it has on software engineering departments and the systems they manage ... Read More
How to Weaponize Impostor Syndrome
Let's cut straight to it: Impostor Syndrome has its uses. In fact, I would argue that impostor syndrome can be one of the greatest triggers ... Read More
Practicing (And Nailing) My First Conference Talk
Here are the preparation steps I used to successfully deliver my first conference talk in the hopes that you might gain some insight from my ... Read More
My Top 5 Ways to Improve Software Quality from 2019
A .NET and TypeScript development manager's top 5 practices for improving software quality from 2019, in no particular order ... Read More
Technical Debt as Risk
Development leadership must partner with the business and manage technical debt as risk in order for it to be fully understood and respected ... Read More
Defining Technical Debt
In this article we'll define technical debt, its impacts, and causes and highlight some metaphors that are helpful when discussing technical debt ... Read More
Partnering with Quality Assurance
In this article, we'll discuss some sources of conflicts between developers and quality assurance and the advantages of a true partnership between the two - ... Read More
Monitoring Quality with Error Tracking
In this article we'll look at the importance of error tracking solutions, their role in software quality, and how to use them effectively ... Read More
Avoiding Quality Minefields
One of the hallmarks that distinguishes a senior developer from a junior developer is the art of planning. I'm not talking resource allocation or scheduling ... Read More
Software Quality Defense in Depth
In this article we'll discuss what Roman military tactics and modern security practices have to do with protecting users from software defects ... Read More
The Myth of Code Coverage
In this article I'll discuss what Code Coverage is and its usefulness and limitations. I'll advocate for a risk-aware approach to software quality and give ... Read More
Cyclomatic Complexity is the Mind Killer
Cyclomatic complexity and its cousin Cognitive Complexity are subjects every developer and tester should understand because bad code lets bugs multiply ... Read More
Functional Debt: The Price of “Yes”
Functional Debt is the direct result of previous business decisions that causes a degraded ability to address current or future business goals ... Read More
The Worst Bug I Ever Caused
Causing a production bug is a right of passage for new developers. Let me tell you about the worst bug I've ever caused - and ... Read More
Strategies for Paying Off Technical Debt
Technical debt: We all have it and every developer worth their salt wants to pay it down, but how do we actually manage this process? ... Read More
Communicating Tech Debt
Many developers feel that product management and executive leadership don’t “get it” when we talk about technical debt. At the same time, if you ask ... Read More
Insights from 1 Month of Technical Writing Every Day
5 weeks ago I set out to write at least an article on software development every day. What follows are the ups, downs, and lessons ... Read More
Learning to Succeed Through 96 Failures
I have no idea how many different hobbyist software projects I’ve started and abandoned over the course of my life. Let’s just take an average ... Read More
Debugging Slide Decks
Ever have a presentation get off on the wrong foot or an intended point completely miss the mark? I sure have. Let’s backtrack a few ... Read More
How your brain wants to wreck your code
We suck at testing our own code. We suck so badly at it that it has led to entire professions like as Quality Assurance analysts ... Read More
Public Speaking for Introverts
I’m not an extrovert. I don’t like crowds. I’d rather be the trusted adviser than the guy in the spotlight. In high school, speech class ... Read More
How not to suck as a new developer
How can you possibly perform well in this type of environment — either right out of college, boot camp, or even potentially self-taught? The good news is ... Read More
Impostor Syndrome and Outliers
What does a classic business book have to say about developers and impostor syndrome? My wife and I listened to the first half of Malcolm ... Read More
The 7 Basic Tools of Software Quality
Together, these tools help you analyze software quality and come up with effective visuals for communicating them to others in ways that can be easily ... Read More
Refactoring C# Unit Tests
Unit tests are often treated like second class citizens and not given the same level of polish and refactoring as our production code. As a ... Read More
From Dev to Manager
Want it or dread it, sometimes as developers we move from individual contributor to a team lead or management type of role. This is a ... Read More
Code Review and Your Team
Let’s say you’re on a small software development team — either within a department or in a smaller organization. You may or may not be doing code ... Read More
Victimless Canary Testing with Scientist
Scientist offers a way to improve existing code without introducing users to new bugs. Learn how Scientist offers a safer alternative to canary testing ... Read More
