Marijn is the guest of this episode, and he brings his heuristic: Do NOT rewrite from scratch if it is in production (https://marijn.huizendveld.com/design-heuristics/do-not-rewrite-from-scratch-if-it-is-in-production). He gives examples of how to evolve software in production, reducing the risk of building the same thing in a new tech stack. We di…

Our guest for this episode is Charity Majors. The pattern that serves as the stage for the episode is “Build Confidence” from the Object-Oriented Reengineering Patterns (http://scg.unibe.ch/download/oorp/OORP.pdf). Charity describes the infamous “death spiral”, where folks that produce code lack confidence in their processes and practices to deploy…

In this episode, we host Marco Heimeshoff. The interview starts with the heuristic “Optimise for future potential” from the DDD Heuristics repository (https://www.dddheuristics.com/design-heuristics/optimise-for-future-potential/). Marco will take us through the journey of optimising for future potential, where he explains the need for boundaries a…

In this week's episode, we host Alayshia Knighten. She is challenged with the “Manage inertia” pattern from the Simon Wardley Cotrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Manage_inertia). She shares how she manages expectations to manage inertia with their customers. For that time is needed! During our conversa…

This week in the podcast, we feature Danyel Fisher. He brought the heuristic “Users are correct but not accurate” from his repository. As a starter, Danyel explains that users have goals that aren’t able to express well, and we need to use different methods to discover the needs. We discuss what makes a high performing team, and in his opinion, one…

Episode 58 is out. A long journey, and today with us, we have Phillip Carter. Phillip brings a heuristic from his repository: “Focusing on developer experience can make your products more powerful and your teams more empowered”. We deep dive into what is developer experience and how some companies don’t get it right. For example, developer experien…

In this episode, we interview Heidi Helfand. She is challenged with the “Think aptitude and attitude” pattern from the Wardley Maps Doctrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Think_aptitude_and_attitude). During the episode, Heidi shares her experiences in a learning environment and how it can be set up to a…

We host Jessica Kerr for this episode. She is challenged with the heuristic “Commit to the direction, be adaptive along the path” from the Simon Wardley Doctrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Commit_to_the_direction.2C_be_adaptive_along_the_path). She explains her own heuristic, “Having a quest” since of…

In this episode, we host Abby Bangser. She is challenged with the heuristic “Timebox the unknown” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/timebox/). She shared a recent real-life example of how timeboxing can narrow the problem space towards a solution which can be helpful from day one. During our conversation, she shared…

Matt Lawrence is our guest, and he is challenged with the biggest heuristic so far: “Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.”, also known as “Jakob’s Law”. The heuristic is part of the “Jakob Nielsen Usability Heuristics” and can be found he…

Mathias Verraes is the guest of this episode, and for the first time, we have more than one heuristic! Mathias brings three Loss Aversion heuristics from his personal repository. When we make decisions, we often do not explore options that have a risk of loss, even if that loss is balanced out by potential gains. These heuristics help you overcome …

We are back with a new episode featuring Emily Bache. We start with a heuristic close to her work, “Working software is not enough, we need well-crafted software”. Emily shares her view on how code quality is essential, not only for the code maintainability but also to onboard new people on the team, increasing productivity. The interview flows tow…

In this episode, Anand Safi is our guest. Anand is challenged with the “Most Valuable First” pattern from the Object-Oriented Reengineering Patterns repository (http://scg.unibe.ch/download/oorp/OORP.pdf). He starts to analyse value based on the different zoom levels: organisation, team and individuals. Anand explains the high degree of variance th…

Jason Rosoff is the guest of this episode. We start the interview with the pattern “Personalized relationships for co-creation” from the Cloud Native Transformations repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/personalized-relationships-for-co-creation). Jason explains the difference between a complex and complicated problem and how…

Today, our guest is Liz Keogh. She is challenged with the heuristic “Ongoing Education‘ from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/ongoing-education). We discuss the learning at the individual, team and organisation levels. As the interview unfolds, Liz links Cynefin domains to the different learning …

In this episode, we host Andrea Goulet, and she brings her own heuristic: “Empathy system architecture”. She has been doing research about empathy within the software industry, and the results are amazing. We discuss the implications of empathy both at the individual level, as well as, group level. Last but not the least, we discuss one of her pass…

