blog: maintenance++

src/content/blog/2022-10-22-maintenance-plus-plus.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+title: "Making your software opinionated is maintenance++"
+date: 2022-10-22T12:18:45Z
+slug: 2022-10-22-maintenance-plus-plus
+author: Thomas Wilson
+
+---
+
+Good software adds value to the people who use it. 
+
+So good software engineers make software that adds value to peoples' lives.
+
+People get value from what software does for them, not how it does it (obvious caveats about correctness aside).
+
+It's possible for highly valuable software to be terrible in quality.  
+
+Valuable software can have a hard to navigate codebase, heavily duplicated or inefficient code, low test coverage, and a deployment process that sounds like "we have to use Terri's laptop but they're on holiday so we'll deploy in two weeks".
+
+A lot of engineers will tell you that poor quality software _is_ low value software.  I think this is most common in journeyman craftsperson (2-5 years).  I've worked hard to stop being that person.
+
+It's a hard voice to not listen to because it's so righteous.  I like things that are pure in concept and execution.  I think a lot of engineers (and knowledge workers) feel this way.
+
+Anyway.  Over time though, poor quality software will impact users.  It is slow to change and has a higher-than-average chance of containing bugs. 
+
+Over time, poor quality software can become low value software.  It is our job to stop, or at least slow, this.
+
+The two words in my head for this are *Rot* and *Maintenence*.  
+
+[Software Rot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot) was introduced to me by [The Pragmatic Programmer](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-pragmatic-programmer/9780135956977/f_0020.xhtml).  It's a sibling of the idea of "Technical Debt".  Unlike deb, rot is always bad.  Debt is a useful tool.  Telling your venture captial backed start up that you've taken debt to move faster isn't going to convince them you did a bad thing.  
+
+Rot is a more primal word.  You sense rot.  
+
+If you leave parts of your software alone for long enough, they will rot.
+
+Maintenance is the **active** process of preventing or undoing  code rot.  I think this really entered my mind in following an episode of the *Freakonomics* podcast, [Praise of Maintenance](https://freakonomics.com/podcast/in-praise-of-maintenance/).
+
+If you've ever taken care of a garden, machinery, or your body, you know  maintenance *is* active.  It means pulling things out of the ground, delimescaling, oiling, doing squats and stretching.  
+
+Maintenance is what you'll spend the vast majority of time doing.  
+
+Over the seasonal (quarterly) time period, maintenance isn't enough.  There's a strong flavour of maintenance in my head that I'm calling *maintenance++*.
+
+Maintenance++ is the act making pre-existing bits of software more opinionated about the business domain.  
+
+This can mean things like moving bits of code away from abstract or unopinionated locations and towards either a centre or an edge.  It can mean using different words to describe things (*draft* and *archive*, as opposed to `isPublished` and `deletedAt`).  
+
+If the source code of software doesn't mirror the business or problem domain, the software is not of good quality. 
+
+You will learn more about a problem or process by writing the code.  Code often does not come out of the oven with opinions.
+
+Unlike the above judgement from the journeyman developer ("software of poor quality is of poor value"), this is a judgement based on the software's wider place within a business.  
+
+Part of maintaining software should be to introduce or refine business-level opinions within the software.

src/routes/+page.svelte

@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@
 	<section class="section thomaswilson-strapline">
 		<h1 class="title">Thomas Wilson</h1>
 		<p>
-			I'm a software engineer who loves the craft of building reliable and human-friendly software
-			for the web. I build good things with good people for good companies.
+			I'm a software engineer who loves the craft of leading teams, and building software that is
+			reliable and human-friendly.  I build good things with good people for good companies.
 		</p>
 	</section>
 
@@ -39,12 +39,7 @@
 				</li>
 
 				<li>
-					I can create and champion Design Systems in Code and in <a
-						target="_blank"
-						rel="noopener noreferrer"
-						href="https://www.figma.com"
-						class="figma">Figma</a
-					>
+					I lead teams with domain driven design, and agile (with a little 'a') opinions about delivery and collaboration.
 				</li>
 
 				<li>
@@ -68,7 +63,7 @@
 				<li><button on:click={() => (isWorkExpanded = false)}> Ew, show less </button></li>
 			</ul>
 		{:else}
-			<p>I build human-friendly software for the web, and help teams do that with better design.</p>
+			<p>I build human-friendly software for the web.</p>
 			<button on:click={() => (isWorkExpanded = true)}> Wow, Show more </button>
 		{/if}
 	</section>
@@ -85,7 +80,7 @@
 			</ul>
 		{:else}
 			<p>
-				I like to write on my <a href="/blog">blog</a> and ride bikes. I'm learning to sew and my French
+				I like to write on my <a href="/blog">blog</a> and ride bikes. I'm learning to sew my own clothes, and my French
 				is terrible.
 			</p>
 			<button on:click={() => (isPersonalExpanded = true)}>Oh, cool, tell me more</button>