Amy Blankenship

Anyone have experience transitioning from low code/no code development positions to code heavy ones? I recently was speaking to a colleague who was wanting to get into a more engineering focused role, but only had professional experience operating internal no code/low code software solutions. He asked what he could do to transition to a more programming heavy role and whether his experience wouldn’t count and he’d have to take a pay cut. Anyone have experience making the transition? What was it like and what advice would you give? #LowCodeToHighCode #Advice

5

8 Comments

Alright, I used up a 2-week free trial of Cursor IDE. My experience is solid. I think I'll pay $20/m if I don't find anything better. The next ups in my list are: - GitHub copilot - Continue.dev - Cody from Sourcegraph - Tabnine - Zed Which is the best AI coding assistence in your opinion? 🤔 #data #coding #productivity

35

11 Comments

I keep hearing the idea that pull requests are bad and that developers shouldn't do them. Well, to me, most of these arguments are somewhat of a straw man variety and they encourage throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Pull requests aren't the problem. Pull requests won't prevent you from doing continuous delivery. The problem is pull requests that take a long time to review and approve. This is the thing that will prevent you from doing continuous delivery. But this is a very avoidable problem. It doesn't have to be this way. In our team, PRs don't normally take long to review and things in the trunk are being updated regularly. So it was in my previous team in my previous place of work. I worked in at least three different teams where we would try to get rid of PRs to see what will happen. In all of those cases, we had to get back to doing PRs because removing them caused more problems that we were trying to solve by removing them. I get it. It may work for some teams that do pair programming all the time, which I see as the only way to keep the code quality up without the PRs. However, this approach will not suit every company and every developer. Many developers I know will find it exhausting having to pair-program all the time. Even when you pair program, PRs still have their use. Just before you push all those commits you created, you can create a PR to view all the challenges to make sure you haven't missed anything. You will not only be able to verify that no temporary code changes go in, but you will also create a nice audit trail of who made the change and who reviewed it. I even sometimes create a PR for my own changes because because it's a tool that makes a pre-push verification very convenient. PRs are just a tool. Just like any other tool, it can either be used or misused. It only causes problems when it's misused and not when it's used properly. This tool may not be useful to you, in which case you may discard it. But you may also find out that it's not as useless as some people say it is and it won't stop you from doing continuous delivery, as these people say.

38

26 Comments

These are great tips for an junior dev. Especially the suggestion to become the "go-to person" in a particular topic. It's a great way to become an elevated contributor on a team. https://lnkd.in/gqUZSn39

5

If anyone needs an engineering manager / front end JS and PHP skill set, DM me. Fwiw, and more abstractly: It feels odd to put out a feel for a “traditional” dev skillset when code is coding code on its own, and so many companies (including LinkedIn) are marketing “job retraining,” which is just code for the process of figuring out how to replace more humans with code.

2

1 Comment

The number of characters that need to change to fix a bug is inversely proportional to the amount of time it takes to find the bug.

3

1 Comment

A question to my friends, colleagues, and Linked-In associations that are full TDD developers. Folks who consider themselves proficient or have mastered TDD. 1. How long did it take you to to become very proficient (e.g. to start thinking fully test first)? 2. Did you have a mentor or some aid that helped you along the way? 3. What kept you going down the proficiency/mastery path? I'll start: 1. It took me about 3 years to make it a habit and for me to truly embrace TDD and find that it could replace "test after" development. 2. I did not have a mentor. I did not have YouTube or trainings. I had constraints about creating automated tests. I had teammates that were similarly inclined (constrained). 3. I immediately saw the value of automated tests. I struggled with test first getting in the way of me feeling productive (because I was not proficient and in the learning/gaining proficiency phase) with test first. I'd start every day test first and quickly transition to test after, because it was getting in the way of my "productivity and programming...damn it I just want to write the implementation!" At the end of the day I'd reflect and most days realize that writing tests after was so much slower. Slowly, my time spent test first increased. At some point I transitioned to pseudo coding my intended implementation (to satiate my need to "just write the damn code and not be bothered with tests"). More time passed and I realized that my pseudo code was an inaccurate crutch, I ditched that too and would start with a test. There was a period of time where I'd start with a test and get lost in implementing more than just making the test pass (cycles of sunk cost fallacy here, until I learned it's ok to delete and write it later - faster, better, stronger). There were periods of time where I'd forget to run the test first to see it red before making it green. Too many years messing around with mocking frameworks before learning better design. Struggles with testing internal implementation details instead of external behavior. A whole bunch of stuff I can't think of now and am probably blocking out. I stuck with it though and yikes, does it pay off. I can't imagine not doing TDD now. Coding w/o it is like running through a vat of molasses. So much time wasted in the debugger and writing things that my evil programmer monkey brain distracts me with that YAGNI. I'm writing and asking about this because last week I attended a conference where I talked with a fellow TDDer who'd heard me mention that it took me 3 years to become fully TDD proficient and he shared a similar story even though he was much younger than myself (I attribute my slow adoption due to lack of a mentor/coach and training aids like Pluralsite, YouTube, Jon Reid live coding sessions). I'm curious about others mileage on this. I'll add that I am currently 100% on board with TDD. I am also 100% always on the lookout for a new and better way to replace it. That's off topic though.

