Maintainable
178 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 29 ratingsFeel like you’re hitting a wall with your existing software projects? You're not alone. On the Maintainable software podcast, we speak with seasoned practitioners who have worked past the problems often associated with technical debt and legacy code.
In each episode, our guests will share stories and outline tangible, real-world approaches to software challenges. In turn, you'll uncover new ways of thinking about how to improve your software project's maintainability. We're in this together. Enjoy the show!
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Episodes
Ben Halpern - Adventures In Open Sourcing Your Existing Application
April 18, 2022 07:05 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBRobby has a chat with Ben Halpern, the creator of Dev.to and a Co-Founder of Forem, a platform that Dev.to is based on. Ben shares from his experience, that well-maintained software needs to have a clear purpose and context that’s available as one is reading it and within the documentation as needed while also being flexible for future evolution. When it comes to dealing with the common challenge of naming variables and functions when we write, Ben says a glossary is fundamentally important....
Avdi Grimm - Don't Be Too Clingy To Your Tests
April 11, 2022 07:05 - 44 minutes - 40.6 MBRobby has a candid conversation with Avdi Grimm, a software developer, consultant, coach, speaker, and author of the books, “Confident Ruby” and “Exceptional Ruby” He is also the creator and head gardener of Graceful.Dev. Avdi’s opinion on well-maintained software is that it’s more about teams than code and the fact that more attention need to be paid on documentation. He emphasizes the value of useful commit messages and conveying the why over the how. He also shares examples of executable ...
Aran Khanna - De-risk Your Cloud Resources
April 04, 2022 07:05 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBRobby has a chat with Aran Khanna, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Archera, a company that helps organizations find cloud solutions that fit their companies. Aran starts off by sharing that great functional decomposition, brevity, and simple but high coverage tests are, from his experience, the three common characteristics of well-maintained software. He then shares his wisdom on the importance of brevity in code and documentation, when and where copy/paste is appropriate, and how to get a better...
Jerod Santo - Having to Maintain Your Own Cleverness
March 28, 2022 07:05 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBRobby has a chat with Jerod Santo, the Managing Editor and Partner of Changelog Media. Jerod helps lead and co-host Changelog’s flagship podcast, The Changelog, and builds all the cool stuff that makes Changelog awesome. Jerod shares his journey from being a typical networking engineer (Infosec) to the experienced programmer that he is today and his programming wisdom from the trenches. Tune in as he highlights the undeniable importance of automated test suites and code readability, describ...
Idit Levine - Production is the Real Test
March 21, 2022 07:05 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBRobby speaks with the Founder and CEO of Solo.io, Idit Levine about scenarios where rewrites are appropriate so that you can pivot your technology startup, why cleaning up technical debt early-and-often is vital, and fostering collaboration within your open source community. Additionally, Idit introduces us to tools such as Istio for managing your Service Mesh. Helpful Links Idit's Twitter Idit's LinkedIn Solo.io and on twitter Idit's Github Idit's Book Recommendation: The Hard Thing ...
Emily Giurleo - Maintaining Open Source vs Proprietary Software
February 07, 2022 08:00 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBRobby speaks with Emily Giurleo, Senior Software Developer and co-founder/organizaer of WNB.rb. In this episode, Emily shares the importance of software communicating its purpose, the differences between maintaining open source versus propritary software projects, and community building. Additionally, they discuss Emily's experience of being a paid maintainer of MongoDB's Ruby client library, the importance of useful CHANGELOGs, debugging tips for Rubygems, when to and/or not to use mocks. ...
Jean Yang - Not All Software is Meant to be Maintained
December 13, 2021 08:05 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBRobby speaks with Jean Yang, Founder and CEO of Akita Software. In this episode, Jean discusses why software needs to be more honest with itself, recruitment tactics at small startups, and why we should be careful before doing what the big organizations are doing, what developer influences advocate versus what real developers do day-to-day. Helpful Links Jean's Twitter Jean's LinkedIn Akita Software Akita on Twitter Book Recommendation: Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow Subscribe to Mai...
