Nathan Cashmore

I’ll be there, learning from the sessions and sharing ways to progress and enable your engineers, from beginning beginners, through fluency, to mastery. Joining me?

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Since the introduction of the Delivery API in Umbraco 12, the amazing Umbraco community has been asking a bunch of questions on how to do this and that with the API. A lot of those questions have led to a better API feature set and/or improved documentation 🚀 A few have not (yet) made it into the official docs. I have put together a blog post describing some of the most interesting/useful, undocumented extension points in the Delivery API. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dNRVh3hn #umbraco #headless

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Blogged: Is the result pattern worth it? Working with the result pattern - Part 4 https://buff.ly/3AqZ8zB In this post I discuss some of the pros and cons around using the result pattern in .NET, and describe some of the arguments I've heard on either side #dotnet

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I've started a long-deferred read through of Team Topologies, which speaks to some of the problems I was talking about recently around the ways "utopian" software development maxims can fail when they encounter the "topos" of an organisation's incentive and communicational structure. There's a thought-provoking section on John Sweller's 1988 breakdown of "cognitive load" into three categories ("intrinsic", "extraneous", "germane"). The thought it provoked in me was that I tend to disregard the burden of the "intrinsic" when looking for ways to reduce "extraneous" load (ways a codebase and development environment distracts me with boilerplate and arbitrary irregularity) and gain traction over "germane" problems (those particular to the domain we're working in). For me, leveraging advanced language features to eliminate boilerplate and build out a little embedded DSL that can express the problems I care about is an obvious win - I often refer to Paul Graham's maxim that you should first create the language you want to solve your problem in, then solve your problem in it. The problem with this is that it can shift extraneous load into intrinsic load, by requiring programmers who were comfortable with repetitive constructs using basic language features to familiarise themselves with much more advanced features (and the DSL's idiomatic usage of them) for the sake of eliminating what may seem to them to be quite harmless repetition. This suits me personally, because I like having an advanced model of a programming language in my head and using it creatively, but one isn't accounting properly for the distribution of cognitive load if one doesn't also take "intrinsic" load into account. I think of Golang as an intentionally low-intrinsic-load language - it has a small kernel of features, and is structured in a way that discourages higher-order abstraction over those features. If in doubt, write another for-loop! By comparison, I remember Scala adoption at TIM Group being an intensely painful experience for some of my colleagues, because it introduced so many constructs and type-level features that could be used in so many colourful ways. While I was elated by its endless opportunities for minimising extraneous load, they felt the burden of ballooning intrinsic load, and the frustration of being temporarily deskilled by the change of fundamental environment. The real art is to leverage small changes of technique and perspective, that will fit comfortably in everybody's head, to chisel away at extraneous load, until they feel that the nuts-and-bolts of their tasks are simpler than they have ever been.

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Part of my work as a Head of Software Development and I have been doing this for long now; is to make sure my teams are cooperating well, with great communication and our people are listened to. Sometimes is a challenge, with 60+ people and 6 different teams, and I need to find ways to make sure people are aligned and do my best to reduce the conflicts. A great way to set the rules and common grounds between different roles is the 🚀Social Contract, a simple model, but great to improve the chances of success of any project. Have a good reading here: https://lnkd.in/gH35AeR #agile #notfragile #socialcontract #guidelines #softwaremanagement #engineeringmanagement #bestpractices #leadership

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8 times out of 10 a time boxed architectural spike will drive better decisions than workshops, RFCs and C4 diagrams. Whilst I value (very much) the things on the right, there is much higher proof from working software.

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This is post number 10! I’d set a goal to reach this milestone by the end of December, and I’ve achieved it in just under 50% faster than planned. I think this was partly due to improving my workflow, making publishing easier, and building a habit that I stuck with. Now, I’m ready to up my game and aim for 20 posts by the end of the year! Blog post #10 - Becoming a better manager - Three biggest mistakes as an engineering manager https://lnkd.in/eqBFqrhA Reflecting on my journey as an engineering manager, I explore three of my biggest mistakes: jumping in to help too quicklu, always trying to be fair to everyone, and neglecting my own development as a manager. Each misstep has taught me valuable lessons that have refined my approach to leadership and shaped how I support my team’s growth.

