8 Questions Business Leaders Should Ask Before Jumping Into AI
In this e-book, Revelry product strategy expert Heather Bourdaux and software engineering leader Jason Pollentier share both best practices and key considerations from early…
Jason Pollentier
Creating an “Agent” Using OpenAI’s Functions API
In my previous post, I wrote about using OpenAI‘s Functions API to force their large language models (LLMs) to return structured, machine-readable responses. The natural…
Using the OpenAI Functions API to Estimate Story Points
Like so many others, I’ve been playing around with language models lately. Also like so many others, I’ve been alternately amazed and amused at…
Stop Camouflaging Your Software Bugs
Termites and software bugs have this in common: they must be identified and managed quickly to avoid devastation. Termites can destroy the structural integrity…
How to Kill Staging Without “Testing in Production”
Most software teams have left behind the Waterfall(1) methodology in favor of approaches that move faster and flex more to accommodate changes and maximize the…
Wordle as a Metaphor for the Software Development Process
We at Revelry have a #wordelry channel in Slack where we share our Wordle scores and commiserate about unlucky guesses. It’s a great way…
Tackling Hard Problems Head-On (Can Be a Mistake)
A really hard problem can feel like a great chance to flex our skills and finally use some of those architectural patterns we’ve been…
Problem Solving and Learning on the Job as a Software Engineer
A while back several Revelers were chatting in Slack about learning and working as a software engineer. Some interesting ideas were being thrown around…
My Introduction to Property Testing
Lately I’ve been exploring various automated testing techniques, and it’s about time I got to property-based testing, also known simply as property testing. I…
Mutation Testing to Really Understand Your Code
Mutation testing involves running your test suite many times, modifying the application code in different ways to see if the tests catch the change.
Doing Algebra in Code: Looking Past the Details to the Math
The hard part of this was recognizing the algebra beneath layers of domain-specific business rules.
Optimizing Feedback Loops for Iterative Agile Development
The team that seeks out feedback and views it as an asset rather than a slap in the face is the team that delivers real value to clients.
Tips and Advice for Dealing with Merge Conflicts
I was lying in bed this morning planning the best way to handle a merge conflict I know is coming with a colleague’s PR today, and I realized I’d like to know a couple of tricks for certain situations. Here they are:
How to Make Git History Useful to Humans
Make sure you’re doing this consistently, because down the line it makes a big difference to somebody digging through git history.
Language Naming Conventions in Programming: It’s All in the Context
Jason had a theory: He dislikes abbreviations and acronyms, ambiguity and magic. And he likes explicitness and clarity. So he wondered why some code naming conventions seem to punish verbosity (when it’s required) and what this all has to do with language naming conventions.