A great place to learn about SOLID

Posted on February 1, 2023 by dommillar

OK so I’ve had some awesome questions from Software Engineers about the importance of SOLID principles and the one that is most common is how can I find out about and learn SOLID principles? There’s a lot of great articles and really good videos on the subject but I still think the single best starting point is a most awesome podcast from Scott Hanselman where he interviews SOLIDs author Bob Martin. It’s a great detailed explanation of how SOLID works and I think you’ll find that the practical aspects are really useful in trying to implement SOLID on a day to day basis.

https://hanselminutes.com/145/solid-principles-with-uncle-bob-robert-c-martin

Book lists for software engineers and architects

Posted on May 1, 2022 by dommillar

I came across this excellent article recently and while the target audience is Software Architects, in my view this is a great book list for anyone who is looking to grow their software engineering skills in general. I often talk to software engineers about reading books as part of their professional development plan (I’ll over this is in a post soon).

What I really like about this list is that it is actually planned with an approach of building on previous books. So you don’t have to follow this exact list, but what you might think about is the importance/value of having a planned set of books/references to build upon rather than just have a random set of books to read.“

I particularly like the approach of introducing the DDD books later in the path.The foundational aspects of the initial books sets up DDD really well.

https://haitham-raik.medium.com/books-for-great-software-architect-34c81fc70e12

Canberra Junior Developer meetup in november – SOLID!!!!!

Posted on November 10, 2020 by dommillar

Junior Dev – Introduction to SOLID Principles of Object Oriented Design

Thursday, Nov 12, 2020, 6:00 PM

21 Software Developers Attending

Check out this Meetup →

The Software Engineers Development Plan – Part 1

Posted on April 14, 2017 by dommillar

I manage a large number of developers at work. In fact to explain things a little, here is my current BIO:

“Dominic is the Tech Group Lead in Xero. He’s been .Net developer for a few years now, and spends most of his time these days herding cats. In other words : he is responsible for the management, delivery and quality for a group of 25 devs, QAs and other techies.

He lives in the Paris of the South (Canberra) but doesn’t speak french. He’s passionate about Boardgames, Cheese and Wine”

One of the main tools I have been using managing developers is the use of a Professional Development Plan.

This series of posts will focus on what a PDP Looks like, how to create one and how to use them.

If you are totally unaware of what a PDP is have a look at a few articles:

Next, Part 2 the structure of a PDP

Great Article on Interviews for Software Engineers

Posted on April 14, 2017 by dommillar

Really excellent article for anyone thinking about a new job and in particular interviews.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/rock-your-technical-interview/

I want to highlight some very important points raised by the author:

1.PREPARE AND USE THE INTERVIEW AS AN EXPERIENCE

“Study Technical Questions – Basic Questions, Rehearse Difficult Questions, White Board, Write Down Missed Questions

Every time while going for any interview be prepared with basic questions, research some difficult questions with the answers prior to it.
After coming back from an interview, write down the missed questions.”

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. This is an important event. Treat it like a really hard exam.

Also, learn from the experience. Keep a record of questions in a doc.

2.GETTING THERE ON TIME

“Dress appropriately. Be on time. Arriving 30 minutes early is good
Take two forms of maps: Because sometimes you will get traffic on any road; you have to know another road. Also, sometimes if you have taken a photograph into mobile and unfortunately the battery of your mobile gets discharged, in these cases, you have to carry a print out of the maps with the detailed address.”

OK, that might seem very straightforward but rushing or being late to an interview.

Really important article on burnout in Software Development

Posted on September 17, 2016 by dommillar

OK if you follow this blog you know by now how much I love Scott Hanselman and it’s no surprise that he’s written another great article on one of the dark areas of Software Development: Burnout

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToDealWithTechnologyBurnoutMaybeItsLifesCycles.aspx

I’ve seen it too many times, where great Engineers just get fed up with the daily grind of needing to deliver. As Scott says some times we just need to drop everything and take a break.

My presentation at University Canberra, 1 September

Posted on August 17, 2016 by dommillar

I am presenting a session on Career development for software engineers on – so for any UC students interested in some advice on career planing come along. Similar to one I ran a month ago at ANU.

Skills for new Software Engineering grads

Posted on April 3, 2016 by dommillar

Great article on the type of skills new Software Engineering graduates should work on before they start their first job:

https://blog.newrelic.com/2014/06/03/10-secrets-learned-software-engineering-degree-probably-didnt/

how to be a successful software engineer

Posted on March 22, 2016 by dommillar

I’ve been blogging about this for a while and I guess eventually when you are in this subject area you will come across a great article. This is one of them. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of good articles on “How to be a successful Software Engineer”. This article is special, very special:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/how-to-be-a-successful-software-engineer/

Nice and simple and well structured and focussed on the type of things that I have seen great engineers focus on in their career. This is a gem of an article for young and not so-young aspiring developers.

Making Badass Developers – Kathy Sierra (Serious Pony) keynote

Posted on July 26, 2015 by dommillar

Really cool short video from Kathy Sierra on “how to be a badass developer” … not sure I’d give it that heading because I think its a really interesting idea for allowing programmers/software engineers to improve skills. Give it a watch…

Doms Code

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Category Archives: How to be a software engineer