What the wrong side of agile looks like – and how you can avoid it
Happy Saturday and welcome back to the newsletter! As always, read on for some of the best software engineering insights, opinions, and news pieces from the week.
//From the Triplebyte blog
I’ve seen some agile fails. Here’s what went wrong.
On the surface, the recipe for agile in software development looks something like this: kanban boards, daily stand-ups, constant feedback loops, reports, collaborations, and team meetings. But in reality, you can't get results from just throwing those techniques into a bowl if they’re mixing with things like feature overload, too many project pivots, and ignoring the pains of legacy code. Engineer Aphinya Dechalert writes about how to stay on the right side of agile. read()
Creating the ultimate WFH engineering workspace: It’s about more than just gear
Creating a workspace at home is vital for WFH engineering. And this means holistic design of your entire workspace – not just computer gear and peripherals. This blog talks about furniture, storage, and how to intentionally set up your space so you never find yourself in a state of resistance or frustration. There are Marie Kondo references. read()
Triplebyte’s way-too-long technical interview prep guide
Have a run of software engineering interviews coming up? I’m resurfacing Triplebyte’s prep guide to help. It’s full of resources for practicing your coding chops, refreshening your algorithm basics, boning up on low-level system design, and more. Happy cramming! read()
//Around the Web
💻 GitHub CLI 1.0 is out. I saw this in both the Go and JavaScript newsletters I follow, so it must be big news! The tldr with CLI is that it lets you run GitHub right from your terminal. Pull requests, merges, create issues – the whole deal. And you can now script these things and more from command line with GitHub CLI, too. read()
🍎 “Why is Apple acting like an asshole?” iPhone users were thrilled to get iOS 14 sent to their phones this week. App-builders – not so much. Bucking its usual trend of giving developers about a week heads-up before it sends out a new OS update (one that can typically break a non-trivial number of features in App Store apps), this year the company only gave a one-day notice. At the end of its Apple Watch and iPad event on Tuesday, iOS 14 was announced to be hitting devices on Wednesday. “If you happen to be working on the East Coast, this means you were given just a few hours before the working day was over to get your app ready and submitted,” indie iOS dev Jesse Squires complained in a blog post. “On top of this, critical bugs still exist in the latest releases of the SDKs, Xcode 12, and iOS 14. It seems they will not be addressed.” Add this to all the implications in the current Epic/App Store fight and it sure seems like Apple is testing its relationship with its dev community. read()
📖 The brain-boosting power of reading aloud. In something that’s not strictly engineering-related (but could make you a smarter engineer, I reckon), the BBC has put together a piece that looks at the increasing amount of research that shows the benefits to stop reading things like books, instructions, and newsletter (😀) with our minds silently – i.e. what we’ve been taught is proper – and start using our voices more. “Reading aloud has a number of benefits for adults, from helping improve our memories and understand complex texts, to strengthening emotional bonds between people,” according to the article. Sounds great and definitely kosher while we’re all working remotely and separately, but I’m probably not the only one hoping that people dictating to themselves what they’re reading on their computer screens isn’t a trend that comes back to the offices with us. read()
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