developer experience

This episode is brought to you by DX—a platform for measuring and improving developer productivity.

—

Dr. Nicole Forsgren is a developer productivity and DevOps expert who works with engineering organizations to make work better. Best known as co-author of the Shingo Publication Award-winning book Accelerate and the DevOps Handbook, 2nd edition and author of the State of DevOps Reports, she has helped some of the biggest companies in the world transform their culture, processes, tech, and architecture. Nicole is currently a Partner at Microsoft Research, leading developer productivity research and strategy, and a technical founder/CEO with a successful exit to Google. In a previous life, she was a software engineer, sysadmin, hardware performance engineer, and professor. She has published several peer-reviewed journal papers, has been awarded public and private research grants (funders include NASA and the NSF), and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Computerworld, and InformationWeek. In today’s podcast, we discuss:

• Two frameworks for measuring developer productivity: DORA and SPACE

• Benchmarks for what good and great look like

• Common mistakes to avoid when measuring developer productivity

• Resources and tools for improving your metrics

• Signs your developer experience needs attention

• How to improve your developer experience

• Nicole’s Four-Box framework for thinking about data and relationships

—

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-measure-and-improve-developer-productivity-nicole-forsgren-microsoft-research-github-goo/#transcript

—

Where to find Nicole Forsgren:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicolefv

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolefv/

• Website: https://nicolefv.com/

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Nicole’s background

(07:55) Unpacking the terms “developer productivity,” “developer experience,” and “DevOps”

(10:06) How to move faster and improve practices across the board

(13:43) The DORA framework

(18:54) Benchmarks for success

(22:33) Why company size doesn’t matter 

(24:54) How to improve DevOps capabilities by working backward

(29:23) The SPACE framework and choosing metrics

(32:51) How SPACE and DORA work together

(35:39) Measuring satisfaction

(37:52) Resources and tools for optimizing metrics

(41:29) Nicole’s current book project

(45:43) Common pitfalls companies run into when rolling out developer productivity/optimizations

(47:42) How the DevOps space has progressed

(50:07) The impact of AI on the developer experience and productivity

(54:04) First steps to take if you’re trying to improve the developer experience

(55:15) Why Google is an example of a company implementing DevOps solutions well

(56:11) The importance of clear communication

(57:32) Nicole’s Four-Box framework

(1:05:15) Advice on making decisions 

(1:08:56) Lightning round

—

Referenced:

• Chef: https://www.chef.io/

• DORA: https://dora.dev/

• GitHub: https://github.com/

• Microsoft Research: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/

• What is DORA?: https://devops.com/what-is-dora-and-why-you-should-care/

• Dustin Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustin-smith-b0525458/

• Nathen Harvey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathen/

• What is CI/CD?: https://about.gitlab.com/topics/ci-cd/

• Trunk-based development: https://cloud.google.com/architecture/devops/devops-tech-trunk-based-development

• DORA DevOps Quick Check: https://dora.dev/quickcheck/

• Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations: https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339

• The SPACE of Developer Productivity: https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3454124

• DevOps Metrics: Nicole Forsgren and Mik Kersten: https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3182626

• How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business: https://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Business/dp/1118539273/

• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

• Tabnine: https://www.tabnine.com/the-leading-ai-assistant-for-software-development

• Nicole’s Decision-Making Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wItAODkhZ-zKnnFbyDERCd8Hq2NQ03WPvCfigBQ5vpc/edit?usp=sharing

• How to do linear regression and correlation analysis: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linear-regression-and-correlation-analysis

• Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters/dp/1781256179/

• Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Your-Life-Well-Lived-Joyful/dp/1101875321

• Ender’s Game: https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Quintet-1/dp/1250773024/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

• Suits on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/70195800

• Ted Lasso on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/ted-lasso

• Never Have I Ever on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80179190

• Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/

• COSRX face masks: https://www.amazon.com/COSRX-Advanced-Secretion-Hydrating-Moisturizing/dp/B08JSL9W6K/

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

In this supper club episode of Syntax, Wes and Scott talk with Miško Hevery about why developers should check out Qwik, the benefits of lazy loading, sharing state between components, and other Builder.io projects like Partytown and Mitosis.

Show Notes

• 00:35 Welcome
• 01:19 Guest intro
• Miško Hevery
• @MHevery
• 01:58 What is Resumability?
• 05:06 What is Qwik?
• Qwik
• Qwik City
• 07:03 Why would you want to make a component resumable?
• 12:08 Qwik code can be lazy loaded
• 15:28 How is server side rendering handled?
• 18:12 How does Vite help?
• 22:40 A bit more about hydration
• 31:03 How does the server collection information?
• 32:11 How do you share state between components?
• 34:45 How is data fetching handled?
• 37:47 Why are you using JSX?
• 41:53 Dealing with components in other frameworks
• Mitosis
• 49:21 What is Partytown?
• Partytown
• 54:30 Supper Club questions

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Thinking Fast and Slow

Shameless Plugs

• Builder.io

Tweet us your tasty treats

• Scott’s Instagram
• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes’ Instagram
• Wes’ Twitter
• Wes’ Facebook
• Scott’s Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

It’s another Potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about Svelte, bleeding-edge tech, best Git processes, Create React App, screencast software, FitBit API, government jobs, Syntax sponsors, and more!