Shaundai Person: Work on Having a Short-term Memory
November 29, 2021 08:05 - 51 minutes - 47 MBRobby speaks with Shaundai Person, Senior Software Engineer at Netflix and creator of TypeScript for JavaScript devs. Shaundai brought a treasure trove of insights, starting from her fascinating transition from sales to tech, straight into the heart of what makes code maintainable. She's a fan of making things simpler (think Legos, not knitted castles), and her take on the modular build of software components is something every developer should hear. Did you know that your past experiences...
Chris Birchall: Re-Engineering Legacy Software
November 22, 2021 08:10 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBRobby speaks with Chris Birchall, author of Re-Engineering Legacy Software and Lead Software Developer at 47 Degrees. They cover how to identify both dead and zombie code in your software, approaches to consciously taking on technical debt, and when rewrites might be appropriate. Helpful Links 47 Degrees Re-Engineering Legacy Software Follow Chris on Twitter Book Recommendation: Sherlock Holmes Series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Sp...
Swizec Teller: What is a Senior (Engineer) Mindset?
November 08, 2021 08:30 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBRobby speaks with Swizec Teller, Senior Software Engineer at Tia and author of Serverless for Frontend Engineers. In this conversation, Swizec shares his thoughts on how startups need to learn how to leverage technical debt effectively, an introduction to his book, and the traits of a Senior Engineer Mindset. Helpful Links Swizec on Twitter Swizec on LinkedIn Serverless for Frontend Engineers The Senior Mindset Series Tia Blog post: How to rewrite your app while growing to a $100,000,...
Heidi Waterhouse: Documentation: The Best Diff is a Red Diff
November 01, 2021 12:00 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBRobby speaks with Heidi Waterhouse, Transformation Advocate at LaunchDarkly and contributor to Docs for Developers. In this episode, Heidi shares the benefits of relying on documentation templates, getting over the paralysis of a blank page, why teams should consider hiring technical writers, speaking at conference, as well as her formula for outlining a tech talk idea. Helpful Links Heidi's Website Heidi's Twitter Heidi's LinkedIn Order the new book, Docs for Developer, that Heidi is a...
DHH: Celebrating Legacy Software as a Victory and the Story of How Humans Can't Estimate
October 04, 2021 10:00 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MBRobby speaks with David Heinemeier Hansson (aka DHH), Creator of Ruby on Rails and CTO of Basecamp / HEY. Disclaimer: Robby sat down with DHH in early March 2021 about ~5-6 weeks before Basecamp's policy changes were announced and the significant impact that had within our community. It's quite likely that some of Basecamp's internal software engineering processes have since changed. In an enthralling episode of Maintainable, host Robby is joined by David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), the orig...
Matt Wynne: Cucumber and Why Is TDD Such a Challenge?
August 02, 2021 09:00 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBRobby speaks with Matt Wynne, who is currently a co-lead of Cucumber Open and a BDD Advocate at SmartBear. They cover an introduction to Cucumber and how it fits into a software team's toolbox, the importance of reliable tests and speedy tests for quick feedback loops, and why teams struggle to introduce TDD into existing software applications. Helpful Links Cucumber Smartbear Gherkin Technical Debt vs Technical Waste Follow Matt on Twitter Matt's blog Book Recommendation: Zen and th...
Tom Granot: Finding Your Style When Explaining Things to Technical Audiences
July 19, 2021 07:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBRobby speaks with Tom Granot, Solution Engineer at Lightrun. They discuss producing content for technical (and non-technical) audiences, why consistency in your communication style matters, and the importance of good bug reporting and resolution. Helpful Links: [Book Recommendation] The Hacker's Diet by John Walker Follow Tom on Twitter Tom's website Lightrun Monica CRM Async http client Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherev...
Andrew Watkins: How To Test What You're Trying to Build
June 28, 2021 23:00 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBRobby speaks with Andrew Watkins, VP of Engineering at Buildops. They dig into what it means to be "easily testable", the downsides to being allured by new technology, and why rewrites are really, really tough. Helpful Links Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn Follow Buildops on LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Heroes Die Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discor...
Rodney Cobb: Repeatable. Testable. Scalable.
June 21, 2021 07:10 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBRobby speaks with Rodney Cobb, Principal DevOps Engineer at Remine Inc. They discuss the three verticals of maintainable systems, the importance of mental health days, why all work needs to be visible and tracked, comparing DevOps to Hip Hop culture, and taking time to ask yourself, "when do I take the time to level up?" Helpful Links Rodney on LinkedIn Book Recommendation: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini PhD Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Ove...
