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.
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 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.
January is over. The longest month! I managed to get a break in Chamonix, nominally to do some skiing, but for the most part it was marvelling at the beauty of it all. The world around us. So, I'm in the alps taking a break from the uncertainty of the present and facing my own mortality on the gentlest slopes near Mont Blanc. It's wonderful being up there with friends, I feel very lucky, and I also don't feel any real need to push myself like I would have done in the older days. I went out...
A few weeks before Christmas I asked ChatGPT a series of questions along the lines of "ok, so what next?" I was out of ideas. I was tired. My freelance contract was coming to an end so I was already looking for a new one. Launching Human Software had been exhilarating but exhausting. I'd burned the candle at both ends on social media plus done some podcasts (a few of which are yet to see the light of day) and also put myself in front of bookshops and chased reviews and talked talked talked...
REBRAND ALERT!! So it's been a while since I renamed this newsletter but I feel it's due a slight sidestep following the launch of my book. So welcome to episode 286 overall, but episode #1 of The Human Engineer. Despite me constantly rename this newsletter, over these years the subject has never really varied too much. I talk about software systems and how they relate to human systems. I find my work increasingly focusses on the human side of the this divide - because it is a divide right?...