Maintainable

Robby speaks with Bryan Helmkamp, Founder and CEO at Code Climate. Bryan discusses the use of the term "technical debt" now vs. 15 years ago, what he's learned from having thousands of engineering teams use their tools, and the long-term benefits of choosing to build their main application in Ruby on Rails. You'll also get an overview of Code Climate's main products. Helpful Links Code Climate The...

Robby speaks with Dr. Aino Vonge Corry, founder of Metadeveloper, technical conference editor, and agile retrospective facilitator. They discuss effective vs. ineffective communication with stakeholders, how to prepare for retrospectives, and why it's important to focus on "What should we do better?" when reflecting on work. Helpful Links Dr. Aino Vonge Corry on Twitter Metadeveloper [Book] Why We...

Robby speaks with Trisha Gee, Developer Advocate at JetBrains. They discuss Trisha's role as a Developer Advocate, how open source library maintainers are underappreciated, and how developers can overcome their fear of writing, speaking, and contributing back to the community. Helpful Links Follow Trisha on Twitter Trisha's blog IntelliJ IDEA RubyMind [Book] 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know...

In this episode of the Maintainable Software Podcast, Robby is joined by Sandi Metz, a renowned programmer, author, and speaker known for her expertise in object-oriented programming and maintainable code. Sandi shares her invaluable insights on various aspects of software development, focusing on writing code that stands the test of time. Episode Highlights Maintaining Readable Code : Sandi empha...

Robby speaks with Clare Sudbery, Lead Engineer with Made Tech. They discuss how to document and prioritize technical debt with a visual tool, trunk-based development patterns, and the importance of getting fast feedback. Helpful Links Follow Clare on Twitter In Simple Terms Clare's upcoming workshops and speaking engagements MadeTech Clare on Medium Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Co...

Robby speaks with Kelly Sutton, Software Engineer at Gusto. They discuss how to deal with technical debt from the pre-product/market fit era, the benefits of monoliths and knowing when to begin abstracting to micro-services, and the challenges of keeping Ruby on Rails applications up-to-date. Kelly also gives advice for developers who want to convince stakeholders to invest in refactoring projects...

Robby speaks to Jonathan Abourbih, Engineering Team Lead at the BBC in Voice & AI. They discuss how to conduct blameless post-mortems, what's technical debt vs. bad code, and the challenges of measuring your success as a manager after years of being a developer. Jonathan also shares stories about large Java apps in a pre-Garbage Collection world. Helpful Links Jonathan on Twitter The Prime Directi...

Robby speaks with Jessica Kerr, Symmathecist at Jessitron LLC. They discuss why working on existing projects is more interesting than greenfield ones, the overuse and harm of the term "technical debt", and how software is not a craft. Jessica also gives an introduction to being a Symmathecist. Helpful Links Follow Jessica on Twitter Jessica's website Jessica's blog Symmathecist, Noun by Jessica Ke...

Robby speaks with Jon Thornton, Engineer at Squarespace. This discuss examples of good technical debt, implementing a new monolith alongside another monolith (and when to extract to a microservice), metrics to track within your engineering team, and more. Helpful Links Three Kinds of Good Technical Debt Careers at Squarespace [Book] Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg Jon on Twitter...

Robby speaks with Ben Orenstein, CEO and Co-founder of Tuple, a remote pair programming app. They discuss why saying, "someday we'll go clean that up" doesn't work in reality, the downsides to putting maintenance work into a backlog, and implicit vs. explicit knowledge. Ben also gives an intro to Tuple. Ben on Twitter Tuple Tuple on Twitter [Book] The Great CEO Within Subscribe to Maintainable on:...

In the latest episode of Maintainable, we're joined by Ernesto Tagwerker, Founder and CTO of OmbuLabs. This isn't just another podcast episode; it's a deep dive into the world of technical debt and Ruby on Rails. Ernesto starts by demystifying technical debt – it's more than just a buzzword; it's a real challenge that can turn your project into a Tar Pit. And, believe it or not, there are actual t...

In this episode of Maintainable, Robby sits down with Marit van Dijk, a Software Engineer at bol.com . Marit brings a wealth of experience from her work on complex systems and her involvement in the European testing conference and the Cucumber community. They dive deep into the importance of testing, maintaining legacy code, and the collaborative nature of software development. Episode Highlights...

