Lauren Wiebenga

I keep hearing the idea that pull requests are bad and that developers shouldn't do them. Well, to me, most of these arguments are somewhat of a straw man variety and they encourage throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Pull requests aren't the problem. Pull requests won't prevent you from doing continuous delivery. The problem is pull requests that take a long time to review and approve. This is the thing that will prevent you from doing continuous delivery. But this is a very avoidable problem. It doesn't have to be this way. In our team, PRs don't normally take long to review and things in the trunk are being updated regularly. So it was in my previous team in my previous place of work. I worked in at least three different teams where we would try to get rid of PRs to see what will happen. In all of those cases, we had to get back to doing PRs because removing them caused more problems that we were trying to solve by removing them. I get it. It may work for some teams that do pair programming all the time, which I see as the only way to keep the code quality up without the PRs. However, this approach will not suit every company and every developer. Many developers I know will find it exhausting having to pair-program all the time. Even when you pair program, PRs still have their use. Just before you push all those commits you created, you can create a PR to view all the challenges to make sure you haven't missed anything. You will not only be able to verify that no temporary code changes go in, but you will also create a nice audit trail of who made the change and who reviewed it. I even sometimes create a PR for my own changes because because it's a tool that makes a pre-push verification very convenient. PRs are just a tool. Just like any other tool, it can either be used or misused. It only causes problems when it's misused and not when it's used properly. This tool may not be useful to you, in which case you may discard it. But you may also find out that it's not as useless as some people say it is and it won't stop you from doing continuous delivery, as these people say.

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Developer downtime: don’t overwork your devs. It’s memorial weekend and I’m lazily sitting on my porch. My kids keep coming in and out of the house, but get stuck because the sliding door keeps coming off the rails and won’t open. Well, since I’ve got nothing else scheduled for the afternoon I investigate the issue. Turns out sliding doors have a bunch of adjustment screws. I adjust them till the door slides smooth. Left in the broken state my kids learned to hit top left side of the door before opening it. Bringing this back to work, I know customer success teams that have a cheat sheet of these maneuvers. Give devs space to observe, we naturally fix these issues.

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One of my favorite quotes from Zach White is "Knowledge without action is failure." Only those that act on the knowledge they have see results. I see this every day in my Skool community. There are tons of amazing resources in there for people, and yet only a few see the results they say they want. The ones that do are the ones that act. --- ➡️ 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀? 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗦𝗸𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 >> https://bit.ly/mcc-skool #mcc #engineering #leadership #jobinterviews #careers

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I've been using Ruby on Rails - The Rails Foundation since version 4 released about 10 years ago. Version 7.1 is brilliant. It takes very complicated, and mundane, coding tasks and wraps them in a library that's super easy to use yet really functional. Normally, things like background jobs, automated emailers, encryption, and file management is difficult to implement. Rails wraps this in logic that makes implementation super easy. One of the hallmarks of Ruby is the idea of 'convention over configuration'. Why waste time trying to come up with unique naming schemes or folder structures? If you stick to the convention, it makes life a lot easier. It's also a lot faster to get a workable solution. Rails has had missteps. Version 5.0 was frustrating to use. Sometimes, you get forced into a pattern you don't like. In version 5.0, when you created relationships between tables (i.e., users have a role and users belong to a department), it forced every row to have a valid relationship. Maybe a user doesn't have a department? Or maybe a user doesn't belong to a role? It created problems. The beauty of Rails is when they recognize a change, albeit with good intentions, isn't exactly what a dev wants. Rails changes their system to match what their customers' want (i.e., dev). Brilliant. I use this concept a lot. How do I eliminate unnecessary variations and use convention over configuration wherever possible? By standardizing the mundane stuff, you get a lot more flexibility and scalability.

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*Bracing myself for the response I might get for asking this* Software Engineers: Would you ever consider working on an EQUITY ONLY basis (ie no salary, just owning a portion of the business, the value of which would increase as it progresses and scales)? Assuming: - The product is really interesting and so is the work - The product is in the "tech for good" space and would be a really positive contribution to parts of society - Seed funding is confirmed to be coming with several backers keen & they will able to offer a salary in the near future - The product is super early stage, you would be writing the software from the ground up, but the concept, design and business model once funding is received are all solid I know that there will be many who would never consider this under any circumstances and I totally get why, but just curious to hear if any of you would if it was for a product you believed in enough? And would you look at it on a full-time basis or a part-time basis? It's something I got asked about and so I thought I would throw it out to Linkedin to see what you all think rather than assuming that I know the answer on your behalf. #startup #founder #softwareengineer

