
Software Engineering Unlocked
In this show, I open you the doors to companies and thought leaders around the world. With my guests, I discuss software engineering best practices and pitfalls, and how they strive to build software people love.
Latest episodes

May 10, 2024 • 15min
Relationships Ruin Your Code Reviews
Key Insights:Importance of Code Reviews: Code reviews are essential for error detection, understanding new features, adhering to coding standards, and ensuring only reviewed code is deployed.Emotional Impact: Emotional dynamics play a significant role, with 30% of developers reviewing code from less favored colleagues, which can lead to biased judgments and negative feelings.Striving for Objectivity: Despite personal feelings, approximately 76% of developers strive for objectivity to maintain professionalism.Impact of Developer Experience: The experience level of a developer also influences the depth of code reviews and the manner in which feedback is provided.Perceptions Formed: Reviewers' perceptions of code quality can affect their views on the author's skills or character.Strategies to Mitigate Bias: The episode outlines multiple strategies to reduce bias in code reviews, such as involving multiple reviewers, standardizing review criteria, and implementing anonymous reviews.Additional Resources: Read the full paper called "How social interactions can affect Modern Code Review"Visit awesomecodereviews.com to discover Dr. McKayla’s latest article on the top 10 code review techniques and methodologies, including systematic approaches like using checklists and change-impact analysis.Conclusion: The podcast sheds light on both the positive and negative impacts of human factors in code reviews and emphasizes the need for strategies to minimize bias, enhancing both code quality and team dynamics.

Jun 23, 2023 • 45min
Measuring and improving developer experience
Make code reviews your superpower at awesomecodereviews.com!Episode Resources:Paper on improving developer experienceAbi's thoughts on the DX paperAbi Noda's LinkedInAbi's podcast for Engineering Enablement leadersAbout Abi NodaAbi Noda is the CEO and founder of DX, a company that helps measure and improve developer experience.

Mar 22, 2023 • 49min
From DevOps to Platform Engineering
Earn additional income by sharing your opinion on userinterviews.com!Episode Resources:What is platform engineering?What is an internal developer platform?What is Dynamic Configuration Management?Salesman tricks for the Platform EngineerPlatform Engineering communityPlatformCon 2023Luca’s LinkedIn and TwitterAbout Luca GalanteLuca is leading product at Humanitec, saw hundreds of DevOps and platform setups, and shares his learnings in his weekly newsletter PlatformWeekly (with 10k subscribers). He is also the core contributor to the Platform Engineering community, with 10k+ meetup members, and 8k+ Slack members.Make code reviews your superpower at awesomecodereviews.com!Other episodes you'll enjoyCan Engineering metrics be ethical?Measure developer productivity using the SPACE frameworkHigh-performing engineering teams through DX

4 snips
Mar 8, 2023 • 45min
From English teacher to dev in 9 month: A self-taught developer journey
Former English teacher and journalist, Nadia Zhuk, shares her journey of transitioning to a self-taught software engineer. They discuss the challenges of learning programming, engineering practices at Intercom, metrics for evaluating performance, living in London, and advice for starting a coding career.

Feb 22, 2023 • 39min
Do code reviews frustrate developers?
Earn additional income by sharing your opinion on userinterviews.com!Episode Resources:Alexander's TwitterAlexander's ResearchAwesome Code ReviewsPapers:An exploratory study on confusion in code reviewsEmotions and Perceived Productivity of Software Developers at the WorkplaceRecognizing developers' emotions while programmingGendered Experiences of Software Engineers During the COVID-19 CrisisDeveloper experience research paper About Alexander SerebrenikAlexander is a Full Professor of Social Software Engineering at the Software Engineering and Technology cluster of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Alexander’s research goal is to facilitate evolution of software by taking into account social aspects of software development.

Feb 8, 2023 • 39min
Fighting software vulnerabilities with software bill of materials
Earn additional income by sharing your opinion on userinterviews.com!Episode Resources:Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s CybersecurityAlpha-Omega ProjectsCybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa)Tools to create SBOM About Barak BrudoBarak Brudo helps organizations secure their software supply chain. He works as a Developer Relations Advocate at Scribe Security.Other episodes you'll enjoyWhat developers should know about securityThe Secret To High-Quality CodeVulnerability disclosure with Katie Moussouris

Jan 18, 2023 • 45min
A soul-crushing job search
Earn additional income by sharing your opinion on userinterviews.com!Episode Resources:Heather's TwitterHeather's job search blog postHeather's BlogAbout Heather ReidHeather Reid is a Test Engineer at Glofox. Before that she was the community boss for Ministry of Testing, making sure that the testing community had everything to be successful. Before that, she was a software tester at Exploristics and at Moola.Episode Chapters:00:00 Introduction02:00 What does a test community boss do?06:28 Can we forget our skills?08:00 Attending workshops09:00 4-hour interview experience10:00 Hurtful rejections pile up12:10 Can't ask questions in an interview14:00 A good interview experience19:00 A technical test23:00 Different backgrounds and perspectives26:10 Arguing during an interview30:50 Improving the state of testing 33:50 Adding accessibility 40:00 Career advice for job seekers

Jan 4, 2023 • 58min
Entrepreneurship, Career Growth and Testing: Top 5 Episodes of 2022
This episode samples:Alvaro Trigo, who once was a web developer but could quit his day job to work on his open source software Fullpage.js.Daniel Vassallo tells us why he left his cushy job at Amazon to start many small businesses.Dagna Bieda explains how you can fast-track your engineering career and what mindset has to do with professional growth.Mauricio Aniche explains how to write tests that find bugs and what domain-driven testing is.Nuchals Dular shares why the engineering manager position he worked hard toward to wasn’t meant for him.YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/XKKFCmvK7_M

Dec 20, 2022 • 53min
Coding practices at MAANG companies versus startups
Make code reviews your superpower at awesomecodereviews.com!About Michael LynchMichael is a software engineer and entrepreneur. He has launched several businesses after leaving Google in 2018. His hardware/software business, called TinyPilot, lets you control any computer remotely and has brought him the most success so far.Episode Resources:Michael's TwitterHow to Do Code Reviews Like a HumanTiny Pilot

4 snips
Dec 7, 2022 • 54min
Can Engineering metrics be ethical?
Book your awesomecodereviews.com workshop!Episode Resources:MultitudesLauren's TwitterDeveloper experience research paperDORA metricsSPACE developer productivity frameworkAbout Lauren PeateLauren is the CEO and founder of Multitudes. Her goal is to empower engineering teams to be high-performing through a people-first way to software performance metrics. Lauren’s worked with tech teams around the world, from Silicon Valley to the Middle East and now New Zealand.
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