A Friendly Guide to Software Development

Just finished this book by Leticia Portella.

Although I am not a developer, working in the IT industry means that i need to have a basic understanding of the working processes and terminology. While I would say I already know about 70-80% of the information, its presentation provides food for thought in organising my team/work and the simple explanations also provided some "oh so thats what it means" moments.

Crucially, the work of developers isnt just about developing, but there is a whole other ecosystem of work needed in order for the coding to happen. 

The key points i need to note relating to tracking and visibility of work, and making work better. Alot of points arent new, and it is heartening to know that we arent the only ones facing these issues!

1. Documentation is important for maintainability, including decision logs

2. Documentation also helps in versioning, which helps us roll back changes quickly

3. Tests should be written alongside development, similar to how they are tied to requirements

4. Incident management is intensive and stressful, and eats into project work.

5. Errors are unavoidable. Every crisis forces a re-examination of policies and practices

6. External and unpredicted work requires reprioritization, leading to fatigue, lower morale and context switching/ interrupted work

7. Communications is key. Consider making teams small enough using the Two Pizza Rule.

8. Glue work (admin such as setting up meetings, taking notes, onboarding) is also work. It should be visible and shared.

9. Good teams require psychological safety and not star players

10 . Managers should be available for their team, to be interrupted so that engineers can focus on their work. They also need to know how the team feels (likes/dislikes, feeling satisfied, learning wants)

11. Lastly, product managers, project managers, business specialists are all different roles!

Air-Con

Without knowing, it has been more than a year than i last posted. This latest post is to record my appreciation for the brand new air-con (which i paid for).

I cannot remember the last time when i entered the bedroom and felt cool air, so it was really refreshing to feel so yesterday, especially given that the bedroom is where we spend the majority of our time.

I am known for being stingy, but it was a worthwhile, albeit large purchase. Say goodbye to sweaty and sleepless nights, at least for the near future!

Besmirched

The past few weeks have been tough. The recent spate of scams has resulted in additional work, and also re-work to on-going work. There is a major business contingency exercise coming up that all the bosses are concerned about, and we have no manpower for it.

Work is just work, and normally i would not be writing about it. The straw the breaks the camel's back is a recent event where i got twice-stabbed by a colleague. It is fine if my ability is questioned, because after all i dont think i am particularly brilliant at my work. It is another thing to call into question my character and integrity, and what upsets me is that there is no recourse for me, no one to officially fight in my corner, and no one to clear my name, and the accuser gets away with it scot-free, just because i do not have the black-and-white on the issue.

The person in question has also planned it down to a tee, setting up me on more than one occasion in order for the twice-stabbing to happen. There is nothing wrong with his intellect, just that he is using it in the wrong areas.

He may have his family issues and reasons for acting out, but i am simply an innocent party. Where is the karma? Where is the justice?