Tech Lead Journal Henry Suryawirawan

“Spend some time looking at the system in which you work. Understand how the work is working. Understand how flow is for your organization. And then you can work to optimize that."

James Lewis is a Director at ThoughtWorks and a pioneer of microservice architecture. In this episode, we went back memory lane to the time when James first coined and popularized the microservice architecture. James described his definition of a microservice and its important characteristics. He also shared the recent microservice evolution, including the swing between microservice and monolith. In the second half, James shared his insights from complexity science related to different scaling patterns. Particularly, he explained how different hierarchy types can affect an organization’s growth rate. Towards the end, James gave some tips on how organization can detect signs of suboptimal growth and what we can do to maintain organizational agility.  

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:03:48]
Coining Microservices - [00:07:25]
Definition of Microservices - [00:14:13]
Microservices Swing - [00:18:42]
Scaling Law and Complexity Science - [00:24:05]
Complex and Adaptive System - [00:40:01]
Examining Sublinear Growth - [00:43:47]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:19]

_____

James Lewis’s BioJames is a Software Architect and Director at Thoughtworks based in the UK. He’s proud to have been a part of Thoughtworks’ journey for fourteen years and it’s ongoing mission of delivering technical excellence for its clients and in amplifying positive social change for an equitable future. As a member of the Thoughtworks Technical Advisory Board, the group that creates the Technology Radar, he contributes to industry adoption of open source and other tools, techniques, platforms and languages.

He is an internationally recognised expert on software architecture and design and on its intersection with organisational design and lean product development. After defining what was the newly emerging Microservices architectural style back in 2014, James’ primary consulting focus these days is helping organisations with technology strategy, distributed systems design and adoption of SOA.

Follow James Lewis:


Twitter – @boicy
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/james-lewis-microservices/
Email – james.lewis@thoughtworks.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/135
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The three core dimensions of developer experience are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state."

Margaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey and Abi Noda are the coauthors of the recently published ACM paper “DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity”. In this episode, we discussed how we can better measure and improve developer productivity using a developer-centric approach. Peggy and Abi first began by explaining the importance of socio-technical factors in software development. They also shared their view on the well-known SPACE and DORA metrics, and pointed out the danger of misusing and abusing the DORA metrics. Peggy and Abi then explained the three core dimensions of developer experience from their latest paper, which are feedback loops, cognitive load, and flow state. Towards the end, Peggy and Abi shared tips on how we can start measuring developer experience, including how to conduct developer surveys properly.  

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:04:09]
First Developer Experience Paper - [00:06:19]
Socio-Technical Factors - [00:07:37]
SPACE & DORA Metrics - [00:13:35]
Misuse and Abuse of DORA Metrics - [00:18:52]
New Developer Experience Paper - [00:22:29]
Developer Experience - [00:24:55]
3 Core Dimensions - [00:28:11]
Optimizing Feedback Loops - [00:32:44]
Cognitive Load - [00:37:06]
Flow State - [00:40:32]
Importance of Culture - [00:46:25]
Measuring Developer Experience - [00:50:27]
Conducting Survey - [00:54:29]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [01:00:10]

_____

Margaret-Anne Storey’s BioMargaret-Anne (Peggy) Storey is a professor of computer science at the University of Victoria and holds a Canada Research Chair in human and social aspects of software engineering. Her research focuses on improving processes, tools, communication, and collaboration in software engineering. She serves as chief scientist at DX and consults with Microsoft to improve developer productivity.

Abi Noda’s BioAbi Noda is the founder and CEO at DX, where he leads the company’s strategic direction and R&D efforts. His work focuses on developing measurement methods to help organizations improve developer experience and productivity. Before joining DX, Noda held engineering leadership roles at various companies and founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019. For more information, visit his website at abinoda.com.

Follow Margaret:


LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/margaret-anne-storey-8419462
Twitter – @margaretstorey

Follow Abi:


LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/abinoda
Twitter – @abinoda
Newsletter – newsletter.abinoda.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/134.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The goal of requirements development is clear and effective communication. Thus, it has to be done in an incremental and iterative fashion."

