Episode 206 | David Bernstein - Beyond Legacy Code

Guest: David Bernstein @ToBeAgile David Bernstein talks with Dave Rael about writing a book, writing software, untangling legacy code, and rewards David Scott Bernstein is the author of the new book Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software. It’s an insider’s view of the software industry drawn from his decades of hands-on experience as a software developer, trainer, and consultant to some of the biggest players in the business. With its emphasis on technical excellence, the primary audience for Beyond Legacy Code is software development managers and their teams. David’s continuing passion for software design and construction has led him to train more than 8,000 developers since 1989 at hundreds of companies around the world including IBM, Yahoo, and Microsoft—where his book’s advice has been successfully applied. Since 2006, David has been devoted to coaching and training developers at organizations transitioning to Agile and Scrum. His consulting firm, To Be Agile (http://ToBeAgile.com), helps developers adopt Extreme Programming practices such as test-first development, continuous integration, and refactoring. David is a Certified Scrum Professional, Certified Scrum Developer and Certified ScrumMaster. Chapters: 2:26 - Dave introduces the show and David Bernstein4:55 - David's book: Beyond Legacy Code6:52 - Creating code resistant to becoming legacy code9:05 - The approach and layout of the book10:09 - David's career path and experience13:03 - "Understanding how we understand" - modeling processes16:05 - How David found himself writing software professionally from being a biologist17:53 - How David learned to program and different constraints on programming in different times21:04 - Technical failings - untangling a knot of legacy code via understanding and safe refactorings28:24 - David's motivations for writing the book and writing process insight30:52 - The power of stories33:23 - David's success story - getting his lessons out in book form35:01 - How David stays current with what he needs to know37:29 - David's book recommendation39:18 - The things that have David most excited40:25 - David's causes of pain and suffering41:57 - The things about which David likes to geek out43:46 - David's top 3 tips for delivering more value46:48 - Keeping up with David Resources: David's Website and Business Beyond Legacy Code: Nine Practices to Extend the Life (and Value) of Your Software - David Scott Bernstein Working Effectively with Legacy Code - Michael Feathers Michael Feathers on Developer On Fire Uncle Bob Martin on Developer On Fire Uncle Bob Martin on the consequences of exponential growth in the number of software developers in the world Net Objectives Al Shalloway Scott Bain PDP-8 Matt Wynne's Blog Post on Emphasizing Refactoring Matt Wynne on Developer On Fire Arlo Belshee on Developer On Fire Dr. Jordan Peterson Joseph Campbell Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Diana Larsen Jurassic Park (film) David's book recommendation: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love - Richard Sheridan Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code - Martin Fowler David's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Focus on value Know yourself Praise others Be willing to change your mind Understand refactoring Understand design patterns