Legacy Code Rocks

There is some disconnect between business people and engineers when talking about technical debt. While engineers understand the metaphor as a credit card debt that has to be paid off entirely and as soon as possible, business people see it more as a mortgage paid in small installments over a long period.  Today we talk with Dave Mangot, CEO of Mangoteque and the consultant, author, and speaker helping private equity portfolio companies get good at delivering software. As a former architect at SalesForce, Dave is well-placed to tell us how to bridge the gap between the executives and the engineers and tackle technical debt in a technically sound and economical way.  When you finish listening to the episode, visit the Magoteque website, read the Magoteque blog, and connect with Dave on LinkedIn.  Mentioned in this episode: Dave on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmangot/  Mangoteque at https://www.mangoteque.com Mangoteque blog at https://blog.mangoteque.com Dominica DeGrandis, Making Work Visible at https://www.amazon.com/Making-Work-Visible-Exposing-Optimize/dp/1942788150 

How to ensure that your code review practices are not just an expensive bottleneck in your team’s productivity but its ultimate superpower? Today we talk with Michaela Greiler, a Head of Research at DX and the owner of a consultancy and training company, Awesome Code Reviews, focused on helping development teams improve their practices and processes. She tells us when to do code reviews, how to get the most value out of them, how to incentivize meaningful code reviews, and much more.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Michaela on Twitter, visit her website, and check out the available workshops and courses at www.awesomecodereviews.com.  Mentioned in this episode: Michaela on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mgreiler Michaela’s website at https://www.michaelagreiler.com Awesome Code Reviews at https://www.awesomecodereviews.com Characteristics of Useful Code Reviews: An Empirical Study at Microsoft at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/characteristics-of-useful-code-reviews-an-empirical-study-at-microsoft/ 

What does it mean to build a cost-free feature in the software, and are cost-free features even possible? Today we talk with Avdi Grimm. Avdi is a software developer with more than twenty years of experience. During his career, Avdi worked on everything from aerospace embedded systems to enterprise web applications. He is the author of Confident Ruby: 32 Patterns for Joyful Coding and a recipient of the Ruby Hero Award. Currently, he spends his time helping developers deepen their coding practice at Graceful.Dev. He tells us about practices that increase software maintenance costs and how to avoid them.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Avdi on Twitter or LinkedIn, visit his website, and check out his training courses at Graceful.Dev.  Mentioned in this episode: Avdi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/avdi  Avdi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/avdigrimm/  Avdi’s training courses at https://graceful.dev Avdi’s website at https://avdi.codes  Avdi Grimm, Confident Ruby: 32 Patterns for Joyful Coding at https://www.amazon.com/Confident-Ruby-Patterns-Joyful-Coding-ebook/dp/B00ETE0D2S/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Vvn53&content-id=amzn1.sym.22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_p=22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_r=135-0405864-9131715&pd_rd_wg=PIKbJ&pd_rd_r=01acffe0-cfc0-46a5-b78a-9679fb0ebfcb&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk 

Every once in a while, it is wise to stop for a second and think about why we do things in a specific way and whether we need to change something. This is where rethinking processes kick in.  Today we talk with Stefanni Brasil, a co-founder of hexdevs, a senior developer at Thoughtbot, and a core maintainer of faker-ruby. Stefanni is also a co-host of the hexdevs podcast, a show helping developers take their Ruby career to the next level.  She tells us about her keen interest in processes, why they matter, and when the time is ripe to reevaluate them.  When you finish listening to the episode, visit Stefanni's blog, check out the Hexdevs website, and listen to the hexdevs podcast.  Mentioned in this episode: hexdevs website at https://www.hexdevs.com hexdevs podcast at https://podcast.hexdevs.com Thoughtbot at https://thoughtbot.com/blog  Marry Lynn Manns, Linda Rising, Fearless Change, Patterns for Introducing New Ideas at https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Change-Patterns-Introducing-paperback/dp/0134395255