Dr. Michaela Greiler: Getting Awesome at Code Reviews
June 14, 2021 07:10 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBRobby speaks with Dr. Michaela Greiler, Founder and Trainer at Awesome Code Review Workshops. They discuss the importance of taking time to revisit past technical decisions, what is/isn't technical debt, as well as the distinction between protecting the quality of the code and expanding the knowledge of what is changing in a software codebase. Dr. Greiler also talks about some mistakes that engineers make when conducting code reviews. She also shares helpful tips on how to provide meaning...
Mark Kilby: Overcoming Challenges that Remote Technical Teams Experience
May 24, 2021 12:00 - 52 minutes - 48.2 MBRobby speaks with Mark Kilby, Distributed Agile Guide and Founder at K5 Labs. They discuss the benefits of healthy and reliable automated tests, symptoms of when things are not working, challenges that teams may face in different types of remote working scenarios, and what effective communication looks like amongst team members. Mark also gives advice on things to consider as an Agile coach and how to build your Agile toolbox. Helpful Links Mark's Website Mark on Twitter [Book Recommenda...
Kevin Stewart: Short-term Decisions That Need To Be Revisited
May 19, 2021 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBRobby speaks with Kevin Stewart, VP of Engineering at Harvest. They discuss fighting ideological battles, why time-to-deploy is one of the most valuable metrics to measure and improve, and why teams should be revisiting their technical stack decisions. Kevin also gives advice to developers and shares some approaches to running internship programs. Helpful Links Kevin's Website leaddev.com Kevin on Twitter Kevin on LinkedIn Careers at Harvest [Book Recommendation] The Hard Thing About ...
Ken Fogel: What Are You Leaving Behind?
May 10, 2021 15:47 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBRobby speaks with Ken Fogel, College Instructor, JCP EC member, and Java Champion. They discuss the benefits of unit testing, how Dawson approaches internship placement, and the importance of code documentation. Ken also talks about how software is about more than just getting things to work, and why it's important to focus on the long-term impact of coding decisions. Helpful Links Omnijava.com Ken's Twitter Dzone Article Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify ...
Murray Steele: Maintainable Code Is Easy to Turn Off and Delete
April 26, 2021 12:00 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBRobby speaks with Murray Steele, Engineering Manager at CLEO AI. They discuss approaches to tracking down unused code in your system, working as a consultant vs within a product company, and why technical debt is good. Murray also talks about why we need to be cautious when we discuss prototypes and the importance of community sharing experiences of helping co-organize London Ruby User Group. Helpful Links Murray's Website Murray's Twitter Murray's LinkedIn London Ruby User Group CLEO...
Dr. Felienne Hermans: Looking Inside The Programmer's Brain
April 19, 2021 12:00 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBRobby speaks with Dr. Felienne Hermans, Author and Associate Professor at Leiden University. They discuss the importance of building mental models, the difference between short-term and working memory, and how to take control of your own onboarding by confirming assumptions and asking effective questions. Dr. Felienne also talks about steps to understand a new-to-you codebase, as well as exercises to improve how you read code. Helpful Links Dr. Felienne's Website Dr. Felienne's Twitter T...
Bertold Kolics: Are You Carrying the Weight of Dead Code?
April 12, 2021 12:00 - 51 minutes - 47.5 MBRobby speaks with Bertold Kolics, Software Quality Manager at mabl. They discuss the benefits of documenting software behavior, tracking down and removing dead code, and challenges that teams face when relying on 3rd-party APIs and libraries. Bertold also talks about the role of a Software Quality Manager, as well as tips on how to evaluate open-source components. Helpful Links Bert's Website Bert's Twitter Bert's LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] The Economics of Emotion: How to Build a B...
Kent C. Dodds: AHA Programming and Testing JavaScript
April 07, 2021 14:15 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBRobby speaks with Kent C. Dodds, software engineer and teacher. They discuss the benefits of duplication, Kent's journey to becoming an educator, and what it's like managing a community of engineers. Kent also talks about flipping the test pyramid upside down and focusing on fewer, longer tests. Helpful Links Kent's Podcast Kent's Twitter Kent's LinkedIn https://epicreact.dev/ https://testingjavascript.com/ https://kentcdodds.com https://kentcdodds.com/discord https://kentcdodds.com...
