Mathieu Petitdant

Growing software @EPOfficiel, @mixitconf staff.

[Charity Majors @mipsytipsy]

Writing code has *always* been the easiest part of software engineering, so it makes sense that it would be the low hanging fruit, the easiest to automate.

Software engineering should be a creative, collaborative occupation, where engineers are engaged in solving real problems.

[Mathieu Petitdant @mpetitdant]

@sdeleuze Joli choix, j'en repars demain 😢

[Pat Kua @patkua]

How Engineering Managers Are Set Up To Fail (and what you should do instead) #EM #Director #ManagerOfManagers
https://t.co/lpeg6biPzQ

[Adam Tornhill @AdamTornhill]

Did you know that we developers spend 70% of our time on understanding existing code?
This means that if we want to optimize any aspect of software development, we should optimize for ease of understanding. That's the big win.
https://t.co/Ly4IjkWaF6

[Yannick Grenzinger Go Bsky @ygrenzinger]

This series of 4 articles about dependencies in product dev is a must read !
https://t.co/QvgwvGNzYj

Seriously @johncutlefish when do you write a book compiling all your thinking ? * take my money meme *

[hugo lassiege @hugolassiege]

Insightful report about remote work
https://t.co/jrpVHrHVTj by @atlassiandev @Atlassian

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

As a senior executive, you care a lot about your teams moving fast.

So when a team misses its committed launch date, you show great displeasure.

You demand more accountability.

You make an example out of this team.

Other teams see this.
They are not stupid.
So they learn.

And from now on, every single team hits their committed launch dates.

You are very happy.
I can see it.

But my friend, I am so sorry to tell you:

You are no longer moving as fast as you were before.

Plus, what you ship will no longer be as high quality as before.

And over time you start to see this too.
You are not stupid.

Even though everyone is hitting their launch dates, something has changed.

Things seem to be moving slower than before.

And you have no idea why.

So you call meetings.

You set up check-ins.

You set up processes.

But despite all your efforts, nothing changes.

That gnawing feeling that you are no longer moving fast persists.

That embarrassment of seeing your teams ship a shoddy experience is all too common now.

And you have no idea why.

The answer is right there.

You are no longer moving fast because of YOUR communication.

Instead of creating a culture where teams have intrinsic motivation to move fast — because they are energetic and they care — you started punishing the odd case where a team misses its aggressive target date.

And so, by doing that you sent a message to everyone: Don't be very ambitious, because the reward for ambition is punishment.

I know that isn't the message you wanted to send.

But by doing what you did, it is the only message you will send. 100 times out of 100.

What could you have done instead?

When that team missed its launch date, you could have sent a positive message instead of punishing the team's leaders.

You could have used this opportunity to build & maintain a culture of aggression and ambition.

You could have said:

"I understand why you missed the launch date.

I'd rather that you stay aggressive and sometimes miss the date than being conservative and always hitting the date.

I don't want you to stop being aggressive by default.

And we want more teams to be like you."

At this point, you are either seeing the value of this approach or you are trying to find reasons to reject it.

And your reasons are quite flimsy, such as: "But what about launches that have an external commitment?"

You are smart. You can figure that one out.

But okay, let me spell it out for you:

1. Most launch dates should not be committed externally. So don't commit dates for most launches.

2. A few launches need external commitments (to customers, or regulators, or partners...)

3. For the launches in # 2, sure, commit a conservative launch date that you are almost certain to hit.

4. But even for those, ask the team to devise an aggressive internal target date. It's okay if they slip this date. But it's important to have that aggressive internal target.

Why? Because remember Parkinson's Law:

Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

Have you ever noticed how teams always struggle to hit their launch date, no matter how conservatively they've set them?

Yes, that's because of Parkinson's Law.

Look, I know it's easy to have dogma around "always hitting dates".

Dates are an easy, but incorrect proxy for your teams' velocity, ambition, and energy.

