(This is a shorter version of my talk for DeliveryConf, January 2020. Video of slides+audio; Slides as pdf) Good software is still alive. The other day, I asked my twelve year old daughter for recommendations of drawing programs. She told me about one (FireAlpaca?) “It’s free, and it updates pretty often.” She contrasted that with … Read moreTaking care of code … more and more code
Legacy code is software that is no longer alive in someone’s head. No person has a mental model of how it works, no one has the stories of why. This is already the common case in software systems, and it will only grow more normal. Understanding an entire piece of the system is a luxury. … Read moreDon’t know. Find out.
It is better to practice risky things often and in small chunks with a limited blast radius, rather than to avoid risky things. Charity Majors, “Test in production? Yes“ Charity is writing about deploys. Not-deploying may be safer for tonight, but in the medium term it leads to larger deploys and bigger, trickier failures. In … Read moreTiny dramas, tiny deploys