A meeting format designed to inform a group from shared experiences and opinions http://guidedconversations.org/ Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:58:37 +0000 Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:58:37 +0000 Jekyll v3.9.3 <h2 id="software-and-green-tech">Software and Green Tech</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/lost_semicolon">Ewa</a> in October 2023</em></p> <ol> <li>Why should we care about the environmental impact of the systems we produce?</li> <li>Would “being green” stifle creativity and innovation?</li> <li>Should we, as technologists, stop technologies such as blockchain/crypto (with its high energy usage) until we have a better grasp of reducing climate change?</li> <li>How does the always-on society affect our resource consumption when it comes to tech?</li> <li>Do we really need 99.999%? Would being down for more than 6 minutes a year be that bad?</li> <li>How can we support devices for longer to reduce hardware waste?</li> <li>How can you measure the eco-impact of the things you write?</li> <li>What good software practices do you think lean into green software?</li> <li>Should we be holding tech companies responsible in the same ways we hold oil or other energy companies?</li> </ol> Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/green-tech http://guidedconversations.org/questions/green-tech questions <h2 id="collaboration-skills-for-software-engineers">Collaboration Skills For Software Engineers</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/perhammer">Per Hammer</a> in November 2021</em></p> <ol> <li>Let’s try to orient ourselves. We’ll be talking about code-bases and team-sizes today. Who thinks they’ve worked on the largest codebase here? What’s the smallest? Likewise - who thinks they’ve worked in the largest team? (Let’s assume “team” means “group of people who routinely work on a shared code-base for a product”.) And the smallest?</li> <li>In 2011 (or thereabouts) Clift Norris identified “a fundamental constant for the average amount of code an untrained programmer can write before he or she its a wall”. The idea is that anyone can get “good” at 2,000 line programs, so let’s talk about what skills we think programmers need at this level - or, as we’re all mostly beyond that limit - what skills we think programmers DON’T need at this level? (We’ll come back to those in a minute.)</li> <li>Norris Numbers typically increase in powers of ten, so let’s talk about projects around 20,000 lines of code - what additional or different skills do you think are needed here?</li> <li>We’ll get to team-working and collaboration skills in a few minutes, so if you think of any of those skills as we climb up the ladder on lines of code, please note them down and we’ll cover them after. For now, we’re getting bigger - now we’re transitioning to 200,000 lines of code - what new skills or techniques do we need?</li> <li>Does application architecture play a role here? We’ve been talking about “combined code-base” in terms of KLoCs, but what if you’re highly-distributed and each individual component is quite small? Do we hit skills-thresholds earlier or later in that case?</li> <li>Last one for Norris Numbers we’ll talk about - 2 million lines of code - what do we need now?</li> <li>Switching gears, but staying with the same concept, can we talk about a Norris-like number for working together in a team? Let’s try to establish a baseline and some kind of scaling factor. What’s the basic “team” size that anybody can work in without any specific training? Or, turning the question around, at what size team do you think people need specifically trained on how to work together? (2 pizzas?, 7+/-2? etc.)</li> <li>Starting at the baseline then, what do we consider the “baseline” collaboration skills needed by software engineers?</li> <li>And going up one level - how do we scale? Fibonacci, square, cube? - And what additional or different skills do you think are needed now?</li> <li>Are these “team skills” (e.g. team must have at least 1 person with this skill) or individual skills (e.g. everybody on team must have this skill)?</li> <li><em>Optional</em> Going up one more level, what team size are we at now, and what additional or different skills are needed now? Are they “team” or “everybody” skills?</li> <li><em>Optional</em> Do we see any patterns or similarities between kLOC curve and the team-size curve? Does “more kLOC” have to mean “bigger team”?</li> <li><em>Optional</em> How would you differentiate between “engineering skills” and “collaboration skills”?</li> <li><em>Optional</em> How do the collaboration skills we’ve talked about translate outside of software engineering? What are some industries we might learn collaboration skills from? What should we ask?</li> <li>What else could we discuss in this context, if we scheduled another/follow-up conversation?