Robby speaks with Mike Perham, Founder and CEO at Contribsys and author of Sidekiq and Faktory. They discuss the pros and cons of using external dependencies, how Mike built a business off of his open source project, Sidekiq, and the dIfference in maintaining Ruby vs Go software projects. Helpful Links Mike on Github Mike on Twitter mikeperham.com Contribsys Sidekiq [Book] Rising by Elizabeth Rush...

Robby speaks with Ev Haus, Head of Technology at ZenHub. They discuss how to get to zero technical debt, metrics an engineering team can measure, good pull-request etiquette, and more. Helpful Links Ev on Twitter Ev on Linkedin Ev's writing on Medium Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the...

Robby speaks with Adam Tornhill, founder of Empear and CodeScene. They discuss the benefits of having clear boundaries between teams, strategies for prioritizing where to start tackling technical debt, and how to improve the onboarding experience for developers new to a software codebase. Adam also shares a rare example of a successful rewrite project. Helpful Links Follow Adam on Twitter Adam's W...

Robby speaks with M. Scott Ford, CTO and Chief Code Whisperer at Corgibytes and co-host of the Legacy Code Rocks podcast. They discuss the difference between Makers and Menders, how to prioritize a technical debt backlog, and how to provide feedback to other developers. Helpful Links M. Scott Ford on Twitter Corgibytes Legacy Code Rocks [Book] Lehman’s Laws of Software Evolution and the Staged-Mod...

Robby speaks with Gitte Klitgaard, Agile Coach and Owner of Native Wired. They discuss how to create space for psychological safety, the importance of sharing mistakes and fuck-ups of the week, and understanding, coping and taking advantage of your Imposter Syndrome. Helpful Links Native Wired Gitte on Twitter Gitte on LinkedIn [Book] I Thought It Was Just Me by Brene Brown Brene Brown's Ted Talk...

Robby speaks with Nathaniel Bibler, CTO at Envy Labs. They discuss how to talk about technical debt as a team, navigating communication challenges with clients, and how to be a good guest in another team's code base. If you work – or want to work – at an agency, you should listen to this episode. Helpful Links Follow Nathaniel on Twitter Insights by Envy Labs Nathaniel on Github Connect on LinkedI...

Robby speaks with Abby Bangser, Senior Test Engineer on the Platform Engineering Team at MOO. They discuss how maintainable code leans on a dependable build and test process, what metrics Moo's platform engineering team measures, and codifying your pipeline – including having pipelines build on a regular basis. Helpful Links Follow Abby on Twitter Careers at Moo Tester by Choice Deep Work: Rules f...

Robby speaks with Viktor Klang, Deputy CTO at Lightbend Inc. They discuss how to avoid constant firefighting, effective use cases of TODO and FIXME comments, and how to create a safe space for developers to make mistakes. Helpful Links Follow Viktor on Twitter Viktor's website Lightbend Cloudstate Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you s...

Robby speaks with Beth Long, Software Engineer on the Build & Deploy Tools Engineering team at New Relic. They discuss the origin of the technical debt metaphor, considering when a rewrite is necessary (spoiler alert – it rarely is), and speak about the limitations of agile across modern engineering teams. Helpful Links Beth's website Follow Beth on Twitter Connect with Beth on LinkedIn [Book] Bey...

Robby speaks with Emily Bache, Technical Agile Coach at ProAgile. They talk about her experience coaching teams on how to improve the long-term maintainability of their software – including how to still see your direct impact when coaching instead of coding. They also dig into the social aspect of development, mob programming, and how coding is a social activity. Helpful Links Follow Emily on Twit...

Robby speaks with Zee Spencer, owner of Zinc Cooperative, and programmer at Cohere. They speak about how social systems impact software maintainability, why legacy code is profitable code, and consulting within a timebox constraint. Helpful Links [Book] Mental Models: 30 Thinking Tools that Separate the Average From the Exceptional. Improved Decision-Making, Logical Analysis, and Problem-Solving [...

Robby speaks with Ana Nelson, a software developer, writer, improv performer, and creator of Dexy — an open-source tool for writing any kind of technical document that incorporates code. Helpful Links Ana's website Dexy Follow Ana on Twitter Ana on Github Connect with Ana on LinkedIn What is Transclusion? The Modern Scholar by Professor Michael D. C. Drout [Book] On the Origin of Stories: Evolutio...

Robby speaks with Dave Aronson, Owner, Consultant (and T. Rex) at Codosaurus. Helpful Links Codosaurus Dave on Github Follow Dave on Twitter [Video] The Six Key Aspects of Software Quality [Book] The Pragmatic Programmer Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Subscri...