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Let's try this again, properly - now with non-paywalled link! How do you deliver great software at pace when you have limited resources and/or a small team of engineers? I propose some tips and considerations for what to do and a friendly reminder that you're not alone... https://lnkd.in/gxzDvt_r

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I think I'm coming to realise that one of my more unusual traits as a programmer - and one that has led me to preferring processes like TDD, is I'm obsessed with how code *looks and feels* before I can even make it work. My design process is more "how do I want to express this concept" than "how do I execute this task". Once I find the right form for a concept, I then work backwards and drive out tests that help me make it work. I think a lot of people do the opposite, and try make something work before finding its form. This is reflected in the phrase "working, readable, fast - in that order", but I think I've landed on "expressive, working, fast" ordering now. I'm not making a particular value judgement here - but I think finding the shape in everything is an aesthetic tactic you need if you're going to build software other programmers will consume. It's the design work.

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Testing, every software engineers favourite subject (maybe). If you're writing Terraform code you might not be aware of the huge amount of testing capabilties available right in the product today. Don't worry, we've got you covered! Really enjoyed putting this piece together for the BlakYaks tech blog that covers all the HCL testing features, including the awesome native test framework. Hope you find it useful. #Terraform #IaC #testing #SDLC #HCL #cloudnative

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I first started doing TDD over a decade ago, soon after I joined the BBC. At that time, it was something they mentioned as a requirement for engineers joining the organisation, and I had never really done it although I had heard of it. So during my month long notice period before I started working there, I read up on the technique and practiced it. Luckily for me, one of the first resources I found on the topic was Ian Cooper's excellent talk, "TDD Where did it all go wrong" (see an updated version of that same talk here: https://lnkd.in/eQRnFNza) In that talk, he recommends writing tests in a way that you don't test internal implementation details, with the goal of the tests being able to help you make changes over time, which is the opposite of what many test suites give you. I still remember one of the first experiences I had with the technique, where I was pairing with a very experienced developer on some complicated logic - I don't remember the exact feature now, but I remember it was quite involved, and we tackled it test first, writing tests that tested behaviour and not internal implementation details. I remember we got to the point where all the tests were passing and the feature was complete, and we decided to try to refactor the internal code, because although it worked, it was messy even to us and we'd only just written it. And I remember the pleasure we both felt at the time when we were able to take this messy implementation, and very quickly and with very high confidence, were able to transform the implementation into something far simpler and readable. We had the tests running in real time on one screen and the IDE with our code on the other. Whenever we made a change to our code, the tests would run in a second or two. This meant that if we broke a behaviour that mattered, we found out in seconds, and if we'd done something that worked, we also found that out in seconds. I took this experience and continued doing TDD from that day on, and my experiences have been the same ever since - consistently seeing huge return on my investment, seeing features work first time, forcing me and whoever I'm working with to properly clarify requirements at the start because we need them for our tests. Breaking the problem down into first solving the issue and then having a separate step to just clean and tidy up is very liberating. Every place I've worked since then, I've continued doing TDD and I've shown the value to countless developers on completely different projects and contexts. TDD is the reason I'm never stressed, always feel confident that things will work and also why I get frustrated at the industry so much, because this technique works beautifully and it should be a standard by now.

