A Quick Question 🤔
Aug 12, 2022 2:01 pm
Happy Friday!
There are times when I've had to accept that my aptitude isn't always what I wish it was. Sort of like, I know there are a few things I'm good at even if they aren't the things I wish I was good at.
For the past week, I've been feeling like I should do something I haven't really ever tried to do. I feel like I should intentionally share how I do the things I'm actually good at. Most of the time when I write or speak I hover around the topics I'm best at. Not because I think what I do is some secret that only I should know, but because it's really hard to put into words what comes rather naturally to me.
This is where I have a question for you. I'd like you to share your opinion with me on which area I should write more about. I think I'd turn my blogging efforts towards that area and see if a book emerges. Since this will be harder for me to write than my first book, I want to focus on a topic that you care about.
Option 1: How-To Thrive and Survive as a Developer
This option is about what I've come to know and teach other developers so that they excel in their profession. I would dive into technical practices and approaches to problems, working with teams, working with leadership, becoming resilient in the job market, and separating yourself from the rest of the industry. Developers who read this book would be able to work anywhere, ship faster and with higher quality, and stand as someone people trust within any organization to handle complex problems responsibly.
Option 2: A Winner Takes All Approach to Building and Leading Teams
A great team is more than the sum of its parts. This option is going to cover what I do and my approach to building exceptional software teams that are in a different league than their peers. My teams can handle change in organizations because they take care of one another. My teams can ship software in 1/3rd of the time as their peers. They ship with higher quality, which is often bug-free software. They solve the problems that have been holding themselves back. They are fearless, capable, and make a difference.
So those are the two topics I'm considering, and I'd love to know which of the two you are most interested in. I'd also love to hear any thoughts about what you want from your topic of choice.
Just reply back with your choice and whatever feedback you'd like to give.
Oh, one little nugget before I go, here's a formula I use to justify the cost of automated tests:
Cost to Automate ((Time to write test + Time to execute) * $52)/ Cost to Manually Test (Time to test (10-30 min * $52))
A quick example: A team needs should test that their form only accepts emails. It takes them roughly 15 minutes to test by hand, costing $13 per time they need to test. Someone advocates for automating that test as a unit test that takes 30 minutes to write and less than a second to execute, which costs $26. Plugging those into my formula, $26/$13 is 2, telling us the automated test pays for itself on the second execution, which can happen 1 second after it is written.
Here's my weekly update for August 12th, 2022...
🗒️ Three Column Retrospectives Are Killing Your Teams
It was about three years before I saw a retrospective that didn’t have the basic three-column setup.
You know, the one where you have +, -, Change.
Maybe yours is start, stop, continue.
Let’s talk about a situation that happens in almost every team I see.
After meeting everyone and getting access to things, I will look at whatever tools they use to manage their work.
I do this because while most people are adamant they use the tool, few give it much regard other than it’s a chore to do.
Enjoy,
Ryan Latta