Better ROI from Software Development

This episode, I want to take a look at Checklists - when to use and when not to. Much of this episode is inspired by the Sight Reliability Engineering practices that come out of Google. Why you might be interested in this episode The value of a checklist Situations where it is appropriate And situations where it isn't CORRECTION : During the episode I refer to "The Manifest Checklist" - this shoul...

Failure in our software systems is inevitable - be it a failing hard drive, broken network cable, power outage, virus, or simply a bug in the code. "Hope is not a strategy" - thus we need to think about how we handle that failure. Why you might be interesting in this episode: The differences between how failures impact our traditional monolith applications and the more modern distributed applicati...

In this episode, I take a look at "Error Budgets" Much of this episode is inspired by the Sight Reliability Engineering practices that come out of Google Why you might be interested in this episode: You want to understand what "Error Budgets" means? You're struggling to prioritise effectively between feature development, defects, risk and debt You want to see how "Error Budgets" can help you with...

In this episode, I take a look at how to measure the availability of our systems. Much of this episode is inspired by the Sight Reliability Engineering practices that come out of Google Why you might be interested in this episode How Google uses Service Level Indicators, Objectives and Agreements Why 100% uptime might not be the correct target And why "uptime" might not be the best indicator in th...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those are Site Reliability Engineering practices that came out Google's efforts to handle massive scale. Why you might be interesting in this episode: What is Site Reliability Engi...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those is Culture. Why you might be interesting in this episode: The impact on Covid-19 on home working How culture affects the abilities for teams to weather change (such as the Co...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those is Security. Why you might be interesting in this episode: The importance the report puts on Security The advice on how to get it right ----- Find this episodes show notes at...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those is the DevOps Technical Practices of: Loosely coupled architecture Trunk-based development Continuous testing Continuous integration Use of open source technologies Monitorin...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those is quality internal Documentation. Why you might be interesting in this episode: The correlation of what the survey found to great software development Advice to improve that...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. The research provides evidence-based guidance to help focus on the capabilities that drive performance. One of those is Cloud computing. Why you might be interesting in this episode: The correlation found between Cloud computing and great software development The measures they uses The insi...

The State of DevOps report provides excellent insight through rigorous analysis of its wide reaching survey. I introduced the State of DevOps report back in episode 13 and in this episode I take a look at the 2021 edition. Listen to this episode if you are looking for the justification "why" you invest in the effort and disruption that DevOps requires.  Or listen to this episode to understand...

Long term listeners will have heard me use the term "Shift Left" - but what does that mean? In this episode, I take a deeper dive into the "Shift Left" principal, why modern software development advocates it, and common places to find it happening. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/119 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what is coming up: https:...

Many of my episode talk about an experimental mindset - have a hypnosis, try something, act on the feedback. The timeliness and quality of the feedback has real impact on our outcomes.  And I illustrate this in this episode through the act of providing our customer the perfect bath. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/118 Have an idea for an episode topic,...

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)? Even with over 30 years experience, it was a new term to me when I same across it in the Tech Pro Unicorn episode (#114).  Thus I wanted to investigate and share my understanding - and indeed, unexpected personal history. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/117 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what...

What is Low Code?  What is No Code?  How can they help us? I touched on this subject during the Tech Pro Unicorn episode (#114), but had a lot more notes than could be covered - thus in this episode, I take a deeper dive. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/116 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what is coming up: https://red-folder.com/...

Should you build or buy your software? I touched on this subject during the Tech Pro Unicorn episode (#114), but had a lot more notes than could be covered - thus in this episode, I take a deeper dive. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/115 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what is coming up: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/roadmap

Back in October I had the pleasure of appearing on the Tech Pro Unicorn podcast - the first time that I appears as a guest. The host, Michael Grace, and I covered a number of topics - such as build vs buy, low-code/ no-code and generally tried to put the world to rights'. And with Michael's kind permission, I am re-playing the interview in in full. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://r...

The OWASP Top 10 is the most critical security concerns for web application security as defined by the Open Web Application Security Project® In the last two episode, I introduce OWASP, their Top 10, why it matters and who it affects - as well as introducing the first seven on the list. In this episode, I talk about eight to ten of the list. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-fold...

The OWASP Top 10 is the most critical security concerns for web application security as defined by the Open Web Application Security Project® In the last episode, I introduce OWASP, their Top 10, why it matters and who it affects - as well as introducing the first three on the list. In this episode, I talk about four to seven of the list. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder....

The OWASP Top 10 is the most critical security concerns for web application security as defined by the Open Web Application Security Project® In this episode, I introduce OWASP, their Top 10, why it matters and who it affects - as well as introducing the first three on the list. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/111 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want t...

Continuing my mini-series on security, I discuss Supply Chain Attacks. No conversation on cyber-security in 2021 would be complete without talking about Supply Chain Attacks.  They are on the increase, with many high profile examples - such as SolarWinds. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/110 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what is comin...

Continuing my mini-series on security, I discuss why you would paid to be hacked. When you are spending so much time and money putting security in place, it seem counter-intuitive to then pay someone to try and break it.  But without that, how will you know if your defenses work? I also introduce three ways of validating those defenses - penetration testing, bug bounties and red team/ blue te...

Continuing my mini-series on security, I introduce Social Engineering. Social Engineering is a direct attempt to manipulate us into doing something that we otherwise would not.  Its not a new technique, but the modern connected world gives social engineers more tools to work with. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/108 Have an idea for an episode topic, or...

Continuing my mini-series on security, I introduce Zero Trust. The traditional approach of security at the border is not longer enough in the modern IT world.  Unlike the good citizens of Troy, you should "never trust, always verify" - you should have Zero Trust. ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/107 Have an idea for an episode topic, or want to see what...

Continuing my mini-series on security, I want to follow on from last week's episode, taking a look beyond passwords. We are rapidly moving to additional forms of proving our identity - be it something we KNOW, something we HAVE or something we ARE - and, possible more importantly, using multiple when doing so (MFA/ 2FA). ----- Find this episodes show notes at: https://red-folder.com/podcasts/106 H...