Suppose you’re working on a software system and need to implement user-logins using a userID and password. After a bit of research, you narrow it down to two possible options. Your first option is to implement it yourself - hash/salt the password, store it in a database that you manage, and use it to authenticate … Continue reading The Law of Net Design Costs
Experiences working with an Outsourced Dev Shop
Many years ago, a younger and more naive version of myself decided to try bootstrapping a startup together with my co-founder, while still juggling our full-time jobs. She had the idea, product vision, and contacts for initial users, while I was in charge of tech development. Our plan for the MVP was to launch using … Continue reading Experiences working with an Outsourced Dev Shop
Mutation Driven Testing – When TDD Just Isn’t Good Enough
As someone who loves discussing Software Craftsmanship and best practices, Test Driven Development (TDD) is a bit of a sore spot for me. Let me start off by saying that I love TDD’s emphasis on testing. Too many software projects skimp on testing. And the results speak for themselves many years down the road, when … Continue reading Mutation Driven Testing – When TDD Just Isn’t Good Enough
Why Is There So Much Crap Software In The World
All around us, we are surrounded by crappy software. Pension funds that are stumbling along using decades old batch scripts with faulty assumptions. Credit agencies have leaked over a hundred million social security numbers and other confidential data. Planes need to be rebooted every 51 days to prevent "potentially catastrophic" bugs.And not to even mention … Continue reading Why Is There So Much Crap Software In The World
If Founders Treated Their Investors The Same Way They Treated Their Employees
Founder: Hey Joe! How are you doing? Everyone here loved meeting you, and we would really love to have you on board as our investor! We really respect your expertise, and think this could be a great partnership. What do you say? Investor: Glad to hear! Can you give me more details about how much … Continue reading If Founders Treated Their Investors The Same Way They Treated Their Employees
Preventing Software Rot
I recently came across a story that is just as amusing as it is shocking: One of my clients is responsible for several of the world's top 100 pension funds. They had a nightly batch job that ... crashed. No one knew what was wrong at first. This batch job had never, ever crashed before, … Continue reading Preventing Software Rot
Bayes vs Frequentists – An Empirical Test In Code
You and your friend are walking by a magic store and find a trick coin. You have no clue how biased the coin is, and decide that all possible levels of bias are equally likely. In order to estimate the level of bias, you toss it 14 times and end up with 10 heads. Your … Continue reading Bayes vs Frequentists – An Empirical Test In Code
When Feature Flags Do And Don’t Make Sense
Over the past years, I’ve worked in multiple teams adopting very different strategies when it comes to feature flags. I’ve seen the pros and cons of both, and over time, I found myself disagreeing with any fundamentalist position on their use. There is a lot of nuance to this topic, and I think it is … Continue reading When Feature Flags Do And Don’t Make Sense
The Birth of Legacy Software – How Change Aversion Feeds On Itself
Here's a common pattern that I see play out very often in software teams: There is a need to change the existing system behavior to accomplish new functionality. The software engineer looking at the task realizes that the existing design isn't well suited to the change needed. They suggest design changes and refactoring, as part … Continue reading The Birth of Legacy Software – How Change Aversion Feeds On Itself
Abstractions Are In The Eye Of The Beholder
One of the most common debates I see, is on the right level of abstraction to use when coding. The line between over-engineered and unnecessarily-verbose is a very fuzzy one, and is the source of never-ending debates. Unfortunately, this debate is unlikely to ever get resolved. For one simple reason. The correct answer is both … Continue reading Abstractions Are In The Eye Of The Beholder
Software the Hard way 