Software Defined Interviews

We discuss compensation, particularly how people in the IT department ("developers," etc.) are so disconnected from the actual business that compensating them based on business performance is near impossible. Not good if you're an IT person and like money. There's other types of comp. then money, obviously, and those are fine too. In particular, we discuss participation in open source and more recognition. But, still: money is the best.

People in large organizations avoid improving for improving's sake. They're very rarely proactive in transforming. Instead, it seems that management in most large organizations only act, and change, when they fear competition and failure. "Everyone" knows this is a bad strategy, and yet "everyone" does it. Perhaps we should embrace that behavior, or at least be empathetic, and figure out how to work with it. We discuss this problem and things to do in this episode. Also, we find out why Coté always has bad breath. Mood board: (6:30) - The daily, normal fears are going to drive what a business does more than large, one-off crises. If your inventory is on an AS/400, then you're in trouble. A chaos monkey for business, or, training for the unexpected. "When there's not a crisis, every penny is squeezed out of technology." Outsourcing, but the harmful type. Hold your customers close, know your evolving storefront. Now, software is the primary storefront. To improve, you must have an enemy. (20:51) "If you're trying to modernize, do this 'digital transformation,' it has to come from a place of an existential problem." (21:26) To prepare for a major disruption, you have to prepare for a bunch of minor, incremental disruptions. You have to sell [the return] on paying for change. (25:51) If you want to justify paying for continuous delivery, you have to find a problem to solve. (27:41) They're bean counters, so just count the beans for them - just give them some beans and they're happy. (28:58) As technologist, our views on revenue are not considered important or valid. (29:21) Fear and loss are often easier to quantify, e.g., "if the database goes down, the business halts, and we loose millions a minute." Growth potential is harder to quantify and pitch, so we often ask for money based on fear and loss. (29:36) "Even though I think about revenue streams, I've never been taken as seriously when I talk about them, as when I talk about fear." Finding people outside of IT that care about software, like, in "the business." (32:55) The only reason for technical agility, is business agility. (33:44) If you do live through a crisis, try to internalize your failure to prepare so you only learn once from crisis, not again and again. (35:33) The Business needs the fear, and then needs to ask IT to help with some optimistic technology action...cause no one's gonna believe IT.

We discuss outsourcing IT.

Journey Through the Business Bottleneck, part 1. Join Rick and I as we try to find this elusive thing called "The Business." We lay out a theory we've been talking about: while IT has been improving or, at least, can improve, the business side of the house isn't showing up to do anything with CLOUD and AGILE and THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION. Why's this the case? Do toothpaste people have this problem? Outsourcing - that's a treat! And so forth. Hopefully next episode we'll discuss tactics to get people outside of IT interested. Subscribe at https://misaligned.business And, check out Coté's work in progress book on this topic: https://cote.io/bottleneck/

Large organization are desperate to become “tech companies.” They drool at these tech companies ability to grow and change quickly. Despite mastering agile over the past 20 years, IT as a whole is too slow and unreliable. “It’s the culture,” everyone says. Changing culture for a team of 10 people is easy - changing a department of 20,000 developers is another challenge entirely. Based on case studies and interviews over the past five years, this talk describes how large organizations are getting over that challenge. First, the talk covers moving from a project to a product mindset and the associated practices. Second, it covers how DevOps and cloud platforms enable that product mindset. Third, it goes over how leadership and management change to support this new approach. Finally, the talk catalogs tactics, patterns, and organizational structures that large organizations are using to improve how they do software which leads to improving their business. This talk is based on my book Monolithic Transformation (O’Reilly, Feb 2019). You can download the slides if you like, and they pop-up as chapter art if your podcast app supports that.

Chris Aniszczyk is the CTO of the CNCF. We discuss how he got into open source, what it's like to work at Twitter and how he helped start the CNCF. Plus, Chris gives us an overview of the different kinds of CNCF projects and offers advice on how to get started with Kubernetes. Show links: Hatching Twitter (https://www.amazon.com/Hatching-Twitter-Story-Friendship-Betrayal/dp/1591847087) GORILLA.BAS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_video_game) IBM Extreme Blue (https://www.ibm.com/employment/extremeblue/) Eclipse Marketplace (https://marketplace.eclipse.org/) Eclipse Foundation (https://www.eclipse.org/org/workinggroups/explore.php) CNCF Charter (https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/master/charter.md) The universal data plane API (https://blog.envoyproxy.io/the-universal-data-plane-api-d15cec7a) Universal Data Plane API Working Group (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y-H-pQ2mmhBPX_U9pP3mMMUbEpZskxBdEbwd5KlivY4/edit#heading=h.hphw9gdcmb90) Contact Chris: @cra (https://twitter.com/cra) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/caniszczyk/) More Software Defined Talk Subscribe to Software Defined Interviews Podcast (https://www.softwaredefinedinterviews.com/) Subscribe to Software Defined Talk Podcast (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/) Follow @SoftwareDefTalk on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SoftwareDefTalk) Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) and we will send you free laptop stickers! Join us in Slack (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/slack). Special Guest: Chris Aniszczyk.

