Blaine Osepchuk

Blaine Osepchuk @bosepchuk

About: I'm a small business programmer. I love solving tough problems with Python and PHP. If you like what you're seeing, you should probably follow me here on dev.to and then checkout my blog.

Joined:
Jun 5, 2017

Blaine Osepchuk
articles - 36 total

How to be more successful at software maintenance

Learn what makes software maintenance so challenging and what you can do to be more successful at it.

Learn More 8 2Nov 18 '20

Safety-Critical Software: 15 things every developer should know

This post explains what safety-critical software is, how it's supposed to be constructed, how it's actually constructed, and where the field is heading.

Learn More 113 24Mar 1 '20

Checkout the world's safest open source sumobot (with video)

High Integrity Sumobot is an advanced-level project programmed in Ada/SPARK and Arduino (C++).

Learn More 10 0Jan 16 '20

I'm programming a sumobot with the world's safest programming language

I'm building a sumobot for the 2019 Make with Ada contest.

Learn More 46 8Nov 14 '19

The ONE chart every developer MUST understand

Most teams could deliver their software projects sooner if they focused more effort on defect prevention, early defect removal, and other quality issues.

Learn More 359 48Sep 7 '19

How to Crush it at the Start of Your New Developer Job

This no B.S. guide will tell you what you need to know to survive and thrive as a software developer at my workplace (or just about any workplace).

Learn More 270 10Jun 15 '19

How to Manage Programmers Without Losing Your Damn Mind

The Coaching Habit will teach you to manage other programmers without losing your mind. In this post I offer you a summary of this very useful book.

Learn More 290 10May 4 '19

29 Must Read Books For Programmers

My must read programming books are universally applicable (you'll benefit from reading them regardless of the kind of programming you do).

Learn More 3135 98Nov 14 '18

How to be fully alert minutes after waking

I use a SAD light as soon as I wake up to go from groggy and useless to fully alert in a couple of minutes. It's one hell of a productivity hack.

Learn More 68 37Oct 28 '18

Want to write defect-free software? Learn the Personal Software Process

PSP is too hard to follow for most of software developers. But I think you can adapt the PSP principles and get 80% of the benefits with 20% of the work.

Learn More 151 28Sep 3 '18

Why I can't recommend Clean Architecture by Robert C Martin

Software architecture is an important topic. Let me explain why you might want to skip reading Clean Architecture and what you should read instead.

Learn More 407 92Jul 23 '18

How I intend to become a better software developer

There are only two economical ways to achieve extremely low defect rates in your code. You can learn the Personal Software Process (PSP) or use safer languages and tools. I plan to explore both options to improve my performance as a software developer.

Learn More 123 6May 22 '18

Is it Ethical to Work on the Tesla Autopilot Software?

The more I learn about Tesla's self driving car development, the more concerned I become about the ethics of working as a software developer on the Tesla autopilot software. Continue reading to learn all the reasons why.

Learn More 50 46Apr 30 '18

How Simple is too Simple to Test?

How simple is too simple to test? If you are following unit testing best practices, you should test any behavior you care about, no matter how simple. By combining unit tests with other quality assurance activities, you maximize your chances of catching silly mistakes before they get into production.

Learn More 103 22Apr 19 '18

The Rewrite vs Refactor Debate: 8 Things You Need to Know

Are you confused by the rewrite vs refactor debate? In this post, I'm going simplify things for you and help you decide if you should rewrite, refactor, or do something else to improve the health of your software system.

Learn More 79 7Mar 26 '18

4 Books Guaranteed to Make You a Better Programmer

The Theory of Constraints can help you solve one of the hardest problems in software engineering (figuring out what to work on next). Several experts have written novels about people learning and applying the Theory of Constraints to make it easier for you pick up the basics. In this post I'll tell you about 4 of them.

Learn More 68 8Mar 12 '18

"Learn at least one new language every year" is bad advice

You don't need to learn at least one new language every year to be a "good" programmer. The best programmers see the bigger picture and prioritize what they learn so that they can deliver the best possible results.

Learn More 107 48Feb 26 '18

How are the "must read" stories selected on dev.to?

I'd like to increase my chances of making the "must read" list in the weekly emails. How are the "m...

Learn More 7 5Feb 25 '18

Are you working on the most important thing?

In this post, I'm going to show you how I discovered undervalued stories in my backlog that were hiding in plain sight for years. Then I'll show you how to correct this common mistake and prioritize your backlog more accurately so you can be sure you are working on the most important thing

Learn More 41 8Feb 14 '18

How screwed would your employer be if you died suddenly?

Business continuity planning is important for every key employee in your company, including software developers. In this post in going to show you the steps I took to ensure my company wouldn't be crippled if I died suddenly.

Learn More 22 16Jan 29 '18

Software security is hopelessly broken

As software developers, we are doing a poor job of protecting the data we collect from our users because software security is hopelessly broken.

Learn More 29 8Jan 6 '18

What's your deal?

Hi everybody, I'm trying to maximise the value of my posts to the dev.to community but I don't know...

Learn More 15 15Dec 31 '17

Books I read in 2017

I read some great books in 2017. In the nonfiction realm, some of them are very much on point for software developers. Others are just good books that let you know what's going on in the world. In fiction, I'm drawn to technology-driven Sci-Fi.

Learn More 52 11Dec 25 '17

Cost of delay: how to calculate quantitative cost of delay and CD3

Learning to order your backlog by quantitative cost of delay divided by duration (CD3) will help you take your effectiveness to the next level.

Learn More 19 0Dec 18 '17

Cost of delay: prioritize your product backlog by CD3

Ordering your backlog for maximum economic benefit is a hard problem. In this post, I'm going to show you how to prioritize your product backlog by CD3.

Learn More 11 0Dec 10 '17

Cost of delay: simultaneous feature development

Teams engage in simultaneous feature development to keep everyone on the team busy. But cost of delay tells us that's often the wrong thing to optimize.

Learn More 22 8Dec 4 '17

A love letter to my IDE

My IDE has dramatically increased the quality of the code I write and the speed with which I write it.

Learn More 19 8Nov 27 '17

With great power comes great responsibility

The software we create is powerful, which means it can also be dangerous. Is it time to license software developers like we license people to drive a car?

Learn More 14 10Nov 20 '17

Worthless software: risks and prevention

We are drowning in worthless software. Learn the risks of worthless software and how to keep worthless software out of your software development process.

Learn More 12 2Nov 13 '17

How to make time to repay your technical debt

Learn how to make time to repay your technical debt while you continue to deliver features and bug fixes. Start by improving your efficiency.

Learn More 19 7Nov 6 '17