OMG! Jim Holmes & This Code SUCKS!!!
Sure, you know you need to clean up the lousy codebase that’s falling apart at the seams, but how are you going to figure out what to fix, how to fix it, who will fix it-and how you’ll get that done while meeting the other commitments of continuing to deliver new value to your customers?
We’ll discuss figuring out business’s goals and priorities, then look to things like codebase metrics, defect rates, and source code churn in order to determine what areas of the codebase to work on.
Armed with that information, we’ll talk about different ways to negotiate getting technical debt paid off while meeting your larger goals of continuing to ship value to your customers.
This talk won’t cover best practices (BECAUSE THERE AREN’T ANY) nor will it attempt to convince you there are simple fixes to an unhealthy codebase. What you WILL leave with are ideas on how you can approach creating a strategy for your current situation.
Version targeted to testing-ish conferences As testers we’re often far too familiar with the pain of legacy codebases: extraordinarily brittle systems that explode with regressions after every release. We’re also far too familiar with the fallout from those codebases: Upset stakeholders, frustrated support staff, and an angry horde of end users/customers—all of whom put the blame on the “quality assurance” group.
We can help our teams and organizations start to heal up these codebases, but we have to do it in a fashion that acknowledges the business’s need to continue shipping new value to the customers/users. After all, maintaining a revenue stream is great because it helps ensure we’re getting paid!
We’ll discuss figuring out business’s goals and priorities, then look to codebase metrics, defect rates, and source code churn in order to determine what areas of the codebase to work on.
Armed with that information, we’ll talk about different ways to negotiate getting technical debt paid off while meeting your larger goals of continuing to ship value to your customers.
This talk won’t cover best practices (BECAUSE THERE AREN’T ANY) nor will it attempt to convince you there are simple fixes to an unhealthy codebase. What you WILL leave with are ideas on how you can approach creating a strategy for your current situation.
About Jim Holmes
“Leaders Eat Last”
The title to one of Simon Sinek’s books has always resonated with me. Servant leadership is at the core of how I work with individuals, teams, and organizations. I focus on skills development, workflow and environment, and trying to help create cultures that get people excited about what they’re doing.
I’ve worked in Fortune 10 companies helping them transform entire IT organizations to outcome-focused teams and processes. I’ve helped startups refocus their product strategy and delivery practices to more value- and result-based directions. I’ve helped a wide range of software delivery teams bring modern testing and quality practices not just to the team rooms, but their businesses as well.
My experience working with teams across many disciplines (sports, IT, community organizations) led me to write The Leadership Journey, a practical handbook meant to help you learn to learn about finding a leadership style that works for you. It’s available at http://bit.ly/leadershipjourney.
Similarly, my experience helping delivery teams improve their communication around writing software led me to create the online course “Coding for Non-Coders,” a six-hour video series meant to take people from zero coding experience to working in a test driven development fashion while they build out a small set of tests and system software. The course is hosted at Ministry of Testing: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/courses/coding-for-non-coders-jim-holmes.
I co-authored “Windows Developer Power Tools” way back in 2006, and I still write frequently at my blog (FrazzledDad.com) and for various industry sites and magazines.
I was recognized as an industry thought leader by Microsoft via their Most Valuable Professional award every year between 2005 and 2019 when I voluntarily left the program. I regularly speak at a number of venues on topics ranging from security to development practices to development tools. You can find a few of my presentation decks online at https://speakerdeck.com/jimholmes.
I’m also a past President of the Board of Directors of CodeMash Conference (www.CodeMash.org). I helped start the conference and oversaw it for its first eight years. I led an amazing team that took the conference from 250 attendees to 2,200 and was directly responsible for every detail of CodeMash’s annual budget of roughly $700K at the time.
Specialties: Mentoring, solutions architecture, business processes, testing, content management