Matt and Brandon interview Adam Jacob the co-founder of Chef. We discuss Adam's career, what led him to start Chef and Chef's recent decision to open source 100% of its Software. Plus, Adam give us some tips on Dungeons & Dragons and transitioning from being a founder to an executive. Links Goodbye Open Core — Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish (https://medium.com/@adamhjk/goodbye-open-core-good-riddance-to-bad-rubbish-ae3355316494) We need Sustainable Free and Open Source Communities (https://medium.com/sustainable-free-and-open-source-communities/we-need-sustainable-free-and-open-source-communities-edf92723d619) Sustainable Free and Open Source Communities (https://sfosc.org/) Follow Adam at @adamhjk (https://twitter.com/adamhjk) Check out the Software Defined Talk Podcast (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/) for the latest news in Enterprise Tech. Special Guest: Adam Jacob.

Jeff Meyerson is the host of Software Engineering Daily (https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/). We talk about his career and what led him to start a daily tech podcast for software engineers. We also talk about current trends in cloud computing and Jeff recounts his career as professional poker player. Topics: Darknet Diaries Chartbreakers Episode (https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/27/) Who Is Michael Ovitz? (https://www.audible.com/pd/Who-Is-Michael-Ovitz-Audiobook/B07DJZBDK4) Where to find Jeff Software Engineering Daily (https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/) Jeff Meyerson (https://jeffmeyerson.com/) @the_prion (https://twitter.com/the_prion) Special Guest: Jeff Meyerson.

Version control has changed a lot over the past 15 years: we’ve moved from a centralized to a distributed model at the basic level. But the practices people follow have changed and grown as new methodologies like DevOps and continuous delivery have relied on version control for operational stability and reliability. In this interview, Coté talks with Plastic SCM (https://www.plasticscm.com/)’s Pablo Santos (https://twitter.com/psluaces) to get the low-down and some tips on doing version control better. We also discuss Plastic SCM (https://www.plasticscm.com/) and how their approach to semantic merging (https://www.semanticmerge.com) and mergebot-driven automation addresses version control toil. This episode is sponsored by Plastic SCM (https://www.plasticscm.com/), that is, it’s a paid interview. Special Guest: Pablo Santos.

Brandon interviews Umair Khan about his experience working in AI Ops and Cloud Security. Umair recently joned Scytale (https://www.scytale.io/) and he explains how the SPIFFE open soruce project (https://spiffe.io/) can help secure communication between cloud services. Contact Umiar: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/khanumair/) @UmairMoheet (https://twitter.com/UmairMoheet) Why I joined Scytale (https://medium.com/@umairmoheet) Special Guest: Umair Khan.

Jake Moilanen started and sold two companies and is now joining the ranks of Venture Capital. We discuss his career, his approach to investing and he explains what it is like to bringup the Linux Kernel on a supercomputer for the first time. Connect with Jake: * @moilanen (https://twitter.com/moilanen) * LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakemoilanen/) Special Guest: Jake Moilanen.

Zane Rockenbaugh specializes in working with early stage startups. Most of the time his clients are boostrapping their new compnay and need someone technical who can help build version 1.0. In this episode, we talk about Zane's career and what it's like to be a "Startup CTO." Most importantly, we talk about his experience of taking raw ideas and turning them into real products. To work with Zane contact him at Liquid Labs (https://liquid-labs.com/) Special Guest: Zane Rockenbaugh.

Coté talks about his job being an "evangelist," a word people no longer seem to use but everyone understands. Brandon interviews Coté about what the job is, what the work's like, and some examples (other than himself) of people who do it well. Call it "developer advocacy," "developer relations," being a "thought leader," or just a straight up hustler - it's a job that most companies in the computer industry have at least one of. Most of the successful software and projects out there get a big boost from key evangalists. Brandon interviews Coté about what the job is, what the work's like, and some examples (other than himself) of people who do it well. As the two discuss, it's a weird job.