</li> </ol> Sat, 05 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/collaboration-skills http://guidedconversations.org/questions/collaboration-skills questions <h2 id="retrospectives-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly">Retrospectives: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/bluehair_docare">Christine Orr</a> in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>Who should facilitate a retro?</li> <li>Who should be invited?</li> <li>What is the aim or purpose of a retro?</li> <li>Why do you think teams have retros?</li> <li>What makes a good retro?</li> <li>If a retro creates no actions is it a failure?</li> <li>What makes you want to take part in a retro?</li> <li>Do you think retros help or hinders team morale? Why?</li> <li>Does your team usually follow through with actions identified in a retro?</li> <li>Had anyone done a retro with an offshore team? If so how did this differ from being in the same room?</li> <li>What format should a retro take?</li> <li>How do you convince the business of the value of a retro (assuming you think it has a value)?</li> <li>Should we discuss topics over which we have no control in a retro?</li> <li>If you run the same retro format twice, should you expect it to work again?</li> </ul> Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/retrospectives-good-bad-ugly http://guidedconversations.org/questions/retrospectives-good-bad-ugly questions <h2 id="what-is-data-anyway">What Is Data Anyway?</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/craignicol">Craig Nicol</a> in September 2019</em></p> <h3 id="data-modelling">Data modelling</h3> <p>When designing a system, do you start with the data or the code? Has the rise of cloud based or non relational data stores changed how we model our data? Do you need to update your data when the models in the code change? How do you do it? Does all your data have to have the same shape? Should the data you expose to the outside world broadly match the data at rest?</p> <h3 id="data-security">Data security</h3> <ul> <li>How do you secure your data?</li> <li>In light of GDPR, How do you ensure you aren’t collecting too much data?</li> <li>Who has access to your data?</li> <li>Do you know if anyone unauthorised has accessed it?</li> <li>How do you protect yourself against bad data and trojan data?</li> </ul> <p>NOTE: Bad data = data that is fake, or is used for real world attacks Trojan data = data that can compromise your or your customer’s systems</p> <h3 id="ethical-data">Ethical data</h3> <ul> <li>Can your data be used to discriminate?</li> <li>Can you prove it?</li> <li>Is your data biased?</li> <li>Are you recording hidden correlations? (ZIP code suggests race)</li> <li>Who owns your data?</li> <li>What questions aren’t you asking?</li> </ul> <h3 id="unused-questions">Unused questions</h3> <ul> <li>What makes data big?</li> <li>Are you collecting the right data?</li> <li>Is the data you’re collecting right?</li> <li>Where is your data?</li> </ul> <h3 id="technology-choices">Technology choices</h3> <ul> <li>Do you still have a place for traditional RDBMS?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/what-is-data-anyway http://guidedconversations.org/questions/what-is-data-anyway questions <h2 id="the-future-of-software-crafting">The Future Of Software Crafting</h2> <p><em>Questions by Richard Reid in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>What is our current understanding of the term Software Crafting?</li> <li>What skills will be important for Software Crafters in the future?</li> <li>Will we be able to meet global demand for Software Crafters?</li> <li>How will Automation and AI impact the role of Software Crafters?</li> <li>Will Software Crafting practices still be grounded in Agile principles and values?</li> <li>What will a healthy working environment look like for Software Crafters?</li> <li>How do we ensure Software Crafting will benefit from a diversity of viewpoints?</li> <li>How can Crafters learn fast enough to keep up with changing technologies?</li> <li>What ethical considerations will be important for Software Crafters?</li> <li>How do we feel about the future of software crafting?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/the-future-of-software-crafting http://guidedconversations.org/questions/the-future-of-software-crafting questions <h2 id="test-strategies-for-agile-organisations">Test Strategies For Agile Organisations</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/jothetester">Jo Mahadevan</a> in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>Explain why a test strategy may or may not be crucial in an agile organisation?</li> <li>What components of a test strategy are necessary?</li> <li>What can be omitted?</li> <li>Who uses the test strategy?</li> <li>At what frequency should a test strategy be updated?</li> <li>How would you measure the success rate of the test strategy?</li> <li>If the test strategy is un-successful, what measures would you take to fix it?