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Engineering Managers are drowning in testing candidates—Who’s really failing here? Strangling your engineering team? That’s a death wish. Smart execs don’t play that game. Your product’s begging for attention, and you have customers you need to deliver to. But here you are, jamming the gears with testing candidates instead of focusing on delivering to your customers. Engineers spread thin? They hate the hiring circus. Watching hopefuls bomb tests? That’s just burning daylight. Time, resources, money—you’re torching it all. That’s where we step in. At Savant Recruitment we’re not just pushing resumes. We’re building business'. Our partnerships include: •ScaleHR •Flow, a Deloitte business •Communitech •CoderPad •Wages Corp •Viewpoint.AI + we are working on adding more to be your one stop shop for all your needs to GROW AND THRIVE. We will test your engineers in over 99+ Languages and Frameworks and take this all on my end, so you never have to see a candidate until they pass a technical. This has saved so much time, money, and headaches for execs who are serious about their business and their customers. Although we've been open for 2.5 years, this has been a decade in the making. Test, refine, iterate—again and again. Our gospel? Test till you can’t no more. The old motto is ‘Always Be Selling.’ I say ‘Always Be Testing.’ You can pitch till you’re blue—real power’s in the pivot and drive to do things majorly different and throw away all the old playbooks. We solve real issues that your business' are facing. Why? Because there's no 1 size fits all approach. So for every business problem, we aim to have a solution for it. Your leadership sucks? You come to me Your dev team isn't performing how they should? You come to me Need more incentives in your business? You come to me Can't make decisions? You come to me Want to hire a contractor without the headache of worrying about Payroll? You Come To Me Want to shake up your process and refine it reducing time to fill? You come to me Want to save money, time and headache? You come to me I'm the person you come to, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, and so forth. If you’re not shaking the status quo, you’re just another face in the crowd. I’m not here to blend in. My take might ruffle feathers. I’m not chasing a popularity contest; I’m chasing deliverables. We’re the ace up your sleeve, building teams that break barriers and doing all the heavy lifting so your Engineering Managers can set it and forget it. I’m after victories with companies that want to get out of this "go for bronze" culture, not validation. So, who's ready to leave "good enough" behind?

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I can’t find it now but our team not long ago had a good laugh at a cartoon panel about a software engineer so exasperated at some syntax heavy quasi-code (Terraform, Webpack, Redux?), they quit and took up wood carving. It was our little joke in the Slacks for a minute. Now that the universe has blessed us with an opportunity for reflection (mass lay-offs), we might revisit that theme a bit more seriously. What does a set of wood chisels cost, anyway? I have been consistently surprised, over a couple decades of interviewing software engineering candidates, at how many are unable to demonstrate real interest in the field. Oh sure, there are platitudes; there’s the performative stuff that is the lifeblood of LinkedIn. But there’s less evidence of internally motivated, quiet, continuous self-improvement. What (software engineering things) did you do in the months since you left your last job? What new things are you currently exploring in the field? If the answer is “nothing,” congratulations, you sound like a normal person. But maybe it also means this is an opportunity to realign if not pivot to find what does spark curiosity for you, what you would love exploring. Maybe more UX programming; or more algorithmic. Few things will make your next job more enjoyable than having enthusiasm for the work.

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Anybody who is going through code interviews knows to manually test and find bugs. The fundamental problem is to KEEP YOUR SH*T TOGETHER when you find a bug. Don't overindex on the exciting joy/embarrassment of finding the bug. In fact, if you've found one, there are likely more. Keep a cool head, reset yourself emotionally, and start your testing FROM SCRATCH and find them. And most importantly... keep it cool. #codinginterviews #coding #crackTheCodingInterview

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Day in life of Software Engineer... Story old as time - there's this repetitive, boring and frequently missed thing... Let's automate it! Today’s goal was straightforward: - we use MS Planner for support calendar, - it lacks reminders or synch with Outlook calendars, - people do miss to take action "on their day"... Let's automate it with PowerAutomate workflow template available in MS template library. EASY! However, customising the workflow and polishing the "final bits" took much longer than anticipated. Here's why: 1. Out-of-the-Box Features: PowerAutomate provides an impressive array of features with its existing template library. 🚀 2. Debugging Challenges: Learning the ins and outs of debugging was a painful experience. 3. Documentation Gaps: Topics like casting and formatting aren’t as thoroughly documented as traditional engineering tools. 4. Refactoring Issues: Changing variable names often caused variables to disappear in different places, making refactoring a mess. And there is 🧠 AI Copilot - I tried it... It offered some good options and even built some code for me. But then... - Iterations brought varied answers/solutions, - I could implement and revert changes (that was great - I did revert a lot 😁) - It hinted at functions/options that were decommissioned (old version) 🤯 Eventually, I got it to work. 🏆 What was supposed to be a 30-minute point-and-click task turned into a painful journey of learning the tool for well over 3h. Was it worth it? Yes. Next time, I’ll get the workflow done faster. Did I enjoy it? Kind of - easy to start, hard to polish details. I do prefer more control, but I will try in future and change my mind. Can I recommend it? - For those with stamina to try it and who want to avoid digging through code and just get things done - HELL YES! - You work with MS Stack? YES It has plenty of ready to use templates You can stand on shoulders of giant(s) and use library of solutions ready to run. - If you prefer to stick to engineering principles, build tests, and have more control - I'd stay away. It felt more like a quick and dirty solution, but it did glue things up. ���� What are your experiences with low-code tools? 🤔 Do you like them? You don't? Or have mixed feelings? Let’s discuss! #LowCode #MSPowerAutomate #Automation #Workflow #SoftwareEngineering #LearningJourney Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog: https://lnkd.in/dRTUub2C

