Newsletter - September 2019

Hello,

It has been a busy few months for the team and we're pleased to bring the newsletter back, including some useful resources for you to take advantage of, such as an article on 'The Fine Art of Fast Development', a talk on building 'Sustainable and Empathetic Cross-Functional Teams' and, if you haven't already checked it out yet, Katalyst, our new handy skill-honing tool. Please feel free to share the newsletter with your colleagues for their own learning and development!

Until next time, The Codurance team

Consistent Growth and Exciting Changes

By Sandro Mancuso and Mash Badar

Since our last update, we're delighted to report Codurance's continued expansion, with new homes for both the London and Barcelona offices and the launch of Software Crafters North, a group run by our new Manchester branch as we continue to grow. SC London returns this October for a third consecutive year, with a raft of impressive thought-leaders scheduled to share their crafting expertise with the community - we're looking forward to seeing you there!

We kicked off 2019 by achieving AWS Partner Status, recognising the expertise, skill and experience of our people in the AWS Cloud ecosystem and its various services. As part of our commitment to contributing to the development community, we're pleased to announce that 7 of our talented apprentices have recently graduated to Craftsperson level, creating expert practitioners able to contribute to and share Craftsmanship values within the software development realm.

Last but by no means least, we've had the pleasure of working on some truly exciting international client projects - coaching, advising and delivering exceptional software. We're excited to see what's next for the business over the course of the rest of the year and welcome you to follow our journey.

Choosing Boring Technology

Dan McKinley's popular article on selecting technology can be viewed in talk format, summarising his thoughts on mindful technology choices.

Let's Build Sustainable and Empathetic Cross-Functional Teams

Denise Yu's 'Agile on the Beach 2019' talk covers the importance of how psychological safety and empathy enables teams to perform better at achieving strategic outcomes - complete with some great cat doodles.

Private Jenkins Shared Libraries

Jenkins Shared Library is a handy tool when dealing with multiple similar pipelines. If you are looking for a way to reduce code duplication, then Andy Rehmann's post is the right place to start.

The Fine Art of Fast Development

David Gilbertson presents this entertaining read, replete with useful tips on how developers can increase their performance and work productively.

10 Tips for Reviewing Code You Don't Like

In this article David Lloyd provides strategies that can be implemented in order to create an objective and concise code review process, while maintaining a pleasant working environment.

Am I Delivering Value?

There comes a time in everyone's career when this question becomes persistent in one's mind. Our co-founder Mash Badar discusses how the alignment of individual, team and organisation is key to delivering value within the context of software delivery.

Katalyst

Creating well-crafted software and contributing to best practice is our passion and therefore we have created Katalyst, a portal to share some of the programming problems that we use to teach and practice software development.

We have selected Katas that we believe will improve skills, in fundamental areas such as test-driven development and object-oriented design. Katas vary in skill level, in the language the crafter is most familiar with - we'd love to hear your feedback!

13 Minutes to the Moon, BBC Sounds

The Codurance team have recently been fascinated by this podcast, documenting the dramatic story of the Apollo 11 moon landing, including the technology that made it all happen.

Codurance Talks

Over the last few months the Codurance team have been steadily recording podcasts covering technology, Software Craftsmanship and everything in-between. Subscribe directly via Podbean or Apple Podcasts to keep up with each episode, or find each release our website.

SC London

SC London is a two-day conference that provides an immersive insight into the mindset of some of the greatest thinkers and doers in the Software Craftsmanship world.

Ticket demand has increased each year, with each event selling out. With this in mind, we're letting you know that tickets are now available via sc-london.com - we look forward to seeing you there!

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests

Part of the 'Kent Beck Signature Series', this is a must-read for those wanting to understand more about automated testing and test-driven development.

The Clean Coder: a Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers

Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin's introductory piece for those aspiring to become a fully-fledged craftsperson; The Clean Coder contains a useful foundation of the core techniques and disciplines required to practice true Software Craftsmanship. One to share with the more junior members of your team.