Robby speaks with Gant Laborde, CIO of Infinite Red. They discuss the unique challenges of maintaining React Native apps and the importance of sync points in an asynchronous work environment. Gant also shares an overview of the types of projects that Infinite Red focuses on and his experience being an open-source maintainer. Helpful Links Gant on Twitter Infinite Red on Twitter Gant's Website AI-FYI Website [Book] The War of Art Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or se...
Aug 31, 2020•45 min•Ep. 64
Robby speaks with Karen Lee Rigg, Engineering Lead at Permutive. They discuss being a good guest in another team's code base and dealing with imposter syndrome. Karen also shares how she moved from the consulting world to a startup working on a product, along with her journey from being a code contributor to a team lead. Helpful Links Karen on Twitter Karen on LinkedIn [Book] How to Win Friends & Influence People Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Mainta...
Aug 24, 2020•49 min•Ep. 63
Robby speaks with Gianluca Arbezzano, Sr Staff Software Engineer at Packet. They discuss the value of consistent documentation (and why deciding where to document something is so difficult for developers!), how Gianluca began contributing to open source projects early in his career, and share tips for those who are intimidated about the idea of contributing to open source. Helpful Links Follow Gianluca on Twitter Gianluca's website Connect with Gianluca on LinkedIn [Book] Obsessed: Building a Br...
Jul 13, 2020•44 min•Ep. 62
Robby speaks with Ali Spittel – podcast host at Ladybug Podcast, writer, and Faculty Lead at General Assembly. They discuss mentoring Junior Developers, how she built a community around her written content and daily coding puzzles, how to build your writing as a developer, and her experience being a digital nomad. Helpful Links Follow Ali on Twitter Follow We Learn Code on Twitter Ali Spittel's website Zen of Programming Ladybug Podcast Follow General Assembly on Twitter What Productivity Looks ...
Jul 06, 2020•47 min•Ep. 61
The mic is turned around on Robby for this special episode of Maintainable. Robby is interviewed by guest host Kayla Reopelle, a Ruby on Rails Developer at Planet Argon. They discuss the need for more conversations about improving existing code in the community, learning to manage client expectations as a consultant, and when he learned he was a mender, not a maker. Helpful Links: Robby's Maintainable Rails email course Planet Argon's Rails Upgrade service [Book] Never Split the Difference by Ch...
Jun 29, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 60
Robby speaks with Ryan Cromwell, Technical Director at Sparkbox. They discuss the importance of simplifying deployments, technical debt in the client-services industry, and the traits to seek when hiring software engineers for client-services based work. Helpful Links Follow Ryan on Twitter Sparkbox [Book] Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps Michael Feathers on Maintainable [Book] Working Effectively with Legacy Code Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify O...
Jun 22, 2020•48 min•Ep. 59
Robby speaks with Camille Fournier, Head of Platform Engineering at Two Sigma and author of The Manager's Path. They discuss the importance of avoiding overly clever code, onboarding developers to existing software projects and teams, and how to start approaching mentoring others and be a good mentoree. They also discuss topics from her book, like determining if a path toward management is right for you and navigating career growth in a technical role. Helpful Links Follow Camille on Twitter Cam...
Jun 15, 2020•47 min•Ep. 58
Robby speaks with Gonçalo Silva, CTO at Doist. They discuss embracing continuous improvements, having a healthy level of skepticism about rewrites. Gonçalo also shares how Doist onboards new engineers to their team, along with the challenges of hiring remote junior developers. Helpful Links Gonçalo on Twitter Laws of software evolution Doist Doist's blog Open positions at Doist Twist App [Book] Atomic Habits [Book] The Art of Learning Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify...
Jun 01, 2020•45 min•Ep. 57
Robby speaks with Tudor Girba, CEO and Co-Founder at Feenk. They discuss how engineers work in the decision-making business, what skills are essential to build in engineers, and get an introduction to the concept of Moldable Development and the Glamorous Toolkit. Helpful Links Glamorous Toolkit Follow Girba on Twitter Follow feenk on Twitter Glamorous Toolkit on Github [Book] Man's Search for Meaning Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever ...
May 25, 2020•44 min•Ep. 56
Robby speaks with Jeff Haynie, Co-Founder and CEO at Pinpoint. They discuss boundaries around APIs and contracts, useful and less-useful metrics for development teams to focus on, and more. Jeff also gives an introduction to Pinpoint's tooling for software development teams and stakeholders, and shares a story about how he had to reverse-engineer a proprietary application in under 24hours to keep the trains running on time. Helpful Links Follow Jeff on Twitter Follow Jeff on Medium Pinpoint Conn...
