if/else

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by developers and the companies that employ them: is it better to work remotely or in an office?

Remote work can give employees and contractors greater flexibility and autonomy, but it can also lead to social isolation. On-site work can result in better social connection with co-workers, but it can also mean annoying commutes for employees, and expensive office space for businesses.

The episode begins with a quick backgrounder on these two options, and you’ll hear from several software developers about what they like and dislike about each scenario.

You’ll also meet Jonathan Sexton. Jonathan is a front end developer based in San Antonio, Texas. He’s weighing two job offers; one for a remote gig, and one at an office. Jonathan values the potential flexibility of the remote job as he manages a busy family life, but he also knows that, as a junior developer, he may learn more from senior colleagues if he’s on-site.

To help Jonathan decide on which option might work best for his career and his young family, we’ve enlisted the help of two experts to debate the promises and pitfalls of remote and on-site work.

Emily Freeman is the author of DevOps for Dummies and leads the modern operations team in cloud advocacy at Microsoft.

Katie Womersley is the VP of Engineering at Buffer and advocates for remote work and distributed teams.

Katie and Emily join Mayuko to explore the pros and cons of each job scenario to give Jonathan—and anyone else facing this important decision—some useful advice on what he should consider as he weighs his options. They also discuss the contentious issue of location-based pay; should remote developers living in areas with a lower cost of living, be paid less than their colleagues in expensive cities?

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by independent developers and large companies alike: which cloud platform will best suit their needs now, and in the future?

There are several companies offering services in the cloud computing space, but we’re going to focus on two of the more high-profile platforms: Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.

You’ll get a quick backgrounder on these two options, and you’ll hear from several developers about what they like and dislike about each one.

You’ll also meet Justin. Justin is a senior developer at a large company, but he’s also working independently on his own app. He’s weighing the pros and cons of AWS and GCP for his specific needs, particularly the learning curve and cost of each platform. To help Justin decide on which might work best for his app, we’ve enlisted the help of two cloud computing experts.

Charity Majors is a co-founder and CTO of Honeycomb.io. She used AWS to spin up the infrastructure for her company and knows the platform inside out.

Daniel Compton is the founder of Deps, a private Maven repository service. He is also the project leader of Clojurists Together. He is using GCP for several of his projects.

Charity and Daniel join Mayuko to explore the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and to give Justin - and anyone else facing this important decision - some real-world perspectives on each option. They also discuss the fascinating topic of innovation tokens.

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by many software development teams: which agile methodology should they use?

There are several different agile frameworks, including Lean, Crystal Clear, Extreme Programming, and Feature Driven Development, but we’ll focus on two of the more popular approaches: Scrum and Kanban.

You’ll learn about the history and philosophy behind these two methodologies, and you’ll hear some perspectives from several developers about their experiences–good and bad–working with these processes.

You’ll also meet Grant Ammons. Grant is a development team leader at an online marketing tools company. Grant and his colleagues have been working in the Scrum framework, and it has dramatically improved communication with their stakeholders. But they’re running into problems with certain aspects of the process, and are beginning to think about giving Kanban a try. To help Grant decide whether to tweak his teams current process or jump into a completely new one, we’ve enlisted the help of two industry veterans.

Eric Brechner is a Principal Software Engineering Manager for Azure at Microsoft. He is also author of Agile Project Management with Kanban.

Ken Rubin is the founder of Innolution, an Agile and Scrum coaching and consulting firm, and he’s the author of Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process.

Ken and Eric join Mayuko to discuss the guiding principles of each methodology, and to debate the strengths and weaknesses of each system. You’ll also hear about the types of teams that each approach best suits. The idea is to give Grant, or anyone else facing a similar decision, the information needed to make a solid choice.

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue looks at two software development version control platforms: GitHub and GitLab.

While both platforms offer Git repository hosting, issue tracking, and integrations, there are important differences in cost, popularity, security, and philosophy.

The episode begins with a quick backgrounder on these two platforms, and then you’ll hear from several software developers about their experiences with each.

You’ll also meet Tim Skaggs. Tim is a VP of Engineering at the hiring management software company ApolloFactor. His team currently uses GitHub, but Tim is considering a move to GitLab to save money and streamline certain processes around continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD). But is this the right move? Will it solve some of the team’s challenges, or will they regret the move?

To help Tim make the best choice for his company, we’ve enlisted the help of two experts to debate the pros and cons of each option.

Phil Haack is the proprietor of Haacked LLC. He was a director of engineering at GitHub and helped make GitHub friendly to developers on the Microsoft platform.

Will Hall is a DevOps Consultant at HeleCloud, and a GitLab Hero with a passion for open source software.

Phil and Will join Mayuko to try to surface the most important information that Tim should consider, and to game out the best scenarios for Tim’s team.

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue looks at the past, present, and future of container orchestration with special guest Kelsey Hightower.

On this episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by many front-end developers: which JavaScript framework should you use?

There are many frameworks available, including Angular, Relay, Next, Aurelia, Svelte, Ember, Meteor, Knockout, Backbone, Node, and Polymer. But we’re going to focus on the two most popular ones: React and Vue.js.

Mayuko explains the history and philosophy behind these two frameworks, and you’ll hear from several developers about their experiences with React and Vue.

You’ll also meet Al. Al works at a small IoT firm, and is getting back into front-end development after a long hiatus. He has some experience with JavaScript, but wants to take advantage of the efficiency gains of a JavaScript framework. Al has heard about React and Vue, but he hasn’t committed to either option. To help him decide which one will work best for him, we’ve enlisted the help of two industry experts.

Cassidy Williams is an instructor and developer at React Training and the director of outreach at cKeys. Erik Hanchett is a senior software engineer at Cerity and the author of the book Vue.js In Action. He  is also co-host of the Self Taught or Not podcast.

Cassidy and Erik join Mayuko to discuss the guiding principles of each framework, along with their strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to give Al, or anyone else facing a similar decision, the information needed to make a solid choice.

It’s an exciting time to be a software developer. It’s a growth industry with incredible opportunities for talented devs. But there are important decisions you need to make in order to have a sustainable career in tech. Whether you’re a newbie or an experienced coder; whether you manage a small team of programmers, or an entire corporate division, the if/else podcast is here to help you make those decisions.

On this first episode of if/else, host Mayuko Inoue explores a choice faced by anyone interested in starting or rebooting a career in software development: should you opt for a short-but-intensive coding bootcamp, or sign up for a long-but-deeper computer science degree program? How should you think about the cost of the two options? Or the time commitment? Or the community?

You’ll hear from several developers about their first-hand experience of bootcamps and 4-year degree programs, and from instructors and faculty, including Harvard professor Harry R. Lewis, who taught both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

You’ll also meet Andreea. She’s facing this decision herself, but she’s not alone. That’s because we’ve enlisted the help of two industry experts to help Andreea figure out which option will work best for her, and for anyone facing a similar choice.

Cedric Stallworth of The Georgia Tech College of Computing, and Charlyne Fothergill of Lighthouse Labs join Mayuko to debate the pros and cons of each approach, and to talk about all the things Andreea should consider before she makes her choice.

What will Andreea do? Have a listen to find out!

Whether you’re an aspiring software developer or a seasoned professional, student or senior manager, if/else is for you.