If you’ve got a bit of development experience it’s easy to criticise the technology efforts of others. If you’ve got more than a bit of development experience then it’s harder. … Continue reading You can criticise if you’ve been there
Category: Software design
A small lesson in Scala
For fun, I’ve been working through the recent Coursera course on functional programming with Scala, run by Martin Odersky, Scala’s creator. It’s been a good ride, but towards the end … Continue reading A small lesson in Scala
Your architecture impacts your business strategy
On and off over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about Elaine Wherry’s painful story of hiring developers. But the thing that triggers the whole tale is worth drawing … Continue reading Your architecture impacts your business strategy
Technical debt is healthy
Technical debt is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, having it at all is a healthy sign. Some may think otherwise, as suggested by this tweet from Benjamin Mitchell, … Continue reading Technical debt is healthy
Avoiding functional tests
This is third in an accidental series on testing, and today I’m going to walk through a thought exercise in improving test times. This follows directly from last week’s post … Continue reading Avoiding functional tests
Faster builds make better software
The other day I watched Daniel Worthington-Bodart’s presentation on 10 second build times, and was most inspired by the idea that software which runs through the build process quicker is … Continue reading Faster builds make better software
Why does over-engineering happen?
I don’t normally find myself in conversations about over-engineering, but the subject came up twice last week, and that gave me a chance to think about the issue. Senior execs … Continue reading Why does over-engineering happen?
Appropriate complexity for better living
I was recently involved in a great example of software complexity, technical debt, and refactoring, and I want to pass on the experience. As part of a project some new … Continue reading Appropriate complexity for better living
Migrating systems (such as Delicious)
A few words on rewriting and migrating systems, based on experience. This is because the painful rejuvination of Delicious under Avos is very much at the front of my mind … Continue reading Migrating systems (such as Delicious)
Technology decisions are social decisions
A couple of things happened recently bringing home something that I’ve found increasingly important: technology decisions are social. Social decisions in software architecture The other day in conversation about team … Continue reading Technology decisions are social decisions
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