Karl Wiegers is the coauthor of “Software Requirements Essentials” and has previously appeared in our episode #103. In this episode, we discussed 6 essential practices for software requirements out of the 20 core practices specified in his book. Karl also explained the importance of having a clear and effective communication in developing software requirements, his view on doing software requirements for Agile teams, and the importance of having good software requirements for becoming an effective software development team and for avoiding unnecessary rework.  

Listen out for:


What Karl is Up To Lately - [00:04:08]
Writing “Software Requirements Essentials” - [00:05:20]
Software Requirements - [00:10:19]
Clear & Effective Communication - [00:13:20]
Importance of Requirement Details - [00:16:19]
Practice #1 - Understand the Problem Before Converging on a Solution - [00:22:05]
Practice #3 - Define the Solution’s Boundaries - [00:26:26]
Requirements Elicitation vs Requirements Gathering - [00:30:47]
Practice #6 - Understand What Users Need to Do With the Solution - [00:33:01]
Software Requirements in Agile - [00:37:06]
Requirements & Effective Software Development - [00:40:59]
Rework - [00:44:39]
Practice #19 - Establish and Manage Requirement Baselines - [00:46:20]
Practice #13 - Prioritize the Requirements - [00:49:17]
Practice #20 - Manage Changes to Requirements Effectively - [00:52:22]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:55:54]

_____

Karl Wiegers’s BioKarl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 14 books, including Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction. Karl has delivered more than 650 training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. You can reach him at ProcessImpact.com or KarlWiegers.com, where you can also hear more than 50 songs he has recorded just for fun, including 18 originals that he wrote.

Follow Karl:


LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/karlwiegers
Website – karlwiegers.com
Software Requirements Essentials – softwarereqs.com
Process Impact – processimpact.com
Medium – karlwiegers.medium.com

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/133.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Speak about topics you are passionate about, because if you are passionate about something, you can easily find the story and the motivation that will lead you to success."

Oscar Santolalla is the author of “Rock the Tech Stage” and the host of the “Time to Shine” podcast. In this episode, we discussed techniques on how to deliver a successful tech presentation and demo. Oscar broke down the elements of a successful tech presentation, in particular, explaining in-depth the three essential elements of passion, storytelling, and interaction. Oscar also shared some practical tips on how to deliver a killer product demo, some presentation slides hacks, and insights on how we can use our voice more effectively when delivering talks.  

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:03:47]
Writing Public Demo and Public Speaking Books - [00:08:40]
Elements of a Successful Public Speaking - [00:12:52]
Passion - [00:23:10]
Storytelling - [00:25:20]
Delivering Product Demos - [00:28:55]
Presentation Slides - [00:34:56]
Importance of Voice - [00:38:31]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:42:09]

_____

Oscar Santolalla’s BioAfter a decade and a half in the technology arena, Oscar embarked on a mission to help people in technology companies present better, inspire others, and sell more. He is author of “Rock the Tech Stage” (Apress, 2020) and “Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo” (Apress, 2018). Oscar helps professionals in the technology industry rediscover the power of sharing their best ideas onstage.

Since 2014, Oscar hosts Time to Shine, the pioneer podcast show in public speaking. He works as a Senior Sales Engineer at Ubisecure, in which he hosts the podcast “Let’s Talk About Digital Identity” and leads the company’s product training program. He has also contributed as speaking coach in several TEDx events. Oscar lives in Helsinki, Finland.

Follow Oscar:


LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/oscarsantolalla
Twitter – @osantolalla
Website – rockthetechstage.com
Rock the Tech Stage On Demand – rockthetechstage.com/ondemand (25% off with code: techleadjournal)

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/132
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“The notion of transaction, consistency, and ACID compliance are many times tech imposed. It should be the business that makes the decision. We as technologists should not make that decision."

