Maintainable Podcast Por Robby Russell arte de portada

Maintainable

Maintainable

De: Robby Russell
Escúchala gratis

OFERTA POR TIEMPO LIMITADO. Obtén 3 meses por US$0.99 al mes. Obtén esta oferta.
Do you feel like you're hitting a wall with your existing software projects? Are you curious to hear how other people are navigating this? You're not alone. On the Maintainable Software Podcast, Robby speaks with seasoned practitioners who have overcome the technical and cultural problems often associated with software development. Our guests will share stories in each episode and outline tangible, real-world approaches to software challenges. In turn, you'll uncover new ways of thinking about how to improve your software project's maintainability.© 2019-2024 Maintainable Software Podcast Economía Exito Profesional
Episodios
  • Taylor Otwell: What 14 Years of Laravel Taught Me About Maintainability

    Taylor Otwell: What 14 Years of Laravel Taught Me About Maintainability
    Aug 26 2025
    Taylor Otwell, creator of Laravel and CEO of Laravel LLC, joins Robby to reflect on his 14-year journey building and maintaining one of the most popular web frameworks in the world. From its PHP 5.3 origins to a full-time business with a 70-person team, Taylor shares what he's learned about code maintainability, developer experience, and what it means to evolve without overcomplicating things.He discusses the importance of simplicity in software design, why sticking to framework conventions leads to better long-term outcomes, and how his minimalist mindset continues to shape Laravel today. Taylor also opens up about the moment he felt out of ideas, how Laravel’s 2024 funding round marked a new chapter, and what it’s like to hand off more responsibility while staying involved in the open source core.Episode Highlights[00:01:07] Taylor’s Definition of Maintainable Software Simplicity, understandability, and confidence in making changes are key themes in Taylor's approach to longevity in software.[00:02:13] Kenny vs. the Terminator: A Metaphor for Code Why Taylor believes software should be disposable and adaptable, not rigid and overbuilt.[00:05:39] Laravel’s Unexpected Traction Taylor shares the early days of Laravel and the moment he realized the project had legs.[00:10:30] Who Laravel Is Built For Taylor talks about designing for the “average developer” and balancing his own preferences with those of a broader community.[00:14:50] Curating a Growing Project—Solo Despite Laravel’s scale, Taylor remains the sole curator of the open source core and explains why that hasn’t changed (yet).[00:18:00] From Scripts to Business How Laravel’s first commercial product came out of a personal need—and pushed Taylor to go full time.[00:20:00] Making Breaking Changes Taylor explains Laravel’s evolution and why he now tries to avoid breaking backward compatibility.[00:25:00] Stick to the Conventions The Laravel apps that age best are the ones that don’t get too clever, Taylor says—because the clever dev always moves on.[00:27:00] Recognizing “Cleverness” as a Smell Advice for developers who may unknowingly be over-engineering their way into future technical debt.[00:30:00] Making Decisions by Comparing Real Code Taylor explains why he always brings discussions back to reality by looking at code side-by-side.[00:34:00] Dependency Injection vs. Facades Why most Laravel developers stick with facades, and how architectural trends have changed.[00:41:00] Laravel’s Evolution Around Static Analysis Taylor talks about embracing PHP's maturing type system while staying true to the dynamic roots of the framework.[00:43:00] A Shift in Laravel’s Testing Culture How Adam Wathan’s course reshaped the community’s approach to feature testing in Laravel apps.[00:48:09] What Keeps Laravel Interesting Now Taylor reflects on transitioning from solving his own problems to empowering a larger team—and why that’s the new challenge.Resources & LinksLaravelLaravel ChangelogTaylor on X (Twitter)Taylor on BlueskyElements of Style – William Strunk Jr.Adam Wathan's “Test-Driven Laravel” courseThanks to Our Sponsor!Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out! Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.
    Más Menos
    56 m
  • Sara Jackson: Why Resilience Is a Team Sport

    Sara Jackson: Why Resilience Is a Team Sport
    Jul 22 2025

    Robby is joined by Sara Jackson, Senior Developer at thoughtbot, to explore the practical ways teams can foster resilience—not just in their infrastructure, but in their everyday habits. They talk about why documentation is more than a chore, how to build trust in test suites, and how Chaos Engineering at the application layer can help make the case for long-term investment in maintainability.

