Exploring the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming. Learning to work with the systems, not against them.
Friday 14th April - Back in the Real World
Whether you are a start-up or a long-established business, it’s easy to get distracted by technology hype. I’ve found a good technique is to dream beyond the hype - don’t let the hype define your dreams for you.
Yesterday the JUICE mission was supposed to launch to Jupiter to search for signs of life in the oceans of moons of Jupiter - they will try again this afternoon. I attended a talk by Professor Brian Cox a few weeks ago where he mentioned this mission and painted a picture where by looking back in time to the universe, and looking around us at our nearest neighbours, we make some sense of our own purposes.
We might think that we have some challenges when it comes to deploying software and IT solutions - but this is nothing in comparison to an 8 year, EUR1.6 billion mission.
Are you worried that Kubernetes is too much for your organisation to handle? Have you thought about serverless?
Perhaps you want to use services like AWS Lambda or Azure functions but you're worried about the development experience? Here are a few serverless workflows including SST which is supported by an ex-k8s consultant. Perhaps the mood is changing?
https://arc.codes/docs/en/get-started/quickstart
And here's a nice snippet of a discussion about moving from k8s to serverless from someone who has been there: https://overcast.fm/+X7f58FUHU/23:07
Thanks to Paul Swail for the link!
This week I've been wrapping up a review of some important books in the digital transformation space - check out the latest Lovin' Legacy episode below and the linked article featuring a navigable map of the books below that. Whether you're curious about how to improve software delivery flow or whether you want to understand why software delivery is so complicated and expensive - this is a list of important books which can help you take control of your processes.
Have a great weekend and until next week.
-- Richard
Lovin’ Legacy Podcast: The Business of Legacy – Making Software Change Successful
Published on April 13, 2023
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In this episode I talk about how we make change successful. Because we are bombarded with the need for business change – this means systems change. At the same time, we need to be faster, safer and more secure than ever. How can you learn to make software delivery effortless, and how can you use… Read More »Lovin’ Legacy Podcast: The Business of Legacy – Making Software Change Successful
How Does Ability to Innovate Impact Bottom Line?
Published on April 9, 2023
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…and what to do about it… I wanted to map some classic business efficiency and software delivery books to derive meaning for a given business context. In other words, what book should you read when and why? Coming from a tech/software angle, I’m keen to understand for my business (as well as for my client’s… Read More »How Does Ability to Innovate Impact Bottom Line?
The Human Engineer
Exploring the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming. Learning to work with the systems, not against them.
It's amazing how dependent we are on paperwork even in 2026. I spent a few hours this week printing forms, signing them, scanning them, uploading them. Automation has brought us so far ... and yet. I tried to use Claude to help me design some shelves above the washing machine and honestly it was easier just to use my own head. AI is sometimes an exhausting tool to use. One of those forms was for a new job — starting in a couple of weeks. More on that soon. The bigger news: Human Software has...
Conference season hit Amsterdam last month with the global juggernaut that is Kubecon but I eschewed the noise of that particular enormous techie event and went instead to the writer-friendly event "Stories Unfold" at Amsterdam's OBA theatre. This was a very pleasant evening giving a selection of self-published and traditionally published authors a stage to share the stories behind their books and also highlighted a new compilation of short stories. The audience was very much made up of...
Twenty years ago I was living in Taunton in the South-West of the UK and travelling by car to work in Bournemouth to work for a big, famous American investment bank as a technical consultant. I'd been hired to be part of a helpdesk which was on-call to supply first line support to portfolio managers who were booking trades for their clients. But me being a techie, I was there to bring technical expertise and solutions to a team that was struggling. I aced the assignment. Providing a technical...