Software Design: Tidy First?

Software Design: Tidy First? explores the intersection of software design and human behavior, emphasizing the importance of team dynamics, emotional intelligence, and adaptive business strategies in tech. Topics range from programming best practices to personal development, all linked by the central theme of thoughtful, human-centric software development.

Software Design Principles Developer Productivity Programming Best Practices Emotional Intelligence in Tech Business Strategy for Tech Team Dynamics and Workflow Technology and Market Adaptation Personal Development in Tech

The hottest Substack posts of Software Design: Tidy First?

And their main takeaways

Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey 2

3380 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
💼 Business Productivity Team performance Investment decisions Incentives Management
  1. Measuring outcomes and impact alone can lead to gaming the system and disadvantages for the business
  2. Team performance is often more important than individual performance, as seen in sports like soccer
  3. Investing in engineering should be treated as research & development, making small bets and doubling down on promising ones

TDD Prerequisites

1631 implied HN points • 02 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Programming Testing Software Design Workflow
  1. TDD outcomes include ease, reliability, sustainability, and responsibility.
  2. Prerequisites for TDD include predicting inputs/outputs, predicting/discovering cases, and ensuring micro-tests yield macro-results.
  3. Apply TDD only when the costs are reasonable and constraints are manageable.

Code “Smells”?

2181 implied HN points • 03 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Programming Software Development
  1. Code that works might still be problematic if it's hard to understand or change later on.
  2. It's important for programmers to focus on writing code that not only works now but is also easy to change in the future.
  3. The analogy of 'code smells' is like food that smells bad: a warning of potential future issues in the code.
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Eventual Business Consistency

134 HN points • 04 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Business Data Management Programming Systems Database
  1. The goal is to achieve eventual business consistency by closely matching what's in the system with real-world events.
  2. Different data storage methods like storing dated data or double-dated data come with trade-offs in complexity and accuracy.
  3. Bi-temporal systems use two dates to track when data changes occurred in reality and when they were recorded in the system for better business operations.

Kent Beck: Business

2 HN points • 30 Aug 23
💼 Business Entrepreneurship Business Ethics Startup Growth Personal Development Financial Strategy
  1. Kent Beck learned from his grandfather that business can be about maximizing benefits for oneself at the expense of others.
  2. Kent Beck initially believed that by creating value for others, nature would provide for him, but he later realized he needed to actively create a path for value to return to him.
  3. Kent Beck's journey taught him that running a business doesn't have to mirror his grandfather's questionable practices; a business can be mutually beneficial for customers and himself.