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SoCraTes 2023 - SoCraTes is bowling today
After missing my first SoCraTes since 2014 last year, I couldn’t have hoped for a better (albeit delayed) reunification with everyone in 2023 more...
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H*ck 2020! Hot Beverage Protocol
No essay on software development this time, and neither tips for running better retrospectives. One of the few little glimpses of light in 2020 was the solidarity I found with the friends who kept me company this year, albeit through the screens I’ve been glued to ever since. A hot beverage helped me embrace those moments. more...
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From The Community Toolbox: You get a ticket! And you get a ticket! Everyone (hopefully) gets a ticket!
Organizing the lottery is probably the biggest task in the weeks before SoCraTes Day Berlin. But it’s also the one where I can make a difference by extending a special invitation to people of underrepresented minorities and to those who have to make plans long beforehand. Here’s how I create a reasonably fair lottery. more...
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From The Community Toolbox: SoCraTes Day Berlin
When I started writing this blogpost, SoCraTes Day Berlin was well on its way for its third edition. The weekend turned out great and I was delighted to see people are returning and are even inviting their friends, because that means I’m doing something right. Here’s what I did. more...
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From The Community Toolbox: No Photos, Bitte.
There’s two things I make sure to bring attention to at the start of an event: the photo policy and the common language in the room. I don’t want to expose anyone who’s deviating from the majority though. Here’s an easy way to do that. more...
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From the Toolbox: Now get into groups of three – *chaos ensures*
It’s been a while since I wrote something, so I figured I will start again with something easy yet super helpful: explain everything before telling people to move, otherwise, you might have to explain everything again. more...
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Learning By Testing
In my experience, testing is by far the most powerful, structured method to expand your knowledge about a language and its ecosystem. Not only does it provide you with guidance through the unknowns, but it also teaches you to carefully map between requirement and code, and to truly understand the task you’re trying to accomplish. In this article, I want to offer you my perspective on mentoring using test-driven development and to provide you with conversation starters for if you choose to try that approach with your mentee. more...
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From the Toolbox: Personal Retrospectives
Every year since 2014, I retreat over the Christmas holidays and hold a personal retrospective all by myself. Over the course of one or two days, I reflect on the past year and make New Year's resolutions, and actually ones that I was pretty successful following through with so far. And even if you only have a couple of hours to retreat, it's still a valuable exercise that I invite you to try for yourself - even though Christmas is only over right now. more...
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From the Toolbox: Don't persist what you can calculate
Granted, most software would be useless without its own persistence, be it something based on EventSourcing or a common relational or document-oriented database. But there are occasions where importing and transforming data, just so it fits into my applications persistence layer just feels wrong. This is where I can trade in performance for flexibility and derive the information I need directly from the source, even if that means parsing hundreds of CSV files for each request. more...
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From the Toolbox: Everything needs a check-in
Just as with a retrospective, your mentoring sessions and meetings will leave people more satisfied if you check-in with them first. If you allocate time to find out where people are coming from and consider how they like to learn, you’ll find that it benefits everyone in the room and lets your work relationships bloom. more...
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expect-redux: better interaction tests with redux
expect-reduxsolves a big problem I kept running into when I started developing JavaScript apps with React and Redux: Getting a proper and readable Given-When-Then test structure working for feature and interaction tests, no matter which side-effect library the project is using. In this post I want to show you a couple of different approaches towards testing redux apps and explain why I thinkexpect-reduxis useful for everyone working with react and redux. more... -
Coffee Kanban & the case for Stopping The Line
At multiple occasions this year, I ran a workshop that combined two of my dearest topics: Coffee and Kanban. I got consultants, developers, testers and product managers to work together to optimize the flow of coffee. My most interesting insight? In any flurry of activity, you should make people feel comfortable enough to Stop The Line. more...
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From the Toolbox: Everything needs a retrospective
We spend most of our time at work collaborating with people. Everything, from mentoring someone, to co-creating great products and engineering cultures involves more than just a single individual. But, when reflecting on how we can continuously improve, understanding exactly what works and what doesn’t can be tricky. That’s why, in each collaboration, I strive to hold a retrospective right at the end to transform the way we relate to each other and to improve our ways of working together. more...
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From the Toolbox: Never let someone speak for everyone
Here’s an easy one: You’re asking around whether anyone has any questions, somebody responds with “no” and you - caught in the moment - move on.
The conversation evolves and nobody bats an eyelid. But hang on, somebody might have been left behind today because of your willingness to take one reply for many. more... -
From the Toolbox: Count to 10 before moving on
In a virtual meeting, both psychological and technical barriers are in play that can keep people from contributing to the conversation. You can fix this by introducing a little structure and by counting to 10. more...
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From the Toolbox: Why you should never ask "Who doesn't know $YYY"
If you really want to understand what people know, never ask them to expose their ignorance in public. You won’t get an honest answer and here’s why. more...
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From the Toolbox: A decent facilitation setup
A good set of pens and paper makes facilitation and drawing much more fun. In this post I list all the pens, Post-Its and other workshop materials that always have to be in my toolbox, no matter if I’m facilitating a coderetreat or a retrospective, or just happen to be out to meet with some friends… more...
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Blind reviews on coding exercises
A coding assignment can give you lots of valuable insights into how a candidate approaches a problem, their thought processes and how they document their changes. There’s only one thing I want to avoid, though: Unconscious bias. This is why I mask the original committer and then ask a colleague to review the assignment. more...
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Awesome Technical Interviews #2: Conducting the interview
Think about it - there are only a few occasions in your professional life that are as exceptional and stressful as interviewing for a new job. The power balances lined up against you, the unknown ahead of you. As an interviewer, it is now your task to mitigate all that. more...
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Awesome Technical Interviews #1: Preparing the interview
From managing expectations throughout the company to writing the invitation mail, preparing an interview takes a considerable amount of time—rightfully so, because it’s the most important meeting you’ll be having this week. more...
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Awesome Technical Interviews
Confession time: I used to quiz people on FizzBuzz on their job interview when I started interviewing people for my own company five years ago. I no longer do that—instead, I try to create an environment where people can strive and show their best: on production code, on their machine, with me navigating. more...
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What makes a good README?
Have a look at the
READMEin your current project. How easy is it for anyone to get your project up and running from scratch? What does someone need to know about making changes to the codebase? Chances are, if your README is not providing definite and up to date answers to these questions, you’re making it harder than necessary for people to contribute and experiment. more... -
The Agile Coach Camp 2017 and Retreating Into Competence
I had a great time as a first-timer at the Agile Coach Camp Germany, but sometimes, learning new things can get very overwhelming. more...
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Where we're going, we don't need headphones!
If there is one single complaint about work I hear most often from clients and friends, it’s that they have a hard time focusing in their office. No matter if you’re pairing with someone or need some quiet time - if you can’t escape the background noise, you’ll have a hard time getting any work done.
Let me share with you how I try to have people happily leave their headphones in their backpack. more... -
Continuing my journey as a Freelance Software Crafter
After spending the last two years at vaamo, working on a lot of very interesting and most diverse projects with an awesome team, I decided that it is time for me to continue my journey as a freelance software craftsperson, so now I’m looking for teams and projects to work with in order to create awesome products and to help them shape their culture. more...