May 18, 2020•52 min•Ep. 55
Robby speaks with Vladimir Khoriko, Tech Lead, Architect & Author. They discuss all things unit tests – what they are, the four pillars of good ones, examples of low-value unit tests, and more. They also discuss the age-old debate of rewrites vs. refactoring, and how to effectively prioritize maintenance work. Helpful Links Vladimir's books : Use promo code: podmaintainable20 for 20% off! Enterprise Craftsmanship Painless Unit Testing Vladimir's Pluralsight courses [Book] Atomic Habit Things...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 54
Robby speaks with Bryan Helmkamp, Founder and CEO at Code Climate. Bryan discusses the use of the term "technical debt" now vs. 15 years ago, what he's learned from having thousands of engineering teams use their tools, and the long-term benefits of choosing to build their main application in Ruby on Rails. You'll also get an overview of Code Climate's main products. Helpful Links Code Climate The Code Climate blog Bryan on Twitter Code Climate on Twitter Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podc...
May 04, 2020•36 min•Ep. 53
Robby speaks with Dr. Aino Vonge Corry, founder of Metadeveloper, technical conference editor, and agile retrospective facilitator. They discuss effective vs. ineffective communication with stakeholders, how to prepare for retrospectives, and why it's important to focus on "What should we do better?" when reflecting on work. Helpful Links Dr. Aino Vonge Corry on Twitter Metadeveloper [Book] Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker How to Facilitate Distributed Retr...
Apr 27, 2020•46 min•Ep. 52
Robby speaks with Trisha Gee, Developer Advocate at JetBrains. They discuss Trisha's role as a Developer Advocate, how open source library maintainers are underappreciated, and how developers can overcome their fear of writing, speaking, and contributing back to the community. Helpful Links Follow Trisha on Twitter Trisha's blog IntelliJ IDEA RubyMind [Book] 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know [Book] Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computi...
Apr 20, 2020•42 min•Ep. 51
In this episode of the Maintainable Software Podcast, Robby is joined by Sandi Metz, a renowned programmer, author, and speaker known for her expertise in object-oriented programming and maintainable code. Sandi shares her invaluable insights on various aspects of software development, focusing on writing code that stands the test of time. Episode Highlights Maintaining Readable Code : Sandi emphasizes that the cost of software lies in its readability. She discusses the importance of writing cod...
Apr 13, 2020•47 min•Ep. 50
Robby speaks with Clare Sudbery, Lead Engineer with Made Tech. They discuss how to document and prioritize technical debt with a visual tool, trunk-based development patterns, and the importance of getting fast feedback. Helpful Links Follow Clare on Twitter In Simple Terms Clare's upcoming workshops and speaking engagements MadeTech Clare on Medium Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (2nd Edition) by Martin Fowler Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Creat...
Apr 06, 2020•51 min•Ep. 49
Robby speaks with Kelly Sutton, Software Engineer at Gusto. They discuss how to deal with technical debt from the pre-product/market fit era, the benefits of monoliths and knowing when to begin abstracting to micro-services, and the challenges of keeping Ruby on Rails applications up-to-date. Kelly also gives advice for developers who want to convince stakeholders to invest in refactoring projects – a common challenge. Helpful Links Follow Kelly on Twitter Kelly's website [Book] Seeing like a St...
Mar 30, 2020•38 min•Ep. 48
Robby speaks to Jonathan Abourbih, Engineering Team Lead at the BBC in Voice & AI. They discuss how to conduct blameless post-mortems, what's technical debt vs. bad code, and the challenges of measuring your success as a manager after years of being a developer. Jonathan also shares stories about large Java apps in a pre-Garbage Collection world. Helpful Links Jonathan on Twitter The Prime Directive BBC Careers Google's Project Aristotle Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests by St...
Mar 23, 2020•44 min•Ep. 47
Robby speaks with Jessica Kerr, Symmathecist at Jessitron LLC. They discuss why working on existing projects is more interesting than greenfield ones, the overuse and harm of the term "technical debt", and how software is not a craft. Jessica also gives an introduction to being a Symmathecist. Helpful Links Follow Jessica on Twitter Jessica's website Jessica's blog Symmathecist, Noun by Jessica Kerr [Book] Team Topologies book Arty's suggestion about "escalating risk": [Book] Ecology, the Ascend...
Mar 09, 2020•41 min•Ep. 46
Robby speaks with Jon Thornton, Engineer at Squarespace. This discuss examples of good technical debt, implementing a new monolith alongside another monolith (and when to extract to a microservice), metrics to track within your engineering team, and more. Helpful Links Three Kinds of Good Technical Debt Careers at Squarespace [Book] Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg Jon on Twitter Jon on Github Jon's website Jon on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Sp...
