Capabilities might be a bit of a buzz word lately, but John and Chris use it nonetheless. What are the capabilities of a Cloud Platform Engineering organization? Listen to hear what they think the core ones are.

Venkat Pothamsetty (@rkreddyp) brings his two decades of security experience to discuss the current state of patching. Venkat has a very pragmatic approach in his recommendation that balances security practices with business considerations. This is a great episode to listen to if your team is currently fighting ZombieLoad, BlueKeep, or a host of other recently disclosed vulnerabilities. 

Doug Lane (@debuggist) joins the show to talk about the essentials in Cloud Platform Engineering. Doug has a great perspective based on years of experience of experience in the business. 

Reference:

• https://www.amazon.com/Every-Tools-Hammer-Life-What/dp/1982113472

John and Chris break down an article that suggests a very pragmatic way to ship software. John's pessimism far outweighs his pragmatism in this episode. The result is some hilarious conversation and great quotes on the reality of building software. 

Reference:

• 'How to ship a software project' https://medium.com/better-programming/how-to-ship-a-software-project-d9fdd2e626aa
• '$300M Video Game Investment' https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2019/05/01/exclusive-the-saga-of-star-citizen-a-video-game-that-raised-300-millionbut-may-never-be-ready-to-play/#62d332e35ac9
• 'Deep Survival' https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Survival-Who-Lives-Dies/dp/0393326152
• She actually did get a pony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-prMb6BdNs

Talk about sticking with your strengths; on this episode we double-down on failure. On the last show we discovered that having the right culture in place is necessary for getting effective postmortems. What does that culture look like? John and Chris pick apart Google's SRE book chapter on postmortem culture. Sadly we are still waiting on a triple-threat death match show pitting Postmortem vs. RCA vs. '5 Whys'. Winner takes all the failure. 

Reference:

• https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/chapters/postmortem-culture/
• https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B00VE4Y0Z2

On episode 26 we talk Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Chris has a short rant about timelines in RCAs and John warns listeners not to weaponize them. Blameless postmortems anyone?

Reference

• https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/chapters/postmortem-culture/
• https://www.isixsigma.com/tools-templates/cause-effect/determine-root-cause-5-whys/
• https://www.amazon.com/Black-Box-Thinking-People-Mistakes-But/dp/1591848229

In this episode we talk about a thought provoking article by Edward Sizovs speaking to the investments in recruitment vs. training. John and Chris relate it to their experience and try to find the right balance for building a solid team. How does this all relate to the 'Daily Show'? Listen to find out!

Article Referenced:

• https://sizovs.net/2019/04/10/the-best-developers-are-raised-not-hired/

Dan White, the Technical Director and co-founder of PipeWorks, joins us to talk about software engineering, game development, deadlines, and Crunch Time! This is a fascinating view into gaming development. Dan has been in the business since the mid-90s and has a great perspective on how to manage deadlines and stakeholder expectations. What isn't taught in Computer Science programs that should be? Listen to hear Dan's thoughts on this and more.

We conclude our hiring series with VP of Cloud Infrastructure Engineering Christos Kalantzis (@chriskalan). What does an effective job description look like? Excellent advice on structuring it so you get the right engineering talent to solve your business problems. Christos also explains why an interview panel is a great way to evaluate candidates. This episode has a lot of other valuable pieces of advice including recruitment and networking strategies. 

Jeff Combs (@JCombsSearch) from www.combssearch.com joins us to give a perspective on hiring from a cybersecurity recruiter with two decades of experience. Jeff provides great advice in a number areas. Find out how you are a 'complex solution set designed to solve business problems' and what Jeff means when he says 'Run for Mayor!' Ever think of doing a TED talk on your life and career? Maybe its something worth considering...