There is an eternal dilemma among software developers - should we try our best to predict the future and build it into our code, or should we just plan for frequent iterations?  Today we talk with Ashu Chatterji, CEO of Caravel Labs and software engineer with 3+ decades of industry experience, working to reimagine IT consulting as an industry incentivized by innovative outcomes in global sustainability and social justice. Ashu built and led a global practice of "player-coach engineers" that helped sell and deliver path-breaking digital transformation engagements and laid the foundation of Agile software development in Microsoft consulting services. He tells us how to build durable software that will withstand the test of time and the ever-changing needs of its users.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Ashu on LinkedIn and visit the Caravel Labs website to learn more.  Mentioned in this episode: Ashu on Linked In at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashutoshchatterji/  Caravel Labs at https://www.caravellabs.com   

To build anew or to rebuild? Many developers have a knee-jerk reaction to start building existing software systems from scratch because they think that is the easiest way forward.  Today, we talk with John Ousterhout. John is the Bosack Lerner Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His current research focuses on new software stack layers to allow data center applications to take advantage of communication and storage technologies with microsecond-scale latencies. He is the author of the book "A Philosophy of Software Design", co-creator of the Raft consensus algorithm, and creator of the Tcl scripting language and the Tk toolkit. He tells us about the software designs of legacy systems, why incremental changes of legacy systems are inevitable, and how to resist the impulse of rewriting large software systems from scratch.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with John on Twitter, read his book, and join his discussion group on software design.  Mentioned in this episode: John on Twitter at https://twitter.com/johnousterhout?lang=en John’s profile at Stanford University at https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/home.php A Philosophy of Software design at https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ousterhout/dp/1732102201 Raft Consensus Algorithm at https://raft.github.io TCL/Tk at https://www.tcl.tk/about/language.html John’s Software Design Discussion Group at software-design-book@googlegroups.com   

Working on legacy code is never easy, but some programming languages make it more enjoyable.  Today, we talk with Richard Feldman, the creator of the Roc programming language, the author of Elm in Action, and the creator of the Frontend Masters courses Introduction to Elm and Introduction to Rust. Richard tells us about the advantages of the Elm, Rock, and Rust languages and why they are more enjoyable to work with than other languages.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Richard on Twitter, check out his book and courses, and take a look at the Roc programming language.  Mentioned in this episode: Richard on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rtfeldman Roc programming language at: https://www.roc-lang.org Elm in Action at https://www.manning.com/books/elm-in-action Richard’s Frontend Masters courses at: https://frontendmasters.com/teachers/richard-feldman/

Product teams are scared of technical debt and refactoring. They press on to make something new, not to question what they have already created. However, the urgency to deliver new products carries the risk of technical debt.  Today, we talk with Andreas Creten, a software engineer turned CTO. Andreas is a co-founder of Made With Love, a company that helps startups and scaleups to get out of technical trouble. Andreas tells us how to work with product teams to address technical debt in the early stages of software development, what tools to use, and what mistakes to avoid.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Andreas on Twitter or LinkedIn and visit madewithlove.com.  Mentioned in this episode: Andreas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andreascreten Andreas on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreascreten Made With Love at https://madewithlove.com

How can cooking help you have a better team? Today, we talk with Kimberly Fox. Kimberly leads virtual and in-person cooking classes and is a recipe developer and writer for her blog, From Market to Table. Building on more than ten years of experience working in STEM and witnessing gender inequalities and micro-cultures in corporate settings, Kimberly developed her signature corporate cooking experiences helping leaders to build more inclusive and diverse teams. When you finish listening to the episode, start following Kimberly on Instagram and check out her blog, From Market to Table.

In this episode, we are talking with Michael Kennedy, Python expert and the founder and host of two podcasts - Talk Python To Me and Python Bytes. He also runs Talk Python Training which provides online courses for Python developers. Michael tells us about the reception of Python version changes and the most challenging aspects of the transition to ARM processors.  When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Michael on LinkedIn and Twitter, subscribe to his podcasts, and check out his training courses.  Mentioned in this episode: Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkennedy  Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkennedy  Talk Python To Me Podcast: https://talkpython.fm/  Python Bytes Podcast: https://pythonbytes.fm/  Talk Python Training: https://training.talkpython.fm/