Mar 02, 2020•40 min•Ep. 45
Robby speaks with Ben Orenstein, CEO and Co-founder of Tuple, a remote pair programming app. They discuss why saying, "someday we'll go clean that up" doesn't work in reality, the downsides to putting maintenance work into a backlog, and implicit vs. explicit knowledge. Ben also gives an intro to Tuple. Ben on Twitter Tuple Tuple on Twitter [Book] The Great CEO Within Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join th...
Feb 24, 2020•31 min•Ep. 44
In the latest episode of Maintainable, we're joined by Ernesto Tagwerker, Founder and CTO of OmbuLabs. This isn't just another podcast episode; it's a deep dive into the world of technical debt and Ruby on Rails. Ernesto starts by demystifying technical debt – it's more than just a buzzword; it's a real challenge that can turn your project into a Tar Pit. And, believe it or not, there are actual tools to measure this. We explore these tools and how they can help identify technical debt and commu...
Feb 17, 2020•47 min•Ep. 43
In this episode of Maintainable, Robby sits down with Marit van Dijk, a Software Engineer at bol.com . Marit brings a wealth of experience from her work on complex systems and her involvement in the European testing conference and the Cucumber community. They dive deep into the importance of testing, maintaining legacy code, and the collaborative nature of software development. Episode Highlights [00:01:00] The Role of Tests in Well-Maintained Codebases : Marit emphasizes the importance of clear...
Feb 10, 2020•37 min•Ep. 42
Robby speaks with Mike Perham, Founder and CEO at Contribsys and author of Sidekiq and Faktory. They discuss the pros and cons of using external dependencies, how Mike built a business off of his open source project, Sidekiq, and the dIfference in maintaining Ruby vs Go software projects. Helpful Links Mike on Github Mike on Twitter mikeperham.com Contribsys Sidekiq [Book] Rising by Elizabeth Rush [Book] The Watch, Thoroughly Revised by Gene Stone and Stephen Pulvirent Subscribe to Maintainable ...
Feb 03, 2020•37 min•Ep. 41
Robby speaks with Ev Haus, Head of Technology at ZenHub. They discuss how to get to zero technical debt, metrics an engineering team can measure, good pull-request etiquette, and more. Helpful Links Ev on Twitter Ev on Linkedin Ev's writing on Medium Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts. Join the discussion in the Maintainable Discord Community Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Or search "Maint...
Jan 27, 2020•47 min•Ep. 40
Robby speaks with Adam Tornhill, founder of Empear and CodeScene. They discuss the benefits of having clear boundaries between teams, strategies for prioritizing where to start tackling technical debt, and how to improve the onboarding experience for developers new to a software codebase. Adam also shares a rare example of a successful rewrite project. Helpful Links Follow Adam on Twitter Adam's Website Empear CodeScene [Book] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Your Code as a Crime Scene ...
Jan 20, 2020•43 min•Ep. 39
Robby speaks with M. Scott Ford, CTO and Chief Code Whisperer at Corgibytes and co-host of the Legacy Code Rocks podcast. They discuss the difference between Makers and Menders, how to prioritize a technical debt backlog, and how to provide feedback to other developers. Helpful Links M. Scott Ford on Twitter Corgibytes Legacy Code Rocks [Book] Lehman’s Laws of Software Evolution and the Staged-Model [Book] Radical Candor Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Ma...
Jan 13, 2020•43 min•Ep. 38
Robby speaks with Gitte Klitgaard, Agile Coach and Owner of Native Wired. They discuss how to create space for psychological safety, the importance of sharing mistakes and fuck-ups of the week, and understanding, coping and taking advantage of your Imposter Syndrome. Helpful Links Native Wired Gitte on Twitter Gitte on LinkedIn [Book] I Thought It Was Just Me by Brene Brown Brene Brown's Ted Talk on vulnerability Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainab...
Jan 06, 2020•40 min•Ep. 37
Robby speaks with Nathaniel Bibler, CTO at Envy Labs. They discuss how to talk about technical debt as a team, navigating communication challenges with clients, and how to be a good guest in another team's code base. If you work – or want to work – at an agency, you should listen to this episode. Helpful Links Follow Nathaniel on Twitter Insights by Envy Labs Nathaniel on Github Connect on LinkedIn Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Or search "Maintainable" wherever yo...
Dec 23, 2019•54 min•Ep. 36
Robby speaks with Abby Bangser, Senior Test Engineer on the Platform Engineering Team at MOO. They discuss how maintainable code leans on a dependable build and test process, what metrics Moo's platform engineering team measures, and codifying your pipeline – including having pipelines build on a regular basis. Helpful Links Follow Abby on Twitter Careers at Moo Tester by Choice Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport Subscribe to Maintainable on: Apple Podcasts...
Dec 16, 2019•31 min•Ep. 35