Mark Adams: HOWTO Prepare (Your Nails) for Burning Man
April 01, 2021 11:05 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 06 Robby speaks with Mark Adams, who is known by his friends and family as, "Mark." On this episode, he shares his lessons from having attended Burning Man several times, taking care of your infant's nails, and bridging the gap when two people move-in together and need to intermix their nail tools. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Mainta...
Amy Sorensen: Nail Baths vs Nail Soaks
April 01, 2021 10:25 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 05 Robby speaks with Amy Michelle Sorensen, former NedX speaker and self-described "nails for life" coach. Amy digs into her research findings from a several year study on wine and nails, long-term care, supplements, and navigating remote nail coaching during a global pandemic. Helpful Links Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion ...
Logan Luke Tyler Tanner: Overcoming Nail Biting During a Pandemic
April 01, 2021 07:25 - 19 minutes - 17.4 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 04 Robby speaks with Logan Luke Tyler Tanner, acclaimed motivational life coach, author, and speaker. Logan Luke Tyler shares his rationale for why it's important to focus, first, on clean nails and then to focus on the additional layers, overcoming nail biting, and the future of keyboards. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the d...
Erica Tafavoti: Adding Density to Extend Their Life
April 01, 2021 07:20 - 20 minutes - 19.2 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 03 Robby speaks with Erica Tafavoti, food blogger, beverage temperature conisseur, and podcast host. Erica shares her perspective on maintenance before sporting, those awkward, tender...moments, mental health during before and during a global pandemic, getting the perfect hand photo, and discuss her new podcast. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn Podcast: Unwell with Erica Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainabl...
Duncan Thorpe: Disrupting the Mammalian Industrial Nail Complex
April 01, 2021 07:10 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 02 Duncan doesn't think Robert is asking a good question, but it isn't the right question. In this discussion, they dig into the tyranny of the mammalian genetic legacy, the future of maintainability, investing in new ventures, pandemic vaccines, and being an ethical consumer on Earth and in space. We steer clear of any current legal disputes that Duncan is involved in. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintaina...
Duncan Thorpe: Disrupting the Mammelian Industrial Nail Complex
April 01, 2021 07:10 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 02 Duncan doesn't think Robert is asking a good question but it isn't the right question. In this discussion, they dig into the tyranny of the mammelian genetic legacy, the future of maintainability, investing in new ventures, pandemic vaccines, and being an ethical consumer on Earth and in space. We steer clear of any current legal disputes that Duncan is involved in. Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainab...
Shannon Jackson: Oh, Wait, Nope...Those Aren't My Gutter Nails
April 01, 2021 07:05 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBMaintainable Nails: Bonus Episode 01 Robby speaks with Shannon Jackson about existing in the life you have vs the one you want, long-term maintenance, the benefits of stickers, remote consultations, frito dust, and gutter nails that don't belong to you. Helpful Links Bio LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Untamed, Glennon Doyle Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainab...
Brian Scanlan: Improving Oncall Support with Meaningful Alarms
March 29, 2021 12:00 - 53 minutes - 48.9 MBRobby speaks with Brian Scanlan, Principal Systems Engineer at Intercom. They discuss the benefits of having consistent software patterns across an organization, how run books are a must-have (and why they should be tested), and optimizing for developer productivity. Brian also talks about approaches to reducing deployment time and why it is so vital to be responsive to their customers. Helpful Links Intercom's Engineering Site Brian's Twitter Brian's LinkedIn [Book Recommendation] Choi...
Alexandre Omeyer: Removing the Barriers to Track Technical Debt
March 22, 2021 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBRobby speaks with Alexandre Omeyer, Co-founder and CEO of Stepsize. They discuss how high-quality software requires team ownership, some traits of well-maintained software, and the different sizes of technical debt. Alexandre also shares advice on how engineers can step up and take action today. Helpful Links Stepsize's Website Stepsize on Twitter Alexandre on Twitter [Book Recommendation] Drive, Daniel H. Pink Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search...
