Why do I need to do this? In the Web 2.0 world, the onload event usually isn’t an accurate measurement for when a user is ready to interact with a web page. In fact, on certain sites like Twitter, there is nothing displayed on the screen when the onload event fires in the browser. That’s […]
Topic: Software Development
Scaling Agile – Long Term Planning
March 21, 2016 by 7 Comments
Some of the big, age old questions around Agile software development are: How do you scale Agile with larger projects and organizations? Do you still have to plan work? How far out? In moving through our Agile journey at Constant Contact, we have found that YES, there are better ways to do planning. Where we […]
A Tale of Three Docker Anti-Patterns
January 11, 2016 by 4 Comments
Docker is the talk of the software development industry right now. Though some, like @monkchips, think that the smart money is on Otto — users and vendors alike are looking at containerization. Early adopters of Docker are experiencing a mix of fervor, frustration, and ultimately, for some, enlightenment. If you’re completely new to Docker, you can familiarize yourself with the basics here: […]
Thoughts on High Velocity Edge, Part 1
January 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment
I picked up The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operation Excellence to Beat the Competition as a freebie at a Lean Conference in which the author, Steven J. Spear, gave a keynote address. Mr. Spear was an engaging speaker and I thoroughly enjoyed his talk. But his book…well it sat in my swag bag […]
How to Use ES2015 Today with Babel and Gulp
December 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
ECMAScript 2015 (ES2015), formerly known as ES6, brings some great new features to JavaScript. These include block scoping, arrow functions, template strings, destructuring, and more. In July 2015, Ecma International approved it as a standard. As with any new JavaScript functionality, it is not yet fully supported — even in modern browsers. (Check out current […]
Revisiting Organizing for Quality For Agile Teams
November 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been blogging about our Agile Transformation at Constant Contact for almost 2 years. We applied a number of the lessons of the Scaled Agile Framework in our teams. And since February of 2015 I have blogged about focusing on our teams and their practices, instituting standard SCRUM practices. Today I am going to revisit […]
Microservices at Constant Contact – a view from the trenches Pt. 2
November 2, 2015 by 2 Comments
This post is the second of two parts, see part 1 of the post here. Automation and Continuous Deployment (CD) Getting our CD process up and running took some time and effort, but once we did, our productivity improved significantly. We created a pipeline for each of our microservices so we could deploy them independently. Each […]
Microservices at Constant Contact – a view from the trenches
October 13, 2015 by 1 Comment
Part 1 of a 2 part series. See part 2 here. Microservices are a hot topic of discussion these days. The tech world is agog with stories of Netflix’s and PayPal’s architecture and how microservices helped them get to where they are today. A few weeks ago, Stefan Piesche wrote an excellent article on “Microservices at […]
Are You Ready? How to Make Sure Your User Story is Ready Every Time
September 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In my last blog post, I did something out of character by writing about Taylor Swift and Software Development. This time, I am going to reference something a little closer to my own music tastes. As AC/DC asks – “Are You Ready”? Besides being more inline with my rock music tastes, this question has been […]
How to Create Balance in Your Team with the Help of SCRUM and Taylor Swift
August 19, 2015 by 1 Comment
I recently found myself at a Taylor Swift concert. Yes, that’s what happens when you have teenage children. But while listening to her song “Shake It Off,” I couldn’t help but be reminded of the importance of making sure that we shake up our product development environment and culture every once in a while. As […]