Posted on Podcast

A General Approach To Testing Strategies For Developers

Testing strategies for developers are often seen as lacking import.  To be honest, developers are in their role to write code, not provide quality assurance.  However, that does not excuse the implementers from being part of testing and sharing that work. Simple Testing Strategies For Developers The strength of developers is creating solutions, not testing them.  That is not a knock on developers, we all tend to be weak at verifying our work.  Thus, effective QA work by developers requires a methodical approach that overcomes any biases we have towards our solution.  The methods that work tend to be easy to understand, implement, and repeat for any environment.  In this episode. we look at a common sense approach that will help the... Read more

lambda
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon Lambda – Go Serverless

One of the hot topics in software development these days is serverless applications.  As with so many other areas, Amazon has a service for that.  The Lambda offering is a full-featured way to get started with serverless.  Better yet, they include a large number of tutorials and a repository of serverless apps to help you move from zero to guru in no time. Free Tier Eligible The lambda service includes 1,000,000 free requests per month.  Even better, this does not expire after twelve months.  All AWS subscribers get this free offering.  The pricing for Lambda does include some other details so check out this page for the latest details.  There are also pricing alert options for lambda that you might want to... Read more

Posted on Podcast

Stop and Smell The Roses

Life is a busy thing for those of us in IT and pursuing entrepreneurial goals.  Nevertheless, we still need to find some time to “live” life while still pursuing those areas.  The act of stopping to smell the roses is not only important to our quality of life, it is also a way to be more productive in the long run. Smell The Roses Equals Fun Although the original intent of this phrase was likely more about the finer things in life, in our case I think we need to know what is “fun.”  Getting through a Mario Brothers level may be a fun pursuit for you or painting a portrait or something else.  The goal we discuss in this episode... Read more

new environments
Posted on Become a Better Developer

A Crash Course in Learning New Environments

No matter whether we move around jobs or stay with a single employer, there comes a time where we need to learn new environments.  Sometimes these are simple and well-documented.  However, I have found that the more significant number require some research and digging to understand the work of previous developers.  In this presentation and discussion, we take up the topic of how to proceed when you are dropped into a brand new environment. A Best Practices Approach We can not guarantee that prior developers have followed best practices in creating and documenting their work.  However, we can still follow these suggestions to build our knowledge of the systems while also providing better documentation for those that follow us.  If nothing else, following these... Read more

Posted on Podcast

When to Give In When To Hold Your Ground

There comes a time where you have a difference of opinion from your customer.  This may be due to personal taste, or it may be a misunderstanding.  There are even cases where a customer insists on a path that goes against your experience, morals, ethics, or is otherwise non-negotiable.  There is not one answer for all of these situations so let’s look at reasons why you should hold your ground. You Are The Expert, But They Sign The Check I think the toughest of these situations is when you are a paid consultant or expert.  The customer has come to you for expert advice.  However, they decide to ignore that information.  When this occurs, do not take it personally and... Read more