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🚀 To all my connections, I will be attending Scrum Alliance micro-credential course Agile OKRs, organized by Bojan Smudja on the 12th of September. This is the first official training that is combining metrics and Agile practices. 🆕 This course is designed to teach participants how to craft effective objectives and key results that dive alignment and strategy and support agile practices. 📢 If anyone is interested to join, please ping me directly for special conditions and benefits. #scrumalliance #agile #training #agilepractices #metrics #okrs #scrum

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🚨 Engineers Aren’t Product Owners — And They Shouldn’t Try to Be 🚨 Let’s address the elephant in the room: When engineers take on Product Owner responsibilities, everyone suffers. Collaboration is supposed to make teams stronger, right? But what happens when it goes too far? ❌ Misaligned priorities. ❌ Diluted focus. ❌ Burnout and inefficiency. In my latest article for XapoLabs (Xapo Bank), I pull back the curtain on this all-too-common pitfall and share: 🔥 The hidden costs of role confusion. 🔥 How to recognize when collaboration crosses the line. 🔥 A blueprint for keeping boundaries clear while driving success. ✅ Here’s the truth: Great teams don’t blur roles; they leverage strengths. Engineers thrive in execution, while Product Owners guide vision. 💬 Your Turn: Have you ever felt pulled into responsibilities outside your role? What happened? Let’s discuss — your story could help someone else! P.S. If this post hits close to home, tag a teammate or share it to spark a wider conversation. 👥 #XapoBank #Xapo #Leadership #Collaboration #Engineering #TeamSuccess #XapoLabs

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I've written a short blog post about MVP's as I'm a big fan of them (done right). What does an MVP mean to you? I'd love to hear your thoughts!   #mvp #agile   https://lnkd.in/gP2XFfxn

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I’m you sure many of you know that selection of software when investing in a business system is important but that just gets you to the start line. Just as important is the selection of your support team - picking the correct partner that can support you when things aren’t quite working the way you would expect is critical to ensuring that you are running smoothly every day. That’s why we are so proud of our incredible support team’s performance - for example, in June, our team provided an initial response of 10 minutes or less for 47% of the support tickets logged. Just let that sink in - 47% inside 10 minutes!!! It shows just how effective they are, especially to hit that number across a large team and shows how our support team truly understand and appreciate how your Sage solution supports what you are trying to achieve as a business. That's why we're dedicated to resolving your tickets as swiftly as possible. Here is a flavour of some of the feedback that they have received from last month: 💬 "Life savers" 💬 "Went above and beyond to understand my issue and come up with a solution - thank you" 💬 "Top notch service and support" Our support team truly is amazing, consistently going the extra mile to ensure your success. #CustomerSupport #SageSupport

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It's time for one of my classic "I told you so" moments. This article is talking about why organisations are stepping back from scrum masters https://lnkd.in/eWwx8eQn. Here is something I wrote in 2015 explaining why this is happening https://lnkd.in/e7XffFxB

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Decent Work and No-Code: Empowering Employees in the Digital Age As CTO of Agilebase, I'm passionate about how technology can contribute to creating better work environments. The concept of "decent work" is relevant not just in developing countries, but also in the UK. 1. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals include "decent work," which goes beyond productivity to encompass fair income, workplace security, and personal development. 2. Many organizations struggle with poor systems, processes, and training, leading to employee disengagement. A study showed that disengagement costs the UK over £340bn a year. 3. No-code platforms like Agilebase empower employees to create their own systems. This aligns with the growing demand for more meaningful and purposeful work. 4. As our CEO Cliff Calcutt puts it, "The whole point with no code is about moving forward day by day. You train the people who are at the coalface. Rather than relying on outside software companies, your people take responsibility. They own the change." 5. By giving employees more control over their work, no-code increases job satisfaction and productivity. Agilebase is committed to democratizing technology and enabling "citizen developers." #DecentWork #NoCode #EmployeeEmpowerment #DigitalTransformation #WorkplaceCulture https://lnkd.in/eRPWhY-T

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Join me on 20th Nov at Agile MK for a debrief and insights into some of the best presentations at Agile Cambridge last month - "What I saw at Agile Cambridge"

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Great to see that CDDO / GDS have updated their guidance page on the use of Progressive Enhancement on UK Government services 😍 https://lnkd.in/esuSVb29 Keep fighting the unnecessary bloat that JavaScript has brought to the modern web! ✊ #a11y #accessibility #webperf #progressive #enhancement

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