Maintainable – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of the Maintainable Software Podcast, Robby sits down with Saron Yitbarek, founder and CEO of DiscoLink, to explore the challenges of maintaining early-stage software while balancing multiple streams of income. Saron shares her journey from being a solo developer to hiring her first teammate and the lessons learned along the way about code maintainability and business logic.

• [00:05:32] Introduction to Saron's Background: Robby and Saron discuss her startup, DiscoLink, and the initial development of its MVP.
• [00:10:50] The Importance of Context in Code: Saron emphasizes why understanding the business decisions behind code is crucial for maintainability.
• [00:15:10] Onboarding a New Developer: Saron shares her experience hiring her first developer and how it changed her approach to software maintenance.
• [00:20:32] Multiple Streams of Income: Saron explains her motivation behind building DiscoLink to help professionals manage different revenue streams.
• [00:25:40] Transparency Around Money: A candid conversation about developers’ fears around charging for their work and how to overcome them.
• [00:30:45] Ethics and Side Projects: Robby and Saron discuss ethical considerations when working on side projects while employed full-time.
• [00:35:12] How Podcasting Shaped Saron's Career: Saron talks about how being a podcast host impacted her career growth and networking.

• Maintainability Beyond Code: Saron highlights the importance of documenting not just the code but also the business rationale behind decisions.
• Onboarding Challenges: Bringing a new developer into a solo-built project requires strong communication, context sharing, and flexible documentation practices.
• The Power of Multiple Income Streams: Saron’s vision with DiscoLink focuses on helping tech professionals build financial security through various revenue channels.
• Confronting Money Anxiety: Many developers struggle with charging for their work, but transparency and community conversations help break down those barriers.
• Ethical Side Projects: It's important to consider the ethical implications of using work-learned skills for personal projects.

• Saron Yitbarek on LinkedIn
• Saron Yitbarek on Twitter
• DiscoLink Website
• Book Recommendation: Formerly Known as Food by Kristin Lawless

Links:

• My newsletter: https://themultihyphenate.ck.page/newsletter

Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.

It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.

Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! 

Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out!

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In this episode of Maintainable, Robby speaks with Lutz Hühnken, Head of Engineering Excellence at Upvest, about the transformative power of event-driven architecture in software development. Lutz brings his extensive experience to the table, discussing how breaking down complex systems into manageable modules and leveraging event-driven design can lead to more resilient and maintainable software.

• [00:05:32] Introduction to Well-Maintained Software: Lutz shares his thoughts on the key characteristics of maintainable software, emphasizing modularity and simplicity.
• [00:10:24] Challenges with "Magic" in Code: The pitfalls of relying too much on frameworks and ORMs, including examples from Lutz’s experience with Hibernate.
• [00:11:16] Understanding Event-Driven Architecture: Lutz explains the fundamentals of event-driven architecture and its advantages over traditional command-driven approaches.
• [00:13:50] The Role of Promises in Event-Driven Systems: How clear design-time responsibilities ensure reliability in event-driven communication.
• [00:15:43] Choreography vs. Orchestration: The debate between these two approaches to managing workflows and why Lutz favors choreography for most systems.
• [00:17:57] Onboarding Developers in Event-Driven Systems: Tips for effectively integrating new team members into an event-driven architecture.
• [00:26:52] The Role of Engineering Excellence at Upvest: Lutz discusses his new role and the importance of systems thinking in guiding architectural decisions.
• [00:34:55] Managing Technical Debt: Lutz offers insights into balancing feature development with addressing technical debt, emphasizing the importance of a healthy investment distribution.

• Breaking down large systems into smaller modules with clear boundaries can significantly enhance maintainability.
• Event-driven architecture offers a powerful way to decouple system components, making them more resilient and scalable.
• Developers should be cautious of "magic" in code, such as heavy reliance on ORMs, which can obscure underlying complexities and hinder maintainability.
• Choreography often provides a more scalable and maintainable approach than orchestration in managing complex workflows.
• Technical debt should be managed proactively, with regular investments in refactoring and productivity enhancements to maintain long-term software health.

• Lutz Hühnken's Blog
• Event-Driven Architecture by Martin Fowler
• The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper
• Event-Driven Architecture Reading List

• LinkedIn
• Mastodon
• Bluesky

Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.

It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.

Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! 

Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out!

Subscribe to Maintainable on:

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• Spotify

Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

In this episode of Maintainable, Robby chats with Paola Ducolin, Staff Engineer at Datadog. Paola shares her insights on the characteristics of well-maintained software, the common struggles teams face, and effective strategies for working with stakeholders to prioritize refactoring.

• Characteristics of Maintainable Software: Paola explains the importance of well-documented code and having tests that automatically detect breaks.
• Challenges in Maintaining Software: The impact of business pressures on maintaining code quality and how teams can navigate these challenges.
• Working with Stakeholders: Strategies for communicating the importance of refactoring and measuring the impact of technical debt on business objectives.
• Role of Staff Engineers: Paola’s journey to becoming a staff engineer and the responsibilities that come with the role, including coordination and networking.
• Documentation and Design Systems: The power of documentation and how design systems can serve as a model for well-documented and maintainable code.
• Observability and Monitoring: An overview of Datadog's tools for observability and monitoring, and how they help in maintaining software quality.

• Datadog
• My Path to Staff Engineer
• Sarah Drasner: The Art of Code Comments

• Radical Candor
• Crucial Conversations

Be sure to follow Paola on LinkedIn and stay tuned for more insightful conversations on Maintainable.

Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and soon, other frameworks.

It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.

Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! Check them out!

Subscribe to Maintainable on:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

Robby 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.

• 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

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Robby 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.

• Learn Academy
• Notch8 Blog
• Robert on Twitter
• Robert on GitHub
• [Book Recommendation] Brain Rules, John Medina

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Robby 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.

• Heidi's book
• Heidi on Twitter
• Heidi's Website
• [Book Recommendation] Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Kerry Patterson and Joseph Genny

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Robby 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.

• Jutta's Website
• Jutta on LinkedIn
• Jutta on Twitter
• [Book Recommendation] Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado Perez

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Robby 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.

• More About John
• [Book Recommendation] 1Q84, Haruki Murakami 

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Robby 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.

• [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
• Theresa's website
• Connect with Theresa on LinkedIn
• Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

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Robby 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.

• Michael on Twitter
• Sprngr.com
• [Book Recommendation] Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport

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