Dragan Stepanović is our guest, and he brings his heuristic: “Continuous code reviews enable higher team's throughput”. We dive into Dragan’s research on how async code reviews affect the quality and throughput of teams that create and maintain software. He also shares how his research challenged some of his assumptions, and we finalise discussing …

Today we host Johanna Rothman, and she is challenged with the heuristic “Get the team in a rhythm” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/team-rhythm/). She starts explaining how the team rhythm and feedback cycles are connected and can strengthen each other. We discuss the role of a manager, and also how the managers sh…

Monarch Wadia is our guest, and he is challenged with the heuristic “Master your tools” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/master-your-tools/). Monarch gives a different perspective to master the tools, which stems from his experience as a Bootcamp organiser. We discuss the differences between colleague and Bootcamp …

In this episode, Julie Lerman is our guest, and she is challenged with the pattern “Conserve familiarity” from the Object-Oriented Reengineering Patterns repository (http://scg.unibe.ch/download/oorp/OORP.pdf). Throughout her career, Julie uses this pattern to be an enabler for conversations with people who use the systems. The talks are crucial to…

Jeppe Cramon is the guest for this episode. He is challenged with the pattern “Make a Bridge to the New Town” from the Object-Oriented Reengineering Patterns repository (http://scg.unibe.ch/download/oorp/OORP.pdf). Jeppe shares his experiences using this pattern, and we discuss the different technical implementations that can be used to migrate bet…

Aviv Ben-Yosef is our guest for this episode. We will start with the heuristic “Dynamic Strategy”, from the Cloud Native Patterns (https://www.cnpatterns.org/strategy-risk-reduction/dynamic-strategy). Aviv explains different approaches from executives, namely CTO’s and VP of Engineering, linking to the impact they have on their organisations. From …

If you are curious about the guest, we are hosting Lea Kovac Beckman. She is challenged with the heuristic “Be curious” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/curiosity/). She describes how cycles of curiosity and boredom can foster innovation, what is the impact as persons, but also in this digital era, and how it impac…

Einar Høst is the guest of this week. He is challenged with the heuristic “It’s easier to keep a system working than to fix it after you break it” from the Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). Einar describes how feedback cycles are critical to keeping a system working and how complex…

In this episode, we host James Urquhart. James is challenged with the heuristic “Use of standard interfaces and protocols for event-driven integration”, based on his recent work. We discuss the changes in the behaviour of teams creating software when they embrace an event-driven integration, together with leveraging engineering practices like conti…

This week, Peter Maddison is our guest, and he is challenged with the heuristic “Measure what matters” from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/strategy-risk-reduction/measure-what-matters). We discuss how to measure value and what techniques can be helpful to define metrics for teams creating and delivering software. W…

Andrew Harmel-Law is our guest of this week, and he will share his experiences over the heuristic “Maximize cohesion, minimize coupling” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/maximize-cohesion-minimize-coupling/). We start discussing the original scope of the heuristic, the software code, but quickly expand to his exper…

This week on our show, we have Niranjani! She will share her opinion and experiences about the heuristic “Sleep easy on a green build” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/no-broken-builds/). We discuss her recent journey, where continuous improvement based on a green (or red) build drove the teams to find solutions to…

Ken Power is challenged with the heuristic “Use a systematic mechanism of learning” from the Simon Wardley Doctrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Use_a_systematic_mechanism_of_learning). He shares how he learns, with structure and unstructured approaches, and also how teams and organisations can learn. O…

A new episode is out, and today we feature Dawn Ahukanna (@dawnahukanna). She is challenged with the heuristic “Your solution should not be more complicated than the problem” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/kiss/). We discuss what solution vs problem space needs, and how different disciplines complement each other…

This week, Steve Pereira will be challenged with the heuristic “Remove bias and duplication” from the Wardley Doctrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Remove_bias_and_duplication). We will discuss different contexts where duplication can hinder or accelerate, and the importance of value streams. He shares …

In this episode, our guest Trond Hjorteland is challenged with the heuristic “Complex systems evolve out of simple systems that worked” from Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). We discussed how communication is important, and moving from the big picture to code and back. He shares th…

