How was your summer? Does it feel like it's still happening, or are you already back in the thick of things? It's been a bit of both for me over the last few weeks. I've been in and out of holiday mode. The weather is still hot, but the office is in action. Next week, I'm off to London, where I'll be attending the second edition of the Fast Flow Conference with the Team Topologies organisation and heading to SaaS CTO Conference to meet with tech leaders and find out what's got them worried...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
“Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration... Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” – Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life You're receiving this because you subscribed to receive updates about "Human Software" or you're on my Human DevOps mailing list. The summer season is upon us. Originally I was aiming to have some early chapters of my debut novel "Human Software" available to...
3 months ago • 2 min read
It has not by any means been a good summer in the Netherlands. It's been very wet and the last few days have also been extremely windy. At work, on the streets and on the roads, there is a tension. I try to take the time to go out for a lunchtime walk at least a couple of times a week and took this photo last week during a gap in the rain. The Middelpolder And we head towards the summer break, make sure to take some time to relax before you face the serious business of relaxation. I'm taking...
3 months ago • 1 min read
I lived in London in 1997 when the Tony Blair "New Labour" government swept into power. It was a time of great hope and audacity. It felt like "we" could do anything, but then I was 25 years old and living in London, and indeed, anything did, in fact, feel possible because I was at the dawn of my career without responsibilities or the weight of history behind my thoughts and actions. So perhaps older and wiser, we are here. The UK has been (according to some) bitten down by 14 years of Tory...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Do you always want more? More opportunities, more recognition for your work, more advancement? Sometimes, it's just knowing more, solving problems, and being right. What do we do to ourselves as software engineers and programmers that makes us want to do more all the time? We want to know more, write more, read more and perhaps even present more. I was interacting with someone on LinkedIn this Friday, and it made me reflect on what I am doing now compared to what I did a year ago. A year ago,...
4 months ago • 2 min read
We've spent trillions of dollars trying to digitally transform business, but for the most part, we are still building poor-quality software systems. We've not learnt from our past mistakes. Instead, we think that by bolting on more and more systems, toolkits and frameworks, we can 'solve' how to build great and integrate software. DevOps and CI/CD should enable a faster flow of quality software, but our implementations are often lacking. They pay lip service to the tools and processes but...
4 months ago • 2 min read
It's good to recognise our changing preferences as we move through the world of software engineering and use those moments to choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes we want to create, sometimes we want to retrench - perhaps refactor something, improve something, add more tests, change our architecture either subtly or fundamentally. In the world of SaaS and open source, we have more than just language, cloud or platform choices. We have tool choices which can mean that we do less...
4 months ago • 1 min read
I have an emotional reaction to peanut butter that is so strong, it’s actually physical. I feel physically sick getting it on me, cleaning it off a surface, or even contemplating eating it. Why? A story. When I was seven, my parents sent me to a preparatory school. During the weekdays, I would board—I would stay over—in a dormitory with other kids around my age. I would come home on Friday night and then leave again for school on Sunday afternoon. I dreaded it. At least, to begin with, I...
5 months ago • 1 min read
I'm sitting on the sidelines watching another big digital transformation roll into town. Those who have tried this before before know that big digital transformations don't work, so we're better not calling them that. Instead, these days we talk about cultural change. Realistically though this means the same thing. How can you recognise one happening in your firm? Well, suddenly there are a lot of meetings, and workshops looking backwards and training looking forwards. Some people might call...
5 months ago • 1 min read