Roopak Venkatakrishnan: The Importance of Optimizing For Local Development and Build Systems
March 15, 2021 12:00 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBRobby speaks with Roopak Venkatakrishnan, Engineering Manager at Bolt. They discuss why it's important to document the weird things and strategies for keeping your system easy to begin developing in. Roopak also talks about why we end up with silos of knowledge and how to alleviate that problem. Helpful Links Roopak's Website Roopak on Twitter Roopak on LinkedIn Swissknife CircleCI orb Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever y...
Benjamin Wood: Rescuing Ruby on Rails Projects
March 08, 2021 13:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBRobby speaks with Benjamin Wood, CEO and Co-Founder of Hint. They discuss the importance of being able to iterate quickly, and the optimal code-to-test ratios. Benjamin also talks about the pros and Cons of using Monkey Patching, as well as suggestions for where to prioritize tests on a legacy Ruby on Rails application. Helpful Links Hint.io Github.com/hintmedia/railsdock Benjamin on Twitter [Book Recommendation] The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber Subscribe to Maintainable on: Ap...
Johanna Rothman: No, Great Developers Aren't Destined to Be Great Managers
March 02, 2021 13:00 - 54 minutes - 49.4 MBRobby speaks with Johanna Rothman, President at Rothman Consulting Group, Inc. They discuss traits of healthy teams, how to respond to colleagues who vent and/or complain to you, and strategies for growing a team. Johanna also talks about the importance of understanding that moving into management is a career change vs a promotion. Helpful Links Johanna on LinkedIn Johanna on Twitter Johanna's Website [Book Recommendation] 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change, Ester Derby [Book Reco...
Helen Scott: Strategies For Measuring Developer Experience (DX)
February 24, 2021 13:00 - 38 minutes - 35 MBRobby speaks with Helen Scott, Java Developer Advocate at Jet Brains. They discuss tips on how to measure team satisfaction, what is/isn't technical debt, and the impact of being remote during a pandemic. Helen also talks about her background as a software engineer and being a technical writer. Helpful Links Helen on LinkedIn Helen on Twitter Helen's Website [Book Recommendation] Word Perfect: Curious Coinages and Etymological First Aid For Every Day of the Year, Susie Dent Subscribe t...
Robert Kaufman: Running a Consultancy and a Coding School
February 16, 2021 17:41 - 1 hour - 65.5 MBRobby speaks with Robert Kaufman, Senior Partner at Notch8 and Cofounder of LEARN Academy. They discuss the importance of treating software development as a craft, tips on helping peers troubleshoot via pairing, and how technical debt can be used as an excuse. Robert also talks about keeping a healthy junior to senior ratio (2:1) and how to be a good guest in another team's codebase. Helpful Links Learn Academy Notch8 Blog Robert on Twitter Robert on GitHub [Book Recommendation] Brain ...
Heidi Helfand: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams
February 08, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 56 MBRobby speaks with Heidi Helfand, Director of Product & Technology Excellence at Procore Technologies. They discuss how to reduce fear when making changes, understanding the importance of supporting roles for technical teams, and why we should all keep a living document that lists all of our accomplishments. Heidi also talks about different ways to benchmark a team and how to build alliances. Helpful Links Heidi's book Heidi on Twitter Heidi's Website [Book Recommendation] Crucial Conver...
Jutta Eckstein: How Software Impacts Our Planet
February 02, 2021 00:25 - 54 minutes - 49.7 MBRobby speaks with Jutta Eckstein; coach, consultant, trainer, speaker, and author. They discuss the importance of being able to deliver continuously, the difference between technical debt and gold plating, and the challenges of synchronous vs asynchronous communication during a global pandemic. Jutta also talks about why teams need to consider the carbon footprint of their cloud infrastructure and doing what we can to reduce e-waste. Helpful Links Jutta's Website Jutta on LinkedIn Jutta ...
John Cech: How To Mentor Interns On Software Projects
January 25, 2021 13:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MBRobby speaks with John Cech, Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer at Planet Argon. They discuss examples of technical debt, how John catapulted his professional development via mentoring, and the benefits of having consistent coding conventions as a team. John also talks about how he helped a software project increase test coverage while also reducing the speed to run them. Helpful Links More About John [Book Recommendation] 1Q84, Haruki Murakami Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts ...