When Coté says he doesn’t know how numbers work, he actually means it. To help out, he talks with Rachel Stephens, from RedMonk, who not only explains ratios, but also finance numbers. Fine more from Rachel on her RedMonk blog (https://redmonk.com/rstephens/), and in Twitter (https://twitter.com/rstephensme). Special Guest: Rachel Stephens.

Dustin Kirkland joins us to discuss Linux, Cloud Computing and making wine. We talk about Dustin’s career journey from entry-level developer to Google Product Manager. He shares his experience working at IBM, Canonical and now Google. Plus, he tells the story of how working on his own open source project helped him land a job at startup. Links: * Dustin’s Blog (http://blog.dustinkirkland.com) * Dustin on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DustinKirkland) * Dustin’s presentation at Google Next (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4rkYV4Chfw&feature=youtu.be) * Run-one (http://launchpad.net/run-one) * Vasa Museum (https://www.vasamuseet.se/en) Special Guest: Dustin Kirkland.

How do you implement IT Automation best practices at a large company? What's the best approach to convince stakeholders that IT Automation is worth the effort? In this interview with Acxiom's Chris Donaldson we talk all about the good, the bad and ugly of IT Automation.. We discuss his career and how his previous experiences shaped his view of IT Automation. He offers practical advice on automation, weight lifting and how best to secure shade at the beach. Links: Jobs at Acxiom (https://acxiom.jobs/conway-ar/senior-release-deployment-engineer/7ADDC0D58B574521B0467A0A4975E506/job/) Floret Microservices (https://github.com/Acxiom/floret) Special Guest: Chris Donaldson.

Brandon speaks with Matthew Brutsché (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbrut/) from 500 Rockets Marketing (https://500rockets.io/). Matt gives us his bold predications based on his recent shopping experience at the Amazon Go store in Seattle. Plus, we talk about the evolution of digital marketing and what it means to launch a product into the market. Links: Amazon Go Store (https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16008589011) 500 Rockets Marketing (https://500rockets.io/) Quick Concall iPhone App (https://www.quickconcall.com/) Special Guest: Matt Brutsche.

Brandon interviews Satish Kodukula (https://www.linkedin.com/in/skodukula/) about product management. We compare product management at large companies and startups, discuss how to validate your next startup idea and when to build your minimum viable product (MVP). Notes: Marc Andreessen on Product/Market Fit (https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html) More about Satish: Chief Winning Officer (http://www.chiefwinningofficer.com/) Austin Software Consulting (https://www.austinsoftwareconsulting.com/) All Star Pick (https://allstarpick.com/) Wrap up with Software Defined Talk plugs Check out our other podcast: Software Defined (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com) Talk (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com). A weekly round up of all the news in Enterprise Tech. Keep up with the weekly newsletter (https://us1.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=ce6149b4008d62a08093a4fa6&id=5877922e21). Join us in Slack (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/slack). Buy some t-shirts (https://fsgprints.myshopify.com/collections/software-defined-talk)! DISCOUNT CODE: SDTFSG (20% off) Send your name and address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) and we will send you a sticker. Special Guest: Satish Kodukula.

Getting familiar with analyst relations is a key component of an enterprise software business. “Analyst relations” is sort of like PR, but actually pretty different. You want to, of course, drive influence with the analysts, but also consume the content and advise they’re putting out. And while there’s two major firms in the tech world - Gartner and Forrester - there’s plenty of other firms and individuals to work with. In this episode, Coté talks with Rita Manachi who’s been doing AR for over a decade about all of this, plus some advice on selecting drinks and using iPads in meetings. Special Guest: Rita Manachi.

This is a great conversation with John Mitchell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwilliammitchell/) about Duke Energy improving it’s software capabilities, doing “digital transformation,” as the kids like to call it. We start from the beginning of what kicked the company off, a shift from COTS software to mobile apps and analytics. We then discuss a couple initial projects that Duke transformed, including one that didn’t work out so well, and one that did. Throughout, John shares what he team learned and how they made it happen. Also, we discuss the use it or loose nature of the electricity grid. Apologies for the audio quality on John’s end, I neglected to ask him to make sure his mic was set-up properly. Special Guest: John Mitchell.