Yearly Archives: 2018

Marc Andreessen famously declared in a 2011 Wall Street Journal article that software is eating the world. Not only did this statement inspire entrepreneurs to launch countless startups, it also showed larger enterprise organizations that it was time to embrace a technology-driven landscape. In an article for The Atlantic, James Somers wrote, “More and more,…

Back in 2007, Joel Spolsky quipped that developers hate making schedules. “Usually, they try to get away without one,” he wrote, “‘It’ll be done when it’s done!’ they say, expecting that such a brave, funny zinger will reduce their boss to a fit of giggles.” A lot has changed about software developer productivity since then.…

Recently, we explored the importance of getting DevOps implementation right. When done correctly, DevOps adoption can automate time-consuming tasks and speed up product launches. But even after your organization adopts these practices, you’ll come across new ways to increase developers’ output—and you’ll probably want to make those changes as soon as possible. Still, what are…

In the past, software development and IT teams operated separately. This led to a variety of manual processes that slowed projects down and delayed product launches. When DevOps practices entered the mainstream in 2009, tech leaders saw how many of these tasks could be automated and make their teams more productive. With that in mind,…

Last week, I wrote about the importance of building an internal developer community on the back of a talk at DeveloperWeek NYC about developers deserving better communication tools.  I shared my thoughts with current customers and those evaluating Stack Overflow Enterprise, and a consistent theme in feedback that I received was that it comes down…

A decade ago, there were only a few online collaboration tools that people widely trusted. A lot has changed since then. Today, you can reach anyone with just a couple clicks of your mouse. Want to schedule a high-definition video call with a colleague? There are dozens of applications for you to choose from. Looking…

We speak every day with CTOs, CIOs and engineering leaders at companies that want to build internal-facing communities. Most often, they’re interested in creating an internal community for engineers on globally distributed or siloed teams to have a place where they can ask, answer, peer-validate, share, and search for proprietary technical information. But what about…

Even when you have a world-class engineering team, there isn’t much you can do to prevent turnover. In fact, the best engineering managers remain prepared for the day when a developer accepts a new job opportunity or decides to start his or her own company. But that preparedness goes far beyond a short-list of people…

The relationship between developers and non-technical teams at your company can be tricky. Because you’ve built out a great engineering function, you want other teams across the company to rely on their expertise. But for many developers, this manifests in ad-hoc requests from their colleagues in the form of last-minute emails and unexpected visits to…