Kevlin Henney talks with Dave Rael about the reasons for being independent, making observations about software development, sharing insight, and team experiences
Kevlin is an independent consultant and trainer based in the UK. His development interests are in patterns, programming, practice and process. He has been a columnist for various magazines and web sites, including Better Software, The Register, Application Development Advisor, Java Report and the C/C++ Users Journal. Kevlin is co-author of A Pattern Language for Distributed Computing and On Patterns and Pattern Languages, two volumes in the Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture series. He is also editor of the 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know site and book.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Kevlin Henney
- - Kevlin's nature of making insightful observations that are something outside the expected and speaking and presenting
- - Kevlin's definition of value
- - The things that "light Kevlin up"
- - How Kevlin got started in software
- - "Programming is a way of thinking." "Programming is applied philosophy." "... an act of creativity."
- - Kevlin's story of failure - too many new things all at once
- - Kevlin's story of success - long-term relationships, collaborative work, favoring discussions, principles of the Agile Manifesto, and fun
- - Kevlin's influencers - Kent Beck and Jim Coplien
- - The value of enjoying work
- - How Kevlin stays current with what he needs to know
- - Kevlin's book recommendations
- - The things that have Kevlin most excited
- - Kevlin's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Kevlin
Resources:
- Kevlin's Links Out to His Content
- Kevlin's Business
- 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts - Kevlin Henney
- Kevlin Henney - Seven Ineffective Coding Habits of Many Programmers
- Many of Kevlin's Presentations
- Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
- Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change - Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres
- Examining the Software Development Process - James O. Coplien
- Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development - James O. Coplien, Neil B. Harrison
- Conway's Law
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas R. Hofstadter
- Douglas Hofstadter
- Hofstadter's law
- No Silver Bullet - Frederick Brooks
Kevlin's book recommendations:
- The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition) - Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
- The Elements of Programming Style - Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger
- LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual - John McCarthy, Paul W. Abrahams, Daniel J. Edwards, Timothy P. Hart and Michael I. Levin
Kevlin's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Get a good night's sleep
- Do something positive that takes you outside of sitting in front of your computer. If you feel you don't have time to do it, do it twice.
- Review the way you do things - periodically, have a self retrospective
- Communicate - bring a social side to software development