Theresa Neate: Testing != Quality
January 19, 2021 07:35 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBRobby speaks with Theresa Neate, Director of Quality Engineering at Slalom Build Australia. She shares an overview of the Quality Engineer role, why quality isn't something you can assure in software, and why we shouldn't hire junior developers and toss them into a testing role. Helpful Links [Book] The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, and John Willis [Book] 97 Things Every Cloud Engineer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Expert Follow Theresa on Twitter Th...
Michael Springer: Vetting External Dependencies
January 11, 2021 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBRobby speaks with Michael Springer, Software Engineer at JazzHR. They discuss the importance (and challenge) of naming things in your code, how to adopt a package vetting procedure as a team, and strategies to simplify comprehension for new team members. Michael also shares the long-term impact on all dependencies and their dependencies. Helpful Links Michael on Twitter Sprngr.com [Book Recommendation] Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport Subscribe to ...
Jason Swett: Refactoring Is Necessary to Keep Your Blade Sharp
January 04, 2021 13:00 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBRobby speaks with Jason Swett, Software Engineer at Meadows Eye. They discuss the value of understandability, differences between loose and tight coupling in code, and creating a shared vision as a team. Jason also discusses how teams struggle to retain quality engineers and how to teach testing to Ruby on Rails developers. Helpful Links Jason on Twitter Jason's Website The Rails with Jason Podcast [Book Recommendation] How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie Subscribe to ...
Sudhir Reddy: Don't Be Afraid to Slash and Burn
December 28, 2020 13:00 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBRobby speaks with Sudhir Reddy, VP of Engineering at Chef / Progress. They discuss what Sudhir calls "legacy debt", some challenges of managing open source projects with over 500 Github repositories, and how Chef built cohesive governance and EOL programs for open source contributions. Sudhir also shares advice for developers who are looking for a way to begin introducing automated tests in environments where that's not yet considered a valuable practice by the team. Helpful Links Sudhir o...
Monica Lent: Progress Is More Important Than Perfection
December 21, 2020 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46 MBRobby speaks with Monica Lent, Software Engineer, Founder, Speaker, and Travel + Technical blogger. They discuss the importance of clear boundaries between teams, Monica's participation in the 12 startups in 12 months challenge, and why it is okay to say "I don't (yet) have an opinion on that." Monica also shares advice for developers on coming up with topic ideas for blogging, and introduces us to her free email course. Helpful Links Monica on Twitter Blogging for Devs Monica's Website ...
Trae Robrock: Understanding Your Risk Tolerance As An Engineer
December 14, 2020 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBEpisode Notes Robby speaks with Trae Robrock, Software Developer Engineer at GoDaddy. They discuss why readability matters (and how Ruby on Rails aligns well with this), the importance of implementing good team processes and communication channels, and the differences between explicit and non-explicit tradeoffs. Trae also share stories of successful and not-so-successful software rewrites. Helpful Links Trae on Twitter Trae on LinkedIn Trae's Website Green Bits [Book Recommendation] ...
Mark Erikson: Accidentally Becoming an Open Source Maintainer
December 07, 2020 13:00 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBRobby speaks with Mark Erikson, Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman and Redux Maintainer. They discuss common characteristics of well-maintained software code, documentation best practices, and advice for developers on how to begin contributing to open source projects. Helpful Links Mark on Twitter Mark on LinkedIn Mark's Blog Redux Site Divio Site Vue.js Site [Article] 7 Pieces of Information to Include in Technical Blog Posts Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overca...
Bonnie Brennan: Building Community
November 30, 2020 13:00 - 48 minutes - 44.1 MBRobby speaks with Bonnie Brennan, Angular GDE and Founder of Angular Nation. They discuss the importance of keeping things modular, avoiding large files, and embracing DRY. Bonnie also shares her journey as a single mom and making a career change in her 30s, along with tips on how to ask for help within technical communities. Helpful Links Bonnie on Twitter Bonnie on LinkedIn Angular Nation Hack Your Future [Book Recommendation] A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose Subscribe ...
Khaled Souf: Track Down Dead Code and Delete it
November 23, 2020 13:00 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBRobby speaks with Khaled Souf, Software Crafter and Software Coach at Zenika Montreal. They discuss the importance of tracking down dead code and deleting it, the benefits of a reliable automated test suite, and Khaled's journey of becoming a coach. Helpful Links Khaled on Twitter Khaled on LinkedIn Khaled's Website [Book Recommendation] Thinking in Systems, by Donella Meadows Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream...