Soft Skills Engineering

By Jamison Dance and Dave SmithBusiness Technology

Soft Skills Engineering episodes

October 19, 2017Episode 79: Story Point Misses and Measuring Productivity
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
It seems like my teams always miss their story point commitments. Is this normal? How do you change it?

How do you actually measure developer productivity?
The article comparing research on productivity in static and dynamic type systems is here. It is a great read.
Jamison also mentions Goodhart’s Law. Read more about it here.
39 min
October 13, 2017Episode 78: Endless Rewrites and Fake Deadlines
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
We’ve re-written the project I’m on 10 times without launching. What should I do?

I worked hard to hit a deadline, only to find out the deadline was moved. How do I avoid this in the future?
We talked a bit about the value of deadlines way back in episode nine if you want to hear some positive things about deadlines.
28 min
October 04, 2017Episode 77: Boss Wants Me To Speak and The 2% Raise
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My boss wants me to speak at conferences, but I’m very new to software. What should I do?

How do I get more than a 2% raise? That is the company average.
We talked about conferences a bit more way back in episode 6.
We also talked more about playing the salary game in episode 23, which is a technique for sharing salary information with your co-workers.
36 min
September 25, 2017Episode 76: Writing Goals and Firing Jokes
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My organization requires me to set goals for myself. What advice do you have for writing good technical and non-technical goals?

My managers openly joke about firing people all the time. What should I do?
31 min
September 19, 2017Episode 75: Self-Promotion For Wallflowers and Moving in a Year
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
What are some good ways for people who aren’t good at self-promotion to promote themselves?

I’m moving to Europe in a year. How much notice should I give my company that I’m leaving?
Way back in episode 26 we talked a little bit about self-promotion as well.
35 min
September 11, 2017Episode 74: Switching Languages Without A Pay Cut and A Missed Negotiation
Jamison and Dave will be at the UtahJS Conference on September 18th. See conf.utahjs.com for more info and to buy tickets. Come say hi!
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
Do I need to take a pay cut when switching languages?

I was promoted at work but didn’t get a raise or a title change. What do I do?
37 min
August 31, 2017Episode 73: A Rampant Rewriter and Overexplainers
Jamison and Dave will be at the UtahJS Conference on September 18th. See conf.utahjs.com for more info and to buy tickets. Come say hi!
This week Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
A developer on my team has been rewriting my code under the guise of “code cleanup” without saying anything to me. Is this normal? What should I do?

How do you deal with co-workers who over-explain unimportant issues?
40 min
August 17, 2017Episode 72: The Micromanaging CEO and The Only Developer
Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
My CEO is micromanaging the developers. What do I do?

I’m about to take a job as the only developer at a company. How do I handle working without technical coworkers?
30 min
August 14, 2017Episode 71: Informal Leadership and Dealing With Burnout
Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
I’m sometimes an informal lead on project teams. How do I help the team get stuff done as a peer?

How do I deal with burnout after an extended period of crunch time?
Jamison mentions the blog post by Jamis Buck called To Smile Again where he talks about his experiences with burnout.
42 min
July 28, 2017Episode 70: Appraisal-Driven Development and Meeting Creep
Jamison and Dave answer these questions:
I’m a new team lead with a team member who is very appraisal-driven. How do I deal with them?

Have you ever experienced meeting-creep? What do you do about it?
Jamison mentions the 37 signals blog post on the downsides of group chat.
33 min

About Soft Skills Engineering

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It takes more than great code to be a great engineer. Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers about the non-technical stuff that goes into being a great software…