Pramod Sadalage is a Director at ThoughtWorks and the co-author of the Jolt Award winning “Refactoring Databases”. In this episode, we discussed data essentials in software architecture. Pramod started by explaining why dealing with data is hard in software architecture and some data related concerns we should think about when making architecture decisions. He then shared the thought process of how we can choose the right database for our purpose and shared insights on data modeling differences between SQL and NoSQL. Pramod also touched on the important considerations in managing transactions and the trade-offs between ACID and eventual consistency. Towards the end, Pramod shared practical advice on the step-by-step how we can split a monolithic database through database refactoring.  

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:04:23]
Data is Hard - [00:15:57]
Data Related Architecture Concerns - [00:18:36]
Choosing the Right Database - [00:24:19]
Data Modeling in SQL vs NoSQL - [00:30:28]
Managing Transactions - [00:37:31]
Tradeoff Between ACID & Eventual Consistency - [00:44:06]
Refactoring Database - [00:46:58]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:54:58]

_____

Pramod Sadalage’s BioPramod Sadalage is Director at ThoughtWorks where he enjoys the rare role of bridging the divide between database professionals and application developers. In the early 00’s he developed techniques to allow relational databases to be designed in an evolutionary manner based on version-controlled schema migrations. He is co-author of Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures, co-author for Building Evolutionary Architectures - Automated Software Governance, co-author of Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design, co-author of NoSQL Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Emerging World of Polyglot Persistence, author of Recipes for Continuous Database Integration and continues to speak and write about the insights he and his clients learn.

Follow Pramod Sadalage:


Twitter – @pramodsadalage
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/pramodsadalage
Website – sadalage.com
Database Refactoring – databaserefactoring.com
DevOps for DBA – devopsfordba.com
Agile Data – agiledata.org

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/131
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

“Understand the stage of your company and the kind of risks you face at that stage, make decisions that are appropriate, and remind other people about that all the time."

Sarah Milstein is the VP of Engineering at Daily and has run remote teams for 25 years. In this episode, Sarah started by sharing some remote work insights we may not have heard before, such as why remote distributed teams often have higher propensity of trust, how remote work could help make difficult conversations easier, and how leaders can establish swift trust by having more intentional communications. In the second half of our conversation, Sarah shared about her experience of leading engineers as someone from a non-tech background. She explained why a lack of technical expertise can sometimes be useful and pointed out some leadership qualities an engineering leader should have to balance out the need for technical acumen. Sarah also shared her few tips on how to upskill herself in technical stuffs and her perspective on whether a company should consider having non-tech engineering leaders.  

Listen out for:


Career Journey - [00:03:49]
Remote Work Insights - [00:08:04]
Propensity of Trust - [00:12:26]
Working Back in Office - [00:15:39]
Other Remote Work Insights - [00:17:36]
Ingroup Bias - [00:20:47]
Swift Trust & Intentional Communication - [00:23:21]
Accountability - [00:28:28]
Being an Engineering Leader from a Non-Tech Background - [00:30:50]
Leadership Qualities - [00:33:31]
Benefits of Non-Tech Background - [00:35:15]
Self-Learning Technical Stuffs - [00:39:23]
Company Accepting Non-Tech Engineering Leaders - [00:41:51]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:45:14]

_____

Sarah Milstein’s BioSarah Milstein is VP of Engineering at Daily, which lets developers add real-time video and audio to any app or website. Before Daily, Sarah held executive roles at ConvertKit, Mailchimp,18F.gov, and indie.vc. She was also CEO and co-founder of Lean Startup Productions and co-author of The Twitter Book. Earlier, she was a freelance journalist writing regularly for The New York Times. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and has run remote teams for 25 years.

Follow Sarah:


Website – sarahmilstein.com
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/sarahmilstein

_____

Our Sponsors

Are you looking for a new cool swag? Tech Lead Journal now offers you some swags that you can purchase online. These swags are printed on-demand based on your preference, and will be delivered safely to you all over the world where shipping is available. Check out all the cool swags available by visiting techleadjournal.dev/shop. And don't forget to brag yourself once you receive any of those swags.



Like this episode?

Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/130
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.