InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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How Tech-Enabled Networks of Software Teams Work
To maintain agility at scale, software teams can use technological and organizational solutions to reduce dependencies and work autonomously. According to Fabrice Bernhard, collaboration technology can be leveraged to create a distributed network of teams. To empower their teams, leaders can support them with a systematic problem-solving culture aimed at delivering good products to customers.
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Experiences from Doing DORA Surveys Internally in Software Companies
Doing DORA surveys in your company can help you reflect on how you are doing software delivery and operation. The way you design and run the surveys, and how you analyze the results, largely impact the benefits that you can get out of them. Carlo Beschi shared his experiences from doing DORA surveys at Agile Cambridge.
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Null-Restricted and Nullable Types for Java
Draft JEP 8303099 was recently made public. This JEP discusses Null-Restricted and Nullable Types, and aims to bring optional nullness-marking to the Java language, in a similar way to that seen in other programming languages (such as Kotlin).
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JSpecify 1.0.0 and Nullability in Java
The JSpecify collective has made its first release. The group's mission is to define common sets of annotation types for use in JVM languages, to improve static analysis and language interoperation. The first release is centred on nullability, and aligns with a recently announced Draft JEP that is exploring this issue at language level.
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Ideas for Crafting Inclusive Public Software Platforms
Public software platforms should be inclusive and accessible to everyone, where people feel comfortable using them. It’s a big challenge to design a platform for everyone, from digital newbies to natives, with varying knowledge and experience of administrative processes. Government platforms must ensure their users' trust so that they feel safe using government services online.
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Increasing Productivity by Becoming a Dual-Purpose Stream Aligned and Platform Software Team
To manage their increased workload effectively and maintain quality and efficiency, a software team decided to become dual-purpose: stream-aligned and platform. They rewrote their main application to be API-first and implemented micro releases with their customer-facing products, to provide value to their end users quickly and maintain a steady flow of accomplishments for the team.
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Gojko’s Lizard Optimization for Product Growth and Retention
Gojko Adzic’s new book, Lizard Optimization, shows how addressing product misuse and marginal use cases enhances customer retention and drives growth. He discusses the book with Dave Farley for GOTO's Book Club, and shares examples illustrating how focusing on unique user needs leads to broader improvements. The techniques are suited to products seeking to grow market share or reduce churn.
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Gen AI Increases Workloads and Decreases Productivity, Upwork Study Finds
A controversial survey by Upwork Research Institute found that while 96% of C-suite leaders expect the use of generative AI tools to increase overall productivity levels, 77% of surveyed employees say they have actually decreased their productivity. In fact, the survey contradicts previous research showing a positive correlation.
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How Team Health Checks Help Software Teams to Deliver
In healthy software teams, people feel psychologically safe to solve problems and contribute, Brittany Woods said in her talk at QCon London. She presented how they do team health checks and the benefits that it has brought them.
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Navigating Software Architecture at Scale: Insights from Decathlon’s Architecture Process
Raphaël Tahar, staff engineer at Decathlon, recently published his insights from co-leading an architecture process at scale. He depicts how, by combining methodologies like architecture committees, the C4 model, and System Thinking and emphasizing the importance of ADRs and centralized documentation, Decathlon ensures its teams are well-equipped to make informed, strategic decisions.
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Java News Roundup: JDK 23 in Rampdown Phase Two, Graal Development Kit, Payara Platform, JSpecify
This week's Java roundup for July 15th, 2024, features news highlighting: JDK 23 in Rampdown Phase Two: the July 2024 Payara Platform release; Graal Development Kit for Micronaut 4.5.0; GraalVM for JDK 22 Community 22.0.2; JSpecify 1.0.0, MicroProfile 7.0-RC1, Open Liberty 24.0.0.7; and the July 2024 Oracle Critical Patch Update.
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How Testing in the Metaverse Looks
The "metaverse" typically refers to a collective virtual shared space that is created by the convergence of a virtually enhanced physical reality and a persistent virtual reality. According to Jonathon Wright, testing requires a mix of manual testing, automated testing, user testing, emulators, and simulators. Real-world testing environments are used to cover as many scenarios as possible.
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Java News Roundup: JDK 24 Update, Spring Framework, Piranha Cloud, Gradle 8.9, Arquillian 1.9
This week's Java roundup for July 8th, 2024, features news highlighting: JEP 472, Prepare to Restrict the Use of JNI, proposed to be targeted for JDK 24; milestone and point releases for Spring Framework; the monthly Piranha Cloud release; and the releases of Gradle 8.9 and Arquillian 1.9.
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How Building a Platform as a Product Empowered Software Engineers
Platform engineering is about accelerating and empowering developers to deliver more product value faster over time. According to Jessica Andersson, most companies don’t invest in platform engineering until they reach a certain size. At QCon London she presented how their startup adopted platform engineering, what strategy they took, and what they did to gain platform adoption from developers.
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Transforming Software Product Teams into Tech Investors
The key responsibility of an organisation lies in balancing user value with profitability. In a product organisation, software product teams invest their own time. According to Fabrice des Mazery, software developers are much more than stakeholders; they are the main investors as they are part of the product teams.