One of my mentees already knows some TDD. So instead of talking again about red-green-refactor, we talk about some stuff that might not be obvious to beginners.

This article is the first from a series where I’m going to summarize important books for the software engineering career. The Pragmatic Programmer is the perfect one to start.

I know tests should drive the design, but I never really understood how to do it. And I don't feel like asking so people don't think I'm anti-TDD.One of my students Over the years being a tech lead, I saw this is a common challenge. And that having tests driving the design is difficult because … Continue reading TDD: Act-First to Drive Design →

Let me just tell you something right away: strange as it sounds, your goal as a software developer is not to write code, not to write tests, and neither it is to put and maintain a system in production. Your goal as a developer is to help your company make money. I say make money, … Continue reading There’s no such thing as a technical decision →

Can you spot bad design when you see it? Can you tell what's wrong here? if (!response.getStatusCode().is2xxSuccessful()) { logError(response.getBody()); throwException(response.getStatusCode()); } The snippet above is an example of a pattern we often see in the wild: if(someObject.getSomeAttribute()) { doSomethingWith(someObject); } else { doSomethingElse(someObject); } Why should I care? For us to understand what are the … Continue reading Solving Real World Bad Design by Applying the Tell, don’t Ask Principle →

Retrospectives, build-measure-learn and continuous improvement are all activities and practices that companies and their agile teams do to support project delivery and product development. I think this is wrong. These things are way too important to be only supporting the business. Not long ago, businesses used technology to accelerate, to automate, to improve themselves somehow. … Continue reading Build people, not tech →

At some point in the past, the time continuum has been disrupted, creating a new temporal event sequence resulting in this alternative reality. And now you're at the critical moment when you're going to find out in which timeline you're in!

"Wait! Isn't code supposed to be smart? Programming IS hard! We have to be smart!"  Nope. Code is supposed to be simple. And programming is no place for being a smart-ass. Let me explain. What is clever code Clever code is code that when you read it your face goes like this: "Interesting.." Or like … Continue reading Clever code is bad. Don’t write clever code. →