~ Software engineering ~

Licensed Engineers

It is possible to be a licensed software engineer, but almost no one has bothered. License or not, it’s still Engineering

Engineers Estimate

Engineers all make estimates. Some are good, and some aren’t. That’s hardly unique to software engineering. Just another way software engineering IS engineering.

Constraints

The primary job of an engineer is to balance competing constraints to provide value. This is done via a deep understanding of the problem space, the available tools, materials, technologies, and processes, and the requirements. That’s what engineering is.

Dijkstra On Bugs

Edgser Dijkstra is a giant in the field of software engineering. Over his career he’s said a lot about the way developers go about their business, including how developers need bugs. I don’t necessarily agree, but there’s a lot to think about there.

Code Coverage Is Not Enough

As leader of a Software Quality team, part of my job is to measure and report on code coverage. The thing is, code coverage, by itself, isn’t enough to prove correctness and provide confidence. But it is something that helps you along the way.

Home Ownership and Software Updates

While software engineers are engineers, software development is NOT construction. There are however some similarities between the two. Especially when thinking about remodeling.

K. I. S. S.

We think we want a one size fits all solution because it will be easier and save time. But it never does.

You Broke What?

It happens to everyone. What happens next is what’s important. That’s where the blames post-mortem comes in

Monolith Is A Deployment Strategy, Not An Architecture

It’s important to distinguish the how from the what and the why.

Permission, Approval, and Feedback

You might need permission, but feedback is more valuable.

Any fool can write code the computer understands.

You can write bad code in any language. You can write good code in any language. The choice is yours.

Effective Software Engineers

Perhaps oddly, perhaps not, the traits of an effective software engineer have nothing to do with software