The Rules of Software Development

Naomi Freeman on Empathy in Software

In this episode I'm talking to Naomi Freeman [https://www.naomifreeman.com/], two time nominated Woman of Influence for Royal Bank of Canada's Women Entrepreneur award. Naomi has been an engineer, team lead, CTO and founder. Naomi is also an instructor for Treehouse [https://teamtreehouse.com/]and LinkedIn Learning [https://www.linkedin.com/learning] and she actively takes a mentoring role in Rails Girls and Coder Dojo. Naomi is passionate about using Software to better the world and is currently co-authoring a book on Software and Empathy with a working title of The Compassionate Coder [https://compassionatecoder.com/]. In this episode we talk about Naomi's journey from a Philosophy and Creative Writing degree to software development, diversity in the software workplace, Naomi's work with RailsGirls [http://railsgirls.com/]and CoderDojo [https://coderdojo.com/]and of course, empathy in software development. Naomi gives us an excellent book recommendation, besides her own, of The Black Box Society [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Box-Society-Algorithms-Information/dp/0674970845/ref=sr_1_1] by Frank Pasquale. I think you'll enjoy this one! Links: * Naomi's website - https://www.naomifreeman.com/ [https://www.naomifreeman.com/] * Compassionate Coder - https://compassionatecoder.com/ [https://compassionatecoder.com/] * Treehouse - https://teamtreehouse.com/ [https://teamtreehouse.com/] * LinkedIn Learning - https://www.linkedin.com/learning [https://www.linkedin.com/learning] * RailsGirls - http://railsgirls.com/ [http://railsgirls.com/] * CoderDojo - https://coderdojo.com/ [https://coderdojo.com/] * The Black Box Society - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Box-Society-Algorithms-Information/dp/0674970845/ref=sr_1_1 [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Box-Society-Algorithms-Information/dp/0674970845/ref=sr_1_1] Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/rulesofsoftwaredev]

Will McGreal wants Honesty

Hey Everyone, in this episode I'm talking to Will McGreal [https://www.linkedin.com/in/willmcgreal/], a technical recruitment team lead with Morgan McKinley [https://www.morganmckinley.ie/], who specialises in the recruitment of senior technical appointments. Will and I talk about the differing aspects of the relationship that recruiters have with Software Engineers, from the person who is a candidate for a role, to the engineer who is the interviewer. This brings up some interesting scope on how professionalism is understood from a recruiters point of view, and how the software engineer takes two different perspectives for a recruiter. We talk about honesty on both sides of the table, whether being too flexible is a drawback, putting candidates at ease, how not to arrive for an interview, and how the importance of the technical interview is waning. Will also gives us our most laid back book recommendation yet in Tyson Fury: Behind The Mask [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behind-Mask-Autobiography-Tyson-Fury/dp/1529124867/ref=sr_1_1]. A book that really opens up our thoughts about mental health.  As always, I hope you enjoy the show and if so, do please subscribe.  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/rulesofsoftwaredev]

Support your SRE with Suhaib Naseem

In this episode I'm chatting to Suhaib Naseem [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suhaib-naseem-7a796814/], a Site Reliability Engineer for Bloomberg PolarLake [https://www.linkedin.com/company/bloomberg-polarlake/about/] here in Dublin. Suhaib comes from a background in Object Oriented Programming and as such has a good prespective on the relationship and collaboration needed between software developers and SRE's. In this episode we chat about what exactly is an SRE. How does their job depend on the software developer? The joys of monolith releases, why testing is so important, why you should be involved in outage retrospectives and how should the SRE work coincide with the product development work. And Suhaib gives us a nice book recommendation for anyone wondering about the SRE world. Real-World SRE by Nat Welsh [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-World-SRE-Survival-Responding-Maximizing/dp/1788628888/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_3] I hope you enjoy the show and if so, do please subscribe.  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/rulesofsoftwaredev]

Forget the Comments with Raul Portales

Happy New Year. In this episode I'm chatting to Raul Portales [https://www.linkedin.com/in/raulportales/], a Senior Android Engineer in Workday [https://www.workday.com/en-gb/homepage.html], here in Dublin. Raul and I talk about commit messaging how to make it usable. We talk about the use of comments and why you should be trying not to use them!! We discuss working with the product team and how ultimately they are nice people who would look for honesty from engineers. And we talk about the value of saying No!! We also have a discussion around whether software developers should be writing QA Automation code or not. Raul also kindly gives us two books recommendations, one which is as old as him! The Mythical Man Month [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/ref=sr_1_1] by Frederick Brooks and Reality is Broken [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change/dp/0099540282/ref=sr_1_1] by Jane McGonigal.  I hope you enjoy the show and if so, do please subscribe.  Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/rulesofsoftwaredev]

Andrew Sunderland wants you to be a Craftsman

In this episode I'm chatting with Andrew Sunderland [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsunderland/], an Engineering Manager at Ritual.co [https://ritual.co/] in Toronto, Canada. Andrew and I talk about Software Craftsmanship, what that means, how it can be achieved, and what exactly does it give us. We discuss the importance of tests and testable code and how this affects handling legacy code. Andrew mentions that for successful legacy code refactoring, engineers should really read Working Effectively With Legacy Code [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Working-Effectively-Legacy-Michael-Feathers/dp/0131177052] by Michael Feathers. We talk about the necessity for continuing to learn and to maintain pace with the speed of change in the Technology sector. We discuss engineering creativity and why engineering companies provide facilities like pool tables and games rooms. We chat about team morale building and how much that should be dependent on a manager or should that be coming from the team itself. We also find out exactly what Andrew is looking for when hiring team members and touch on how important soft skills are in the engineering world. Being an Uncle Bob fan, Andrew gives us a recommendation for his latest book release Clean Agile [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Agile-Basics-Robert-Martin/dp/0135781868/ref=sr_1_1].   I hope you enjoy the show and Happy Christmas!! Support the show [https://www.patreon.com/rulesofsoftwaredev]