45

70 Comments

How can you manage a software engineering team when you are not a software engineer yourself? What has helped me immensely over the years: First off, yes, I have an engineering team under my leadership. Of course, I am unable to do code reviews or advise functionally. So how do I do it? A list of points, with some nods to musical pieces. Beyonce, All the Single Ladies - NOT I am not alone in this endeavor. I have co-functional leads who I can ask and get advice from anytime. My work would otherwise be impossible. Vybz Kartel, I Can I used to work in functions that often resembled PO work. Plus, I have worked with engineering teams in close collaboration for over a decade now. So I understand and can steer the dynamics. Machel Montano, Endless Wuk I am capable of understanding the business side. If I know why and where we are going I can translate that to the team and beyond. Lisa, Rockstar Believe it or not - I can put together a couple of lines of code. I have worked on some smaller, private projects before. Do I code in my free time? No. But I have seen what the basic structures are and applied them. Danagog, Hakuna Matata I can listen and listen well. I can advise based on my professional and life experience. I have empathy in droves. I can understand the lived realist of a developer, a PO, a designer, an agile coach. Have you seen or experienced non-technical managers? What was that like? Would you be open to be managed by a manager who is not able to functionally feedback you?

38

7 Comments

Is your team worthy of having juniors? Having a team with people at different levels of experience creates an environment where different strengths and different ways of thinking combine to produce great work and a humane and fun team culture. There is more emphasis placed on learning, teaching, with teachers learning too! This creates solidarity because good seniors are regularly helping out the juniors, so when they can return the favor, they are that much more motivated to help their mentors. Plus it's a well-proven trope in science and mathematics that young people can often have brilliant, even revolutionary, insights even in the early stages of their careers. Yes they require time, so only healthy, successful teams who know what they are doing can be capable of fostering their juniors. The presence of happy, contributing juniors is a sign of a great team. Hire a junior and start on the path to greatness today!

4

Working on a specification for https://lnkd.in/g-pBfAQv. Then I can verify it with tests and https://blprnt.tech/. I'm reminded that wormwood is optimized for readable source code, not UX. There is very little syntax validation.

4

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in software testing is that it’s more than just finding bugs—it’s about understanding why things break.” 💡 When I first started, I’d get frustrated every time something failed to work as expected. Over time, I realized that testing is more about curiosity and persistence. Each bug isn’t just a problem; it’s an opportunity to dig deeper, figure out the underlying issue, and build better solutions. To all the testers out there: keep exploring, keep asking questions, and remember that every setback is a chance to learn something new. Testing isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress, one “a-ha” moment at a time. #onetestatatime #SoftwareTesting #LearningJourney #TechMindset #testingcommunity #QualityAssurance

9

I share Dan’s sentiments on how to be considered a good coder. To be honest, I don’t get excited when one of my team writes code that works (although maybe I should, for their sake). I also don’t feel like a developer that writes non-working code is a failure or a let down. However, I do get excited when I can look at the working code & easily extend or modify it. And, I do get excited when I can look at the non-working code and help fix it because it is well structured, well written and commented appropriately. #coding #software #skill

2

Should the entire development team attend all of the sprint events? No, because it’s inefficient and a waste of time. Right? Years ago I battled a tough client who didn't want the developers to attend the Sprint Review. He wanted them to, in his words, “just keep coding”. I argued…how will the team learn about what the customer and the business needs? His predictable answer was “better requirements documentation”. Software engineers are professionals who need to deeply understand the problems to be solve. The intent of sprint events is to provide context for these problems and enable collaboration. Ask your developers if they are receiving value from sprint events. If not, don't exclude them. Fix the events so they enable the development team. #scrum #agile #collaboration

2

Anybody who is going through code interviews knows to manually test and find bugs. The fundamental problem is to KEEP YOUR SH*T TOGETHER when you find a bug. Don't overindex on the exciting joy/embarrassment of finding the bug. In fact, if you've found one, there are likely more. Keep a cool head, reset yourself emotionally, and start your testing FROM SCRATCH and find them. And most importantly... keep it cool. #codinginterviews #coding #crackTheCodingInterview

3

Jr. Devs, You need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to your career. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and they were telling me about a small business their children (12 and under) had started. I won’t reveal what it is to protect their small advantage. :) But basically, it's providing a simple service that takes very little time for very little cost. It's offering a convenience. Anyway, as he was telling me about it, it was so simple, so obvious, but something I would have never thought of on my own. I’m not really an idea person. I need something to start with, a clear problem to solve. I often need a pre-defined path to follow. Many Jr. Devs need to be less like me, trying to follow the pre-defined path, and more like my friend, looking for things other people might be missing, opportunities no one may notice. Think about ways you could implement what you are learning to help individuals, small businesses, local governments… virtually anyone; to fix a problem, meet a need, or simply make someone’s life easier in areas they may not have thought of themselves. The traditional route into development is clogged right now, so perhaps it’s time to look around and see opportunities from a different perspective. Find a non-traditional route to begin using your skills in a career that might look a little different from everyone else. Who knows, you just might stumble on the next Uber or Airbnb or maybe you just build a great list of clients who need simple work from a trustworthy developer. Take a fresh look at the problem and find a creative solution. #juniordeveloper #mentoring

14

1 Comment

"The primary goal should be 'our developers write tests for any code that goes into production.' Anything less than that is an opportunity for those folks with a little less discipline or more anxiety about delivery times to backslide and abandon the primary goal of having tests for all your code. There are two major forces that lead applications towards not having any tests:  * The first is that it's hard to teach beginners in a language how to use testing tools; they are still just learning the language itself! * The second force is the work-culture pressure that says you don't have time to write tests." - Chris Hartjes #tdd #testdrivendevelopment #testing

4

Based on 317 technical job interviews for QA Automation roles by wedevx.co grads in 2024, these UI automation tools are the most in demand. AI is starting to bring some new players, though they have not been established yet. What other UI tools would you add to this list?

22

2 Comments