Setting expectations for software engineers is tricky for all managers. Every company has different needs and a different structure, tech stack, and culture. Whenever someone joins a team, one of the
"We ran out of columns" - The best, worst codebase Oh the merchants2 table? Yeah, we ran out of columns on merchants, so we made merchants2 When I started programming as a kid, I didn't know people we
What do the calendars of entrepreneurs, VIPs, and famous business people look like? When I met Taylor Pearson, we nerded out over scheduling. We’d compare notes, ideas, and theories on how to optimize
This is my claim: we, as a civilization, forgot how to center things. I mean, we know how to do it. It has never been simpler: (don’t ask why you need to remember four words instead of just horizontal
👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. If you’re not a subscriber yet, here are recent issues you missed: Software engineers leading projects The tech hiri
Software projects are tough. They have a habit of teaching hard lessons. Move too fast, without solid foundations and care, and the results can be messy. Move too slowly, without urgency, ruthless pri
Business is noisy. Business is full of people worrying loudly about projects, processes, and other people. These people have opinions, and they share them all over the place — all the time. This colle
DEVOPS How we doubled our team’s delivery performance within a year as measured by DORA metrics. Published inBooking.com Engineering · 10 min read· Jan 15, 2024 -- source Imagine your team secured a b
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in a planning meeting, assigning estimates to tickets, and either found yourself multitasking, falling asleep, texting a friend, or otherwise being entirely unengag
Introduction It was the middle of 2020, and it became clear to Slack’s Chief Product Officer Noah Desai Weiss that the product’s first-day user experience needed a complete overhaul. Up until this poi
👋 Hi, this is Ryan with this week’s newsletter. I write about software engineering, big tech/startups, and career growth. Thank you for your readership, we hit 44,000 readers this week 🙏 🎉 This week,
Update: you can find this topic covered in much greater detail in my Book . In this article, we’ll focus on 1 to 1s, which provide a key opportunity every week (yes, every week ) to engage with your s
“Productivity is all about efficiency and planning.” – Mahdi Yusuf, Iterate 2018 Like most developers, I love getting shit done. My best days are when I feel like I’ve been massively productive. When
How should I best make use of my time? In the previous post, we looked at some techniques that I find useful for keeping all of my information under control. Certainly, for the new manager, striving f
Someone recently asked me if I had advice for early-career programmers. At first I thought this was a silly question. I only entered the workforce ten years ago; many of my newsletter subscribers have
Top highlight 6 min read · Dec 3 Over many years, “DevOps” practitioners applied Theory Of Constraints to our problems, ruthlessly optimizing our delivery pipelines and practices. Manual release manag
I've always found distributed systems to be the most fascinating branch ofcomputer science. I think the reason is that distributed systems are subject tothe rules of the physical world just like we ar
Build Your Own Technology Radar For most of the 90’s and the beginning of the 2000s, I was the CTO of a small training and consulting company. When I started there, the primary platform was Clipper, w
It may be the case that the problem with your manager is… you . Let’s start with the thing that you don’t want to hear: your manager will always disappoint you. This isn’t necessarily because they are
So, you’ve just begun your first day in a team lead position. Congratulations! If you’ve arrived from outside the organization, you’re probably busy with induction meetings, getting your desk set up (
Erm, so what should we talk about? Just like meeting any human being for the first time, your first 1 to 1 can go in a multitude of different ways. You might be lucky enough to instantly gel with your
Why do I feel like I get nothing done? A common concern that I hear when talking to new managers is the feeling that they’re getting nothing done. There are so many interactions and tasks in flight an
Upwards? Whilst we may typically think of the “management” part of being a manager as the relationship between yourself and those who report to you, it’s equally important to think about how to handle
So I’m getting someone else to do my work? Delegation is very powerful. Yet, for new managers, the process can feel really weird. A career spent as an individual contributor, where one is responsible
Easy, right? The concept of giving feedback is simple to grasp: you want to let people know when they are doing a stellar job so that they can receive praise, and conversely, you want to let people kn
Wow, this is so much more tiring than programming… Those who manage others: have you ever had one of those days where you feel like work has completely sapped you of all of your emotional energy? Don’
It’s that time of year again… Update: you can find this topic covered in much greater detail in my Book . Let’s get one thing straight: nobody likes performance reviews. They’re essential yet unpleasa
How do we grow? You have a responsibility to your staff to understand their career aspirations and facilitate their growth in the right direction. But what should they be aiming for, and who is accoun
It’s not just the technology It may be straightforward to look at the best companies of recent years and deduce that they succeeded due to having the best technology. There’s probably a lot of truth t
Let’s talk about the interview process Tech company interviews have become the stuff of legend. Tales of impossible questions, nerve-wracking whiteboard coding, bizarre brain teasers, you name it: the
Have you got a minute? We’ve all been there. For the first time in a while, you’re having a pretty good day. You’ve not had many interruptions and you’re making measurable progress on the things you n
Pick Up What They Put Down The Ultimate Hack for Learning In Public swyx 2020-01-01 Translations welcome! ( Português ) A fully expanded and revised version is available in The Coding Career Handbook
Hey, Luca here! Welcome to the Monday 3-2-1 ✨ Every Monday I will send you an email like this with 3 short ideas about engineering management, technical strategy, and good hiring. You will also receiv
EXPEDIA GROUP TECHNOLOGY — ENGINEERING A framework for giving feedback to others’ code Published inExpedia Group Technology · 8 min read· Jul 25, 2023 -- Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash Feedback is
I've often heard both new and experienced managers expressing concerns about how to run 1to1s with their direct reports and other collaborators. They sometimes feel trapped in a narrow interpretation
Someone on Reddit once asked for “unethical career advice” for software developers. Here’s the most highly rated answer with over two thousand people liking it : Make a good first impression and you’r
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