Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
Software Delivery Club Newsletter 2022-12-23
It's time for a little down-time and for a little year-end review. I'll be spending a few days with my family and friends and I hope you can all get to do the same. I've been looking back at my year and have summarised things below in a little list:
* 182 blog posts published
* 23 podcast episodes and December has been my best-ever month with over 100 listens!
* Lots of books read and inspiration gathered - I have a partial reading list https://richardwbown.com/resources/ and this will be updated early in the new year
* One talk given at the CTO Craft conference - a lot more planned for next year including my first online training and workshops
I hope that 2022 has been good to you and that we'll be able to talk a lot more about software delivery, architecture and legacy in 2023. Until then - I wish you a very peaceful and restful end of 2022.
Richard
The Social Legacy of Code
Published on December 23, 2022
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When does legacy code first appear? How does working at the limits of our abilities (or when we are constrained) affect the quality and supportability of the code we write? I was struck by these thoughts while browsing the subreddit for the Advent of Code. There was one thread called “AOC 2022 is destroying my …
Advent of Code 2022: Into The Valley of Self-Doubt
Published on December 21, 2022
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Personally, one of the most fascinating things I find about the Advent of Code is when you hit your particular “wall”. When you think you can’t possibly go any further and you get frustrated and start to doubt yourself… if you’re participating, did that happen to you yet? So, the puzzles start off reasonably straightforward. …
Do You Still Need ITIL and ITSM?
Published on December 18, 2022
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Information Technology Information Library (ITIL) and its subset Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) are best practices that have grown to become essential foundations of corporate IT. In banks, insurers, energy companies, infrastructure companies and even retailers, IT change control processes are implemented in ITIL and ITSM. Often however these best practices are elements of overlapping …
The Human Software
Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
Greg Wilson of Software Carpentry fame knows how to write a headline. His recent talk Cocaine and Conway's Law is a mine of brilliant ideas and books to add to your reading list. They talk invested me immediately through his excoriation of Mark Andreessen's "Techno Optimist Manifesto" as a part of the Peter Thiel/Elon Musk narrative - work harder and longer, fix all problems via tech. Conway's Law, for those who are unfamiliar is the implicit link between social organisation of a company and...
The Horizon Post Office Scandal is one of the biggest IT failures in recent times, directly responsible for thirteen of the wrongly accused taking their own lives after prosecutions were brought against them. There is a highly technical deep dive into the findings made by Computer Weekly in this incredible Corecursive podcast episode. It is worth a detailed listen if you want to understand how this could come about and what systemic failings caused it to be covered up for so long. Software...
Working in software you get to see some pretty stupid stuff. And I mean crazy, stupid stuff. Decisions that float down from on high from multiple disparate spheres of influence - sales teams, other business units or just vice-presidents with a Great New Idea[tm] or a pet project. The narrative goes a little like this - the important people get to make choices and us techies have to live with consequences them. Sometimes these decisions are on a whim, an industry hype, a desperate attempt to...