Software Delivery Club Newsletter 2023-01-27


We're almost at the end of January - deep breath.

Another busy week as I prepare for an upcoming talk all about Rosegarden: A Slumbering Giant at FOSDEM '23 in Brussels in just over a week's time. In the talk I'll be exploring the motivations that a couple of young coders had for starting a project that is somehow going over 20 years later - despite neither of them now being involved in the development of it at all. Should be fun - if you're in the area then it's free to go to FOSDEM - I believe no registration is required either. Come and say hi!

Alongside that I released a new episode of the Lovin' Legacy podcast. I talked to Jacob Lafors about his Verifa's approach to implementing Continuous Delivery, the use of Value Stream Mapping and what it means to build a developer platform. A really nice chat with Jacob and I think we'll need to do it again at some point in the future as we covered a lot!

I've also been working on the Legacy Workshop - I'll be doing a trial run in a couple of weeks and will aim to run it as a webinar after that. Want to stay informed? You can subscribe to the list here:

https://legacycoding.org/workshops/

In preparation for this workshop, I've been writing React and Java all week - it also gives me the excuse to do it really badly as that's kind of the point.

Hope you enjoy the content below, and as always, drop me a line to let me know how you're getting on.

Have a great weekend,

Richard​


Defining the Bounded Context is the Key to Flow

Published on January 27, 2023

One of the core concepts of Domain Driven Design (Eric Evans) is the Bounded Context. Here’s an excellent summary of the Bounded Context in DDD and a specification of how it should relate to source code organisation and team structure. The summary states that: This ties in with the notation of what Team Topologies says… Read More »Defining the Bounded Context is the Key to Flow

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Building Software in a Post-Agile World

Published on January 26, 2023

At the moment, especially in tech, there appears to be so little time to think. Reacting seems to be the order of the day. This means people are getting fired. People are getting scared, and those still in a job are rightly worried. How can we make sense of the tech world and where it’s… Read More »Building Software in a Post-Agile World

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What is Product Engineering?

Published on January 25, 2023

When I was a Head of Engineering for a SaaS. I was notionally (and nominally) working in Software Product Engineering. My take on this was that it meant that we should focus on the product – which meant in turn, focusing on the customer. However, it never really felt like we were looking at products… Read More »What is Product Engineering?

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Learning to Fight Complexity

Published on January 24, 2023

If we acknowledge that we live in a software engineering world where complexity is inevitable, you may ask, what’s the point in trying to change anything about how we work? Additionally, with so many clamouring voices around us trying to make us see sense, how can we go from day to day, making a difference… Read More »Learning to Fight Complexity

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2023: So Where Now?

Published on January 21, 2023

This has been a tough week for many in tech. Mass layoffs announced by Google, Facebook and Microsoft total over 30,000. Many commentators seem to think that Elon Musk’s approach to his takeover has given carte blanche to tech leaders to swing the axe with the year-end review process. Also, there is evidence further down… Read More »2023: So Where Now?

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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.

Read more from The Human Software
Human Software 272 - Impatient, Needy Writers

Writers are terribly impatient. We are so fragile, we crave attention all the time. So, for us, writing into a vacuum and not getting anything back is the worst. We will happily take anything including "wow, it really sucked" or "how could you be so old and so feeble at writing?" At this point in the journey of Human Software, I'm so desperate for feedback, I'm even willing to pay for it! So that's what I did. In January, I hired an editor, and he's been great. He helped me with the...

Human Software 271 - Drawing Inspiration from History

Over the last week, I drew a map of Kent reimagined as if the 1286/7 floods hadn't happened. According to the history books, those large storms and tidal events significantly changed the coastline of eastern England. The former Wantsum Channel became blocked with alluvial mud and sand, turning the once important seaport of Sandwich into a landlocked town too far away from the sea to accept large boats. Further afield Dunwich in Suffolk suffered a similar fate: In the Anglo-Saxon period,...

Human Software 270 - Finding Something to Say

Three years ago, I started a podcast without much idea of its future. Before that, I'd started writing, wandering through automation, programming techniques, infrastructure, DevOps, and thoughts about management, leadership, and how companies are organised. Where was I going? While I'd read a few books, it was clear that I was searching for something. Was I just talking for the sake of it? It sometimes certainly seemed that way. And then, about eighteen months ago, I started writing a novel....