Andrew Sunderland wants you to be a Craftsman

12/15/19 • 36 min

In this episode I'm chatting with Andrew Sunderland, an Engineering Manager at Ritual.co in Toronto, Canada.
Andrew and I talk about Software Craftsmanship, what that means, how it can be achieved, and what exactly does it give us. We discuss the importance of tests and testable code and how this affects handling legacy code. Andrew mentions that for successful legacy code refactoring, engineers should really read Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers.
We talk about the necessity for continuing to learn and to maintain pace with the speed of change in the Technology sector. We discuss engineering creativity and why engineering companies provide facilities like pool tables and games rooms. We chat about team morale building and how much that should be dependent on a manager or should that be coming from the team itself.
We also find out exactly what Andrew is looking for when hiring team members and touch on how important soft skills are in the engineering world.
Being an Uncle Bob fan, Andrew gives us a recommendation for his latest book release Clean Agile.
I hope you enjoy the show and Happy Christmas!!

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Previous Episode

Communication is Key with Jos van der Linden

In this episode I'm chatting with Jos van der Linden, a Programme Manager at Infocare Healthcare.
Jos and I talk about the stand-out attributes of a professional software developer. Agile methodologies and how deep a software developers knowledge should be. Teams and their skillsets and how teams with differing skillsets thrive. Communication methods and the downfall of some of those methods.
And with Jos being a Programme Manager we talk about estimations, planning and how reliable are those estimations.
Added to all this, Jos gives us a multitude of book recommendations and even one podcast recommendation!

The Tim Ferriss Show by Tim Ferriss
Getting Things Done by David Allen
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eli Goldratt.
Measure What Matters: OKRs by John Doerr
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
IT4IT Reference Architecture by The Open Group

Enjoy!

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Forget the Comments with Raul Portales

Happy New Year.
In this episode I'm chatting to Raul Portales, a Senior Android Engineer in Workday, here in Dublin.
Raul and I talk about commit messaging how to make it usable. We talk about the use of comments and why you should be trying not to use them!! We discuss working with the product team and how ultimately they are nice people who would look for honesty from engineers. And we talk about the value of saying No!!
We also have a discussion around whether software developers should be writing QA Automation code or not.
Raul also kindly gives us two books recommendations, one which is as old as him!
The Mythical Man Month by Frederick Brooks and Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal.
I hope you enjoy the show and if so, do please subscribe.

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