“Design for constant evolution” is the heuristic for our guest, Edzo Botjes. The heuristic is part of the Simon Wardley Doctrine repository (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Design_for_constant_evolution). Edzo discusses resilient and antifragile systems as part of his research. We discuss how organisations are address…

New year, new episode. Mykola Gurov is the first guest of the year, and we challenge him with the heuristic “Diagnose before cure” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/diagnose-before-cure/). Mykola shares his opinion about observability and the importance to challenge our assumptions and bias. Focus on the purpose of …

Today Laveena Ramchandani will share her experiences about the heuristic “Tests should be fast, reliable and independent” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/independent-tests/). We discuss how to combine these 3 qualities to the test practices. We deep dive into the field of Data Science, and how test practices can b…

This week we feature Melissa Benua as our guest. She will share her experiences and opinion about the heuristic “Distribute power and decision making” from the Simon Wardley Doctrine (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Distribute_power_and_decision_making). She will share her heuristics to move between different leadersh…

Gitte Klitgaard is our guest. She will tell us her experiences and practices with the pattern “Blameless inquiry” for the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/blameless-inquiry). We will explore the different behaviours at a team and individual level, and how we can nurture a healthy culture. We discuss …

This week Manuel Pais is our guest. We challenge him with the pattern “Internal Evangelism” from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/internal-evangelism). How the different Team Topologies archetypes and their relationship with this pattern. Our conversation goes into the necessary skills to be an i…

This week Xin Yao is our guest. She will share her opinion about the heuristic “Think Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant (FIRE)” from the Simon Wardley Doctrine (https://wardleypedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Doctrine_Patterns#Think_Fast.2C_Inexpensive.2C_Restrained.2C_and_Elegant_.28FIRE.29). We navigate between the four principles and Xin’s…

New week, new episode. And the guest is Khaled Souf, and I challenge him with the heuristic “Split functionality into small units” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/thirty-minute-methods/). Khaled will explain how he approaches software, and what are the tools, practices and techniques that he uses to deliver value.…

Sander is the guest of this week. We will share his experiences with the pattern “Reproducible development environments” from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/development-design/reproducible-dev-environments). Sander will teel his experience from software engineer to tech director, and his path to be pragmatic. We di…

Parveen Khan is our guest! This episode she will give her opinion and experiences about the heuristic “You get what you measure” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/what-you-measure/). She will share how she measures her goals to drive her career, and how she fell in love with Observability. We discuss how the role of…

And a new episode is out. This week our guest is Ben Mosior, and we will ramble about the heuristic “Prefer rich modes of communication” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/rich-communication/). Our discussion will be centre on communication, from synchronous to asynchronous, from visual to verbal. Ben will share his …

Pat Kua is our guest for this episode. He will share his thoughts on the pattern “Decide Closest to the Action” from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/decide-closest-to-the-action). We will discuss technical leadership and management. What that means for a technical management role, and what are t…

In this week’s episode, we have Nick Tune as our guest. He will rumble about the heuristic “The ability to improve a design occurs primarily at the interfaces. This is also the prime location for screwing it up.” from the Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). We discuss how software de…

Jessy Halison is our guest for episode 18. She will share her experiences about the pattern "Manage for Creativity from Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/organization-culture/manage-for-creativity). We will discuss organisational models, and how psychology safety is key for teams and individuals to grow. She also describe…

In this episode, Tobias Goeschel shares his experiences with the pattern “Strangle Monolith Application” from Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/development-design/strangle-monolithic-application). From the software crafting practices to his own bias, we chat about how he learns, and how we can advance our profession. Tobi…

In this episode, Lisa Crispin shares her experiences with the pattern “Delayed Automation” from the Cloud Native Patterns repository (https://www.cnpatterns.org/development-design/delayed-automation). We discuss the different trade-offs of applying it, based on different contexts. I also ask a long-time question: What can we learn from donkeys? If …

In this week episode, Andra Sonea is telling us when she focuses on the specific problem or distils the general solution. She will share her experiences based on the heuristic “Solve the specific problem, not the general case” from the Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). We will disc…

In this episode, Julius Gamanyi is the guest. We will discuss the longest heuristic so far: “Past experience is excellent for providing a reality check. Too much reality can doom an otherwise worthwhile design, though” from Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). We discuss how we can ba…