    Sara shares why she advocates for writing documentation on day one, how “WET” test practices have helped her avoid brittle test suites, and why she sees ports as a powerful alternative to full rewrites. They also dive into why so many teams overlook failure scenarios that matter deeply to end users—and how being proactive about those situations can shape better products and stronger teams.

    Episode Highlights

    [00:01:28] What Well-Maintained Software Looks Like: Sara champions documentation that’s trusted, updated, and valued by the team.

    [00:07:23] Invisible Work and Team Culture: Robby and Sara discuss how small documentation improvements often go unrecognized—and why leadership buy-in matters.

    [00:10:34] Why Documentation Should Start on Day One: Sara offers a “hot take” about writing things down early to reduce cognitive load.

    [00:16:00] What Chaos Engineering Really Is: Sara explains the scientific roots of the practice and its DevOps origins.

    [00:20:00] Application-Layer Chaos Engineering: How fault injection can reveal blind spots in the user experience.

    [00:24:36] Observability First: Why you need the right visibility before meaningful chaos experiments can begin.

    [00:28:32] Pitching Resilience to Stakeholders: Robby and Sara explore how chaos experiments can justify broader investments in system quality.

    [00:33:24] WET Tests vs. DRY Tests: Sara explains why test clarity and context matter more than clever abstractions.

    [00:40:43] Working on Client Refactors: How Sara approaches improving test coverage before diving into major changes.

    [00:42:11] Rewrite vs. Refactor vs. Port: Sara introduces “porting” as a more intentional middle path for teams looking to evolve their systems.

    [00:50:45] Delete More Code: Why letting go of unused features can create forward momentum.

    [00:51:13] Recommended Reading: Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz.

    Resources & Links
    • Sara on Mastodon
    • thoughtbot
    • RubyConf 2024 Talk – Chaos Engineering on the Death Star
    • Book: Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz
    • Flu Shot on GitHub
    • ChaosRB on GitHub
    • Semian from Shopify — a chaos engineering toolkit for Ruby
    Thanks to Our Sponsor!

    Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.

    It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.

    Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time!

    Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out!

    Subscribe to Maintainable on:

    • Apple Podcasts
    • Spotify

    Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

    Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.
    Más Menos
    53 m
  • Joel Chippindale: Why High-Quality Software Isn’t About Developer Skill Alone

    Joel Chippindale: Why High-Quality Software Isn’t About Developer Skill Alone
    Jul 1 2025

    CTO coach Joel Chippindale joins Robby to share what he's learned over two decades of building and leading software teams. Joel argues that maintainability has less to do with “clean code” and more to do with how teams communicate, prioritize, and make progress visible. Drawing on his time at Unmade and his current coaching practice, Joel outlines practical ways teams can build trust, navigate brittle systems, and stop letting technical debt conversations get lost in translation.

    Episode Highlights

    [00:01:10] A Working Definition of Maintainability
    Joel explains why “software that’s easy to keep changing” is the gold standard—and why context matters as much as code.

    [00:05:24] The Pitfalls of Pre-Optimization
    How developers can trap themselves by designing for futures that may never arrive.

    [00:10:40] Challenging the Iron Triangle
    Joel pushes back on the idea that teams must sacrifice quality for speed or cost.

    [00:15:31] Quality Is a Team Conversation
    Why code quality starts long before you open your editor.

    [00:20:00] Unmade Case Study: From Chaos to Confidence
    How Joel helped a struggling team at Unmade regain trust by delivering less—and showing more.

    [00:28:08] Helping Business Stakeholders Buy Into Maintenance Work
    How to reframe backend investments in terms that resonate across departments.

    [00:33:40] First Steps for Fragile Systems
    What Joel looks for when coaching teams overwhelmed by legacy code.

    [00:41:32] The Value of Boring Technology
    Why solving real problems matters more than chasing resume polish.

    [00:45:20] The Case for Coaching
    What makes leadership coaching valuable—and why it's not a sign of weakness.

    [00:51:10] Building Your Manager Voltron
    Joel shares why every developer should cultivate their own support system, including mentors, peers, and coaches.

    Resources & Mentions
    • Joel’s Coaching Site – Monkey’s Thumb
    • Joel on Mastodon
    • “Take Back Control of Code Quality” – Joel’s Blog Post
    • “Manager Voltron” by Lara Hogan
    • Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
    Thanks to Our Sponsor!

    Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.

    It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.

    Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time!

    Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out!

    Subscribe to Maintainable on:

    • Apple Podcasts
    • Spotify

    Or search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

    Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.
    Más Menos
    57 m
Todavía no hay opiniones