This blog post is about: why Operation Kalashnikov was doomed to succeed, what does it mean to have an emotional bond to a mission, why Front-End Engineers have smashed what was so hard for Quality Assurance specialists, what kind of effects we've expected and how I've cynically machiavelised the project outcome ...Previous post in the series can be found here.Where did the last post leave us? We were just about to start Operation Kalashnikov - our final experiment aimed to prove that we either are able to tackle the challenges of E2E automation or we should go for entirely…
This blog post is all about: what can be (effectively) visualized, when visualizing works (brings benefits), what does it mean that visualization is "effective", why visualization makes a difference, why visualization is not just about sketching something that comes to your mind.One of the defining moments in each professional Software Engineer's career is when (s)he realizes her/his limitations - that (s)he can do only about as much but not more. That it's not possible to up-scale her/himself anymore & out-scaling is the only option (if one is really determined to achieve MORE).That is the…
This blog post is all about: the common part of "Shallow DDD" & "Aesthetic Clean Code", what really is Business Logic (& why you may be wrong about it ...), what part of BL is really within your "algorithmic" (imperative) code and where you should really apply your focus to if you want to improve Business Logic.Disclaimer: we're using code to create all sorts of applications, following radically different paradigms - it's not possible to find a common denominator for all kinds of apps. This blog post focuses on a typical, web, interactive, user-facing OLTP-sort-of applications (because of how popular…
This blog post is about: what's wrong with Scrum-ish retrospectives, what's the better alternative, why questioning yourself is nothing about self-doubt or slowing down the decision-making, is it necessary to abandon "retros" and why awareness leads to clarity (and what does it really mean).Scrum was a great idea, invented by brilliant people, with great intentions in mind. No doubt about that. A shame it didn't work out ... One of its brightest spots was emphasizing the role of retrospecting over what went well & what could use some improvement - it has even got a dedicated ceremony: some even tend…
This blog post is all about: ruling time out of the equation (because it's very deceptive), what happens when Purpose meets Social Contract, what does Autonomy really mean (and why freedom is a minor part of it), whether 50h is better than 40h (or you simply need to go beyond 60h ...), why over-time has nothing in common with seniority and how do all these things correspond to Engineering Culture.Part I of the series can be found here.Where were we? Just about to get into the details of what constitutes a work environment of high achieving where teams truly…
This blog post is all about: a special kind of contract that is almost never written down, comparing rat-race with inspired evangelism or a quest for workplace happiness, what does happen when "social contract" is broken (& why does it happen), why respecting "social contract" (and first - having it at all!) makes such a difference.I've started few series of blog posts - one related to compensation, another to the level of commitment required to achieve the success, but ... I've recently found out that I can't conclude any of those without introducing one important concept (that rarely gets named…
This blog post is all about: what Jack Ma has in common with Elon Musk, whether we always condemn people who sacrifice personal balance to pull over-time (in fact we ... don't), is "up-or-out" culture unfair, how does Cristiano Ronaldo differ from a creator of next-generation Internet start-up ...Some topics seem to be very sensitive in our (Software Engineering) community: female engineers & diversity, crazed job market & salary bubble, hype-train proneness, ... The issue of crunch does belong to this category undoubtedly. Widely condemned, actively opposed by Agile approach to building software (good!), still omni-present in gamedev, but apparently reduced by…
This blog post is all about: the definition of what Model Debt is (& what isn't), how is it created (& why), how to avoid growing Model Debt, whether Model Debt does have anything in common with Technical Debt (& can one use technology to fix it).Disclaimer #1: I was considering writing this post for some time already (as another step in my "Fiber-Driven Development" observations), but the final "trigger" to finally give it a go was attending "Technical debt isn't technical" by Einar W. Høst (at DDD Europe 2019) - I think the author has made a tremendous…