Attila Fejer

Engineering vs Craftsmanship

In the world of software development, two terms often arise when discussing the qualities of experienced professionals: engineering and craftsmanship. While we sometimes use these terms interchangeably, they represent distinct skill sets and mindsets.

Emily Bache and Dave Farley published the video What Is A Software Engineer? | Craftsmanship Movement Was A “Step Backwards”. It inspired me to write this post with a different opinion: combining the two approaches leads to superior software development.

Sustainable Refactoring

In the fast-paced world of software development, maintaining code health while delivering new features is a constant challenge. One strategy that has emerged as a crucial practice is refactoring. However, the traditional approach to refactoring can often clash with the demands of project timelines and stakeholder expectations.

In this post, we’ll explore how sustainable refactoring techniques can help strike a balance between code health and feature delivery.

Will Customers Ever Speak Our Language?

Software developers face a constant challenge: the communication gap between them and customers. TLDR: customers will never speak the developers’ language. While both parties strive for the same goal—creating valuable, functional software—their perspectives, priorities, and vocabularies often differ. In this post, we’ll dive into the reasons for this difference, explore the implications, and discuss strategies for bridging the gap.

AI Tools and Refactoring

Previously in the series, we saw that AI tools have limitations. We also discussed maximizing our productivity by using them to write code - without shooting ourselves in our legs.

In this post, we’ll cover one more piece of the puzzle: how they can (or can’t) help us to refactor.

How To Use AI Developer Tools In 2024

In the previous post, we saw the limitations of AI developer tools. Yes, they are not perfect. However, they are still able to improve our productivity significantly.

This time, we’ll dive into how we can effectively use them to achieve a better development experience, higher-quality output, and faster delivery.

Describing Software Behavior

In the world of software development, understanding software behavior is crucial. It’s not just about writing code; it involves various steps and artifacts. In this post, we’ll dive into the different ways to describe what a software product does, showing how they all connect to depict software behavior.

AI Developer Tool Limitations In 2024

With the rise of ChatGPT, Bard Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Devin, and other AI tools¹, developers started to fear that AI tooling would replace them. Even though their capabilities are indeed impressive, I don’t fear our jobs will go away in 2024.