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Does it matter if you are doing #TDD? No, not really. What matters is that all the code you commit ends up well tested. If TDD is a helpful practice for you to achieve that, then do it. If you create the tests alongside or just after the functional code, that's fine too. As long as you aren't pushing code to the main branch that isn't properly tested, how you get your code into that good state isn't important. What matters a lot more is understanding what and how to test. The value of tests is in making your code much easier to change with confidence. You should test *useful behaviour* (ideally tied to customer use cases, but for internal modules it can be use cases of the consuming module) and you should do so with as little binding to the implementation as possible. A great test is one that, if the expected user facing behaviour changes, needs updating, but allows you to completely refactor how that behaviour is achieved. This is quite hard but you should put your effort into that, not worry about whether you are being "pure" enough in TDD. #AgileSoftwareDevelopment #TestDrivenDevelopment

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Work today can leave software developers feeling unconnected, lonely, maybe disassociated. The focus on teams and groups doesn't always lead to connection. Leaving some behind or working alone anyway. We need pair programming more than ever (or at least some version of a diadic working relationship). To find out why, start at 23:28 of "A company is not a family with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky". They shone some light on the psychological benefits of working in pairs. (then, start from zero because the rest is great too!) https://lnkd.in/g58QN9mf You can't force a bond. However, it might be useful to pair up with differently skilled so there's a balance and a mutual benefit. The mentor-mentee pair can work too but I suspect it depends on being in a sweet spot in terms of power distance; even then it might not be as strong. Various combos of diads and sometimes triads make the world go around and make our days that much better!

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Pro tip for recent entrants into coding (not a silver bullet by any means, but still): Consider contracts! Contracts have their drawbacks, such as not having PTO built into the package, have more expensive health insurance, and generally have a defined end date. This said, they also provide: - A simpler interview process (again, not always, but enough). - The ability to focus on the task at hand without most of the meetings or politics. - There’s the chance it turns full time. - If it does not turn out to be the favorite position, then at least you know it has an end date. - If you succeed, you can try something different, and learn many ways of handling tasks, and become quite versed in ambiguity, which is a common job description line today (without the job hopper label). I did this early in my career, and it was painful for sure, but it also really helped springboard me as someone who wanted to break in and stand out. Hope this helps someone.

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Hot take. Developers who say clean code doesn’t exist: a) Have never worked in a large eng team before. b) Don’t care who reads their code. c) Confuse clean code with over-engineering. d) Are too stuck in their own ways. e) Want an excuse to write messy code and feel better about it. 🔥

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Very well said. Identify the problem first. Make sure you understand what the problem is - ideally prove it with red test if it is a bug. Think about the solution, make a plan. Prepare general behavior test cases. If this is something new - discuss it with the team. Code. Code the test first, it will help you identify the code design flaws early. Just like any other craft - don’t cut before you measure.

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Lately, I'm running into an issue with senior devs not being able to pass coding screens. I'm NOT talking multi-day take home projects or leet code style questions that require dynamic programming. I'm talking the equivalent of fizzbuzz. -- tic tac toe in react -- pulling data from a data store in python -- using types in typescript ... Anyone noticing the same thing? How much prep should a senior dev really need to do these tests?

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What a great intro into Ethics in AI! Thanks for the article Hamza M. !!

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Are we focusing too much on advanced tech problems at the expense of foundational skills? This post struck a chord with me, highlighting a critical but often overlooked aspect of learning in tech. We often chase complex solutions and high-level abstractions popularized by industry giants, losing sight of the fundamental skills that are crucial for our growth. Many developers might naturally invent these advanced solutions when needed, if they focused on mastering the basics first. Yet, the emphasis remains low on understanding core principles like coupling, cohesion, and writing reliable, bug-free code—issues that truly plague enterprise software. It’s time to realign our learning priorities.

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When you’re leading/managing a diverse team, expect diverse ways of working. You can’t expect software engineers from wildly different backgrounds and experiences to work in the exact same way. Expect differences in: - communication style - tools used to build software - the aspects they’re interested in / good at (e.g some engineers do well at disambiguating user requirements, others at security, large scale system design etc) This is why emphasis on teamwork is important. Just because you’re used to working a certain way doesn’t mean anyone not conforming to that style isn’t good enough. Give your teammates the space to do their best.

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When you're interviewing software engineers, what's one flag you tend to catch? I've conducted a few in my time in the space and finding things that trip me up is usually the "hero" complex: I alone fixed a thing, I alone saved a company, etc. There's potential for such but heroes exist because someone wrote their story and those people contribute to their narratives. If those stories don't line up with the kind of work that they end up demonstrating in the technical interviews, how do you tend to proceed?

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