Enhancing the pull request experience with meta-bots
Pull request bots can provide both maintainers and contributors with a lot of useful information, but sometimes less is more.
The Toilet Paper
Portrayal of Tetrarchic rule in the Roman Empire
For a long time, the Roman Empire was ruled by just one man. This all changed when emperor Diocletian ascended to the throne.
Effectively onboarding newcomers into agile project teams
A qualitative case study shows how we can design a smooth onboarding experience for agile software development teams.
Proactively detect and fix flaky tests in your test suite
Proactive detection of NIO tests makes it possible to fix flaky tests before they ever cause any problems.
Make your hiring process a positive experience for everyone
Leaky hiring pipelines are expensive. This paper presents guidelines that can make them more transparent, fair, and inclusive.
What makes a team good at Scrum?
Apparently a team is good at applying Scrum when it does what the Scrum guide says it should do.
Why is everyone on TikTok?
TikTok has become incredibly popular in a short time. What sets it apart from other platforms, other than its Chinese ownership?
Migrating pods between Kubernetes nodes (without killing them)
When you move a pod to another node, Kubernetes creates a new pod and kills the original. Is there a more humane way?
How to stimulate creativity and innovation in distributed journalistic teams
Psychological safety and good use of technology can make journalists more creative and innovative.
How to write good commit messages
In today’s “Things That People Don’t Want To Bother With” blog we’re having a look at commit messages and how to write them.
Calculating the bus factor
The bus factor is a measure of how screwed a software project is when a member suddenly leaves. How should it be calculated?
What does toxicity look like in open-source projects?
Toxicity in open source differs from toxicity on other platforms like Reddit or Wikipedia in unexpected ways.
Bad practices in continuous integration pipelines and processes
This catalogue of 79 bad smells can help you make your continuous integration processes less shitty.
The product backlog
This paper shows that not every paper needs a long, overly descriptive title. It’s about product backlogs.
Cargo-cult containerisation
Containers are often used for development and deployment of server-side software. For good reason or are we all just cargo culting?
Cargo cults in software engineering
Imitating others who are successful looks good on paper, but in reality only works when one understands the “why” behind those actions.
What does China’s foreign policy really look like?
In its foreign policy messages China claims that it all it wants is peaceful cooperation with other nations. Is it speaking the truth?
Should scientific papers be written using Word or LaTeX?
Most papers are written using Microsoft Word or the LaTeX document preparation system. Is one better than the other?
Science communication is a skill that needs to be taught
Computer science students are only taught how to communicate to an academic audience, which inconveniently excludes most developers.
Continuous integration practices (Taylor’s version)
This study suggests that continuous integration practices are kind of like Scrum, in the sense that everyone does something different.
First make the tests easy, then make the easy tests
The best time to make your software testable was at the start of the project. The second best time is now.
Why “Nigerian” scammers say they are from Nigeria
Dear Sir/Madam, I am a prince of the Nigerian royal family and I urgently need your help…
When machine learning meets software engineering
Software engineering and machine learning are like oil and water. They don’t mix – unless you add an emulsifier of course.
Lessons learnt from preserving the Amsterdam Digital City online community
The Amsterdam Digital City was one of the first online social networks in the Netherlands. How should it be preserved for future generations?