</li> <li>Should a test strategy differ from the development strategy?</li> <li>If so, what makes it different?</li> <li>Should the test strategy include testing in production?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/test-strategies http://guidedconversations.org/questions/test-strategies questions <h2 id="securtity-or-11">Securtity’ OR 1=1–</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/cornerpirate">Paul Ritchie</a> in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>What is cyber security?</li> <li>Where does security fit into the SDLC?</li> <li>Who is responsible for security?</li> <li>When do you have enough security?</li> <li>Can security assessments be automated?</li> <li>What strategies can be used to secure an unsupported 3rd party application?</li> <li>After a penetration test is the system secure?</li> <li>What does “Zero Day” mean to you?</li> <li>How do you mitigate the threat posed by “Zero Days”?</li> <li>Is using an off-the-shelf application more secure than developing a bespoke one?</li> <li>When is hosting in the “cloud” more secure?</li> <li>In what circumstances is hosting “on-premise” the only option?</li> <li>What does “ethical disclosure” of a security vulnerability mean?</li> <li>Is it ever ethical to publish details of a vulnerability before the vendor has responded?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/security http://guidedconversations.org/questions/security questions <h2 id="what-lies-behind-a-job-title">What Lies Behind A Job Title?</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/_kbremner">Kyle Bremner</a> in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>What do you think about your own job title?</li> <li>What impact do job titles have on your interactions with those you work with?</li> <li>What does it mean to you to have ‘junior’ in a job title?</li> <li>What does it mean to you to have ‘senior’ in a job title?</li> <li>What does a job title communicate to you when looking at a job opportunity?</li> <li>What do your previous job title(s) communicate to a potential employer?</li> <li>How does a job title affect which roles you would apply for?</li> <li>What impact do job titles have on those looking to join the industry?</li> <li>How can job titles affect those with multiple skill sets? (i.e. retrained)</li> <li>What would happen if we had no job titles?</li> <li>How could we encourage more alignment on the meaning of job titles?</li> <li>How could we encourage less of a focus on job titles in the industry?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/job-titles http://guidedconversations.org/questions/job-titles questions <h2 id="imposter-syndrome">Imposter Syndrome</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/liddellj">Jim Liddell</a> in September 2019</em></p> <ul> <li>Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome?</li> <li>How do we recognise imposter syndrome in ourselves?</li> <li>Why do we suffer from imposter syndrome?</li> <li>Is it more widespread within the technology space, and if so why?</li> <li>How does company culture affect imposter syndrome?</li> <li>How does our life outside work contribute?</li> <li>Does it get better over time?</li> <li>Do you feel your colleagues or friends would think less of you if you admitted suffering from imposter syndrome?</li> <li>What can companies do to address imposter syndrome?</li> <li>What can we do as a community to help each other?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/imposter-syndrome http://guidedconversations.org/questions/imposter-syndrome questions <h2 id="how-to-work-with-testers">How To Work With Testers</h2> <p><em>Questions by <a href="https://twitter.com/rocketbootkid">Richard Paterson</a> in September 2019</em></p> <h3 id="get-non-testers-to-understand-testing-better">Get non-testers to understand testing (better)</h3> <ul> <li>What is the purpose of testing?</li> <li>Is testing necessary?</li> </ul> <h3 id="get-non-testers-to-understand-testers-better">Get non-testers to understand testers (better)</h3> <ul> <li>What does a day in the life of a tester involve?</li> <li>What’s their process, method, approach?</li> <li>Can testers break code?</li> <li>What are the challenges with working with testers?</li> </ul> <h3 id="get-non-testers-to-empathise-and-want-to-help">Get non-testers to empathise and want to help</h3> <ul> <li>What are the cons of testing?</li> <li>What do testers complain about?</li> <li>What’s the worst part of being a tester?</li> <li>How can testers / non-testers help each other?</li> </ul> <h3 id="get-non-testers-to-figure-out-how-they-can-help">Get non-testers to figure out how they can help</h3> <ul> <li>What has worked in the past?</li> <li>What doesn’t work, and why do you think that is?</li> </ul> Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000 http://guidedconversations.org/questions/how-to-work-with-testers http://guidedconversations.org/questions/how-to-work-with-testers questions