.TECH Domains - Sponsor

.TECH is taking the tech industry by storm. A domain that shows the world what you are all about! If you’re looking for a domain name for your startup, portfolio, or your own project like we did with uses.tech, check out .tech Domains. Syntax listeners can snap their .TECH Domains at 80% off on five-year registration by visiting go.tech/syntaxistech and using the coupon code “syntax5”.

LogRocket - Sponsor

LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax.

Mux - Sponsor

Mux Video is an API-first platform that makes it easy for any developer to build beautiful video. Powered by data and designed by video experts, your video will work perfectly on every device, every time. Mux Video handles storage, encoding, and delivery so you can focus on building your product. Live streaming is just as easy and Mux will scale with you as you grow, whether you’re serving a few dozen streams or a few million. Visit mux.com/syntax.

Show Notes

03:15 - I was wondering what you guys think about using the latest of Svelte (svelte-next) in serious projects? Does the improved devEx makes up for the small (but growing) community and lack of libraries? Do you think svelte-next is here to stay or maybe we will get a revamp that breaks backward compatibility in a couple of years, like svelte 2 -> svelte 3?

8:48 - Git question: My process is often that I want to be able to use my last project as a starting point for my next project, with the new project having absolutely no connection or relationship to the old project. What steps can I take to completely sever any ties to the old project? Bonus question: In the new project I would love to eliminate all commits from the old project and start the new project having just one commit, the initial commit with all the code from the old project.

11:05 - Is CRA still useful for building actual production-level web apps these days? People seem to be reaching for Next or Gatsby most of the time, and I feel CRA is mainly used for actually learning React/building personal small websites. Your thoughts? Also, for normal CSR, I feel it is better to use something like Next, and fetch data inside your component (eg: for a dashboard) rather than building one with CRA. Am I wrong?

19:40 - What are your favorite screencast tools? (Linux? Mac? Windows?)

25:53 - Is it a bad trait for beginners to “give up” easily? By that, I mean instead of taking the time to think of the answer to a problem, they would instead rely on googling the solution and try to understand how it worked afterward.

27:55 - In pursuit of better health I want to track my weight daily using a smart digital scale. The idea is to automate the process of logging my own weight (e.g. stepping on the scale will update my Apple Health and any other integrations I have). After some searching around I landed on the Aria Air (mostly because I like the design and it has the coolest name). One small problem - it does not sync with Apple Health as it is a product from FitBit. They have an API so I’m thinking about running a serverless function daily, around 8 a.m. after I weigh in, to hit the FitBit API, get the data and push it to Apple Health. This way I can stay in the Apple eco-system whilst happily getting this nice, aesthetic digital scale. Any thoughts on how you would personally implement something like this? P.S. My girlfriend thinks I’m crazy, but I know the tinkerer inside Wes will love this.

30:26 - I work for the government with good pay and benefits and love where I work, but I feel like I’m missing out. Working in government we are not always working on the bleeding edge of technology. I do try and learn on my own, but it’s hard sometimes if I don’t put it into practice. I do peek at other job openings and get excited about the tech stack and the things they’re doing. I’m just afraid if I leave I won’t have the stability and benefits I would get from working in government. Any tips or thoughts would be appreciated.

34:24 - Unpopular opinion: Authentication isn’t that hard, but authorization is! What systems have you built to handle when users with specific permissions are allowed (or disallowed) to take actions within your system? What advice would you give to other developers developing permissions-based APIs, assuming their users can have 5-10 different levels of permissions?

40:21 - What are your thoughts on ReScript as an alternative to TypeScript?

44:43 - How come you guys moved to two sponsors on a Hasty and three on a Tasty? Not that it’s a big deal - was just curious of it was to keep up with costs or just because you could and then you’d make more? Either way, the show is awesome and really appreciate your opinions on everything!

48:01 - Have you tried Angular 12? I’d think you’d be pleasantly surprised if you gave it a chance!

52:20 - I have to copy and paste hundreds of products with six rows of details from a spreadsheet into a web interface because there is no API or CSV upload function for this program. Any recommendation on how to automate data entry into web inputs, navigate pages / click buttons, and toggle between applications? BTW, I scored my first web developer job and have to give you guys credit for steering me in the right direction.

Links

• Svelte
• Create React App
• Next.js
• Vercel
• iShowU
• Descript
• Screenflow
• Aria Air
• FitBit
• Apple Health
• https://www.gov.uk/
• Keystone
• rescript
• TypeScript
• Angular
• Syntax 359: Hasty Treat - Making a Vaccine Bot with JavaScript
• Puppeteer
• uses.tech
• wes.tech

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: SvelteKit
• Wes: Wyze Sprinkler Controller

Shameless Plugs

• Scott: Svelte Components Course - Sign up for the year and save 25%!
• Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off!

Tweet us your tasty treats!

• Scott’s Instagram
• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes’ Instagram
• Wes’ Twitter
• Wes’ Facebook
• Scott’s Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

Google's I/O conference in Mountain View, California, the Vergecast crew chats with Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP at Google for Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Play, comms and photos, and Stephanie Cuthbertson, director of Android to the show to talk new products such as the Pixel and Nest line, messaging, and of course Android. Subscribe to The Vergecast for free in your favorite podcast app https://pod.link/430333725 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices