Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
The Human DevOps - 19th May 2024 - Leading from Behind
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Software development is mentally and emotionally challenging work. Studies reveal that around 50% of developer time is spent on maintenance or wasted in workplace inefficiency. How can we, as individuals, enjoy our work and stay productive and healthy while positively influencing efficiency, quality and customer value? This question has bothered me throughout my career, and I'm finally on a path to finding some practical answers. As I delve into this topic, I'm struck by the profound influence of the average software development team's composition, dynamics, and motivations on our collective cognitive load. It's not just about inefficient organizational setups; it's also about the very nature of many of our ‘best practice’ tools and techniques that can limit our potential. I'm inspired by a few texts and a few people here, not least:
All of these books explore how we lead through inversion of control, using influence and importantly, reducing lofty goals into manageable steps. Leading as a manager sets up a lot of expectations. Leading from Behind is an effective and sustainable way of making sense of complex domains such as software engineering. Have a great Sunday. -- Richard The Passive-Aggressive Pull RequestPublished on May 18, 2024 Have you ever had an extreme reaction to someone leaving a comment on a Pull Request (PR)? Why was that? Was it something about your mood that day? Was it that you feel attacked and don’t like it? Is it the frustration with the speed of the PR process? Something else? PRs are divisive. They… Read More »The Passive-Aggressive Pull Request
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The Human Software
Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
Three years ago, I started a podcast without much idea of its future. Before that, I'd started writing, wandering through automation, programming techniques, infrastructure, DevOps, and thoughts about management, leadership, and how companies are organised. Where was I going? While I'd read a few books, it was clear that I was searching for something. Was I just talking for the sake of it? It sometimes certainly seemed that way. And then, about eighteen months ago, I started writing a novel....
Happy Sunday and Happy International Women's Day for yesterday. All socially or culturally significant milestones are accompanied by an excruciating number of tone-deaf, tokenistic LinkedIn engagement attempts and yesterday was certainly no exception. LinkedIn is a strange place indeed but it's my primary social engagement platform. Because I take what I think is fair to say an organisationally cynical but deeply humanistic view of life in tech, I find it fascinating to see the (lack of)...
We can all finally breathe a sigh of relief that January is behind us and February moves on apace. Our northern hemisphere days get longer, and before you know it, let's hope we'll be stretching out in the sunshine and enjoying the fruits of our winter's work. I'm making the most of the dark months by keeping my head down and writing. Amsterdam with Moon and Venus, January 2025 Human Software is now in development edit. What does that mean? As a self-published author, I'm working with an...