Software Lead Weekly Software Lead Weekly

Why Software Architects Fail – And What to Do About It
44 minutes read.

Ask yourself at which "phase" you’re at now, and what you want to learn or practice to build more straightforward solutions, or avoid building them at all if they’re not needed. This is one of the best talks you can share with senior engineers in your company.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Me Using Solution From StackOverflow in My Project
1 minutes read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face, even in this difficult time.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Forming Failure Hypothesis
13 minutes read.

Subbu Allamaraju provides the know-how (and pitfalls to avoid) to introduce Resilience Engineering into your org. It's interesting how framing often helps people adopt a new concept: Starting from incidents (in most critical areas) can be a smoother "Go to market" plan to get the engineering teams to take part in this effort.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Spotify vs. Fitbit and the Model of Agile at Scale
5 minutes read.

For those of you who read the post about How Spotify not really using the "Spotify model of scaled Agile" (check it out in my email from 2 weeks ago), Marty Cagan writes a good response: "But what the article fails to mention, is that what they got right at Spotify was much more important than what they got wrong. [...] But the Spotify leaders explained to me that they were aware of this trade-off, and they considered this an acceptable price to pay for the benefits of fully empowered teams and engineers. The Spotify leaders also explained to me that this choice was in part a reflection of Swedish engineering culture. [...] I was not worried about them, because it was clear their business depended on consistent innovation, and they were doing what I considered the most important things to nurture that." -- optimize for what makes sense to your business and rest assure others might disagree with it.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

"Let's Let Each Team Pick What Works Best for Them" Is a Feel-Good Recipe for Dysfunction (Thread)
3 minutes read.

Read this thread and think about it: Where would you draw the line? How explicit is it today? Share it with engineering managers and technical leads and discuss it. I like Matthew Skelton's "The hubris of 'we're a unique organization' leads to so many problems."

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Google Spent Years Studying Effective Bosses. Now They Teach New Managers These 6 Things
4 minutes read.

I'd use these observations from Google to see where you should focus more of your energy when training your managers. Ask them where they'd appreciate workshops, books, or 1:1 sessions.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

Better Highlighting and Note-Taking Techniques: A Short Guide to Progressive Summarization
11 minutes read.

Celz Alejandro with one of my favorite read this week. This one is golden: "We hoard information because it gives us an illusion of knowledge. Ever consumed so much information that you feel like you’re getting smarter?" -- as someone who reads a lot, I often ask myself how do I translate that into something that I'll understand and remember for years to come. How can I teach my kids that? How can I teach my teammates? Note-taking is a skill that I need to practice more often and use my Anki Notes (for iPhone) to apply spaced-repetition.

Read it later via Instapaper.
Share it via Twitter or email.

@copyconstruct: I once had an offer to be a "senior engineer" when I was 2 years out of school. More than feeling flattered, it just made me think poorly of the company and turn their offer down. I have 0 regrets doing that even today.

@GiladPeleg: The 10,000 hours needed to master a skill require 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. If you are just logging hours, it doesn't count.