Though if you still want to maintain your fascination with hitting all dates, I am not sure I can (or even want to at this point) convince you otherwise.

But then I also guarantee that you will spend your entire career managing teams that move slower than they really can and/or ship lower quality products than they really can, and you will spend your entire career setting up check-ins, processes, spreadsheets, and carrots/sticks trying & failing to solve a problem that you created in the first place.

Best of luck to you!

[Mathieu Petitdant @mpetitdant]

@ForbesTechCncl @AdamTornhill @codescene Hello Adam, what if the major GenAI benefit was about understanding existing code quicker rather than generate it quicker ?

[ShirleyCh 🧡🧡🧡 @Shirleyyych]

Je me rappelle de cette période où l’on avait peur d’une personne qui toussait beaucoup trop près.

Aujourd’hui ça claque la bise à des personnes qui toussent bien fort des propos racistes. Normal ! Il y a des virus que certains (beaucoup trop) voient un peu trop comme des remèdes. Perso je n’ai pas du tout confiance au RN messager. Et ce virus du racisme contamine de plus en plus toutes les couches sociales, tous les porte-paroles politiques, quelque soit leur bord, dont certains donnent la fièvre pendant plusieurs jours à chaque sortie médiatique. Même le Doliprane a démissionné.

Je préférais presque cette époque des masques sur le nez que celle des masques qui tombent. Je ne pensais pas que la haine avait autant mauvaise haleine ! Avant on sentait moins. Maintenant ça sent très fort et le désodorisant bleu marine n’y change rien.

Alors en 2027 il n’y aura aucune barrière de sécurité, aucune distance à respecter face à ce virus du racisme bien que l’Histoire ne cesse de nous envoyer des doses de rappel. Ce virus a et aura même ses espaces médiatiques pour vivre dans le corps français en totale décontraction. Pas besoin de vérifier la contamination par un test nasal. Il sera plutôt anal vu comment on l’aura bien profond.

En attendant, à coté des propos racistes et antisemites qui circulent à grande vitesse, je ne cesse de me boucher le nez. Je tente tout de même quelques traits d’humour mais mon crayon a mauvaise mine. J’aimerais aussi confiner mes pensées mais elles ont besoin de sortir pour prendre l’air, pour respirer. Beaucoup trop de choses me coupent le souffle. J’observe, je ferme ma bouche et je pleure sous la douche.

Voilà donc le monde d’après, un « après » qui est certainement un raccourci « d’à peu près » : c’est flou, on ne sait pas trop où on va mais on y va. Alors je vais m’accrocher à ma ceinture bien fort même si je suis convaincue que cela ne changera rien quand on ira droit dans le mur.

[Daniel Glejzner @DanielGlejzner]

The most complete & in-depth.
#Angular e-book I have ever found!

Up to date with Angular 17.
And it’s super affordable!

You pay what you want!
( minimum 5€)

Its very very detailed.
Link in comments.

I’m not paid to promote this.

I have done a research awhile ago to find most complete , up to date - Angular e-book that even senior devs can learn a lot from.

Here it is.

[Mathieu Petitdant @mpetitdant]

@e3d5_fr Moi j'en suis à Tech Lead + casquette de manager (mais c'est à faire évoluer avec la croissance). Ça manque de littérature cette partie management des équipes tech...

[Gergely Orosz @GergelyOrosz]

Imagine a tech conference having no CFP, as they reach out to speakers directly. They successfully attract some of the most heavy hitter men speakers in tech, and 3 women speakers.

Now imagine my surprise that 2 of those women are FAKE profiles.

They do not exist.

Nada.

[Pat Kua @patkua]

Monday manager tip 🙂 If your first question is, "What metric should I use to measure my team?" you're asking the wrong question. Instead ask, "What do you care most about?" or "What do you want to improve?"

[WeLoveDevs.com @welovedevs]

William est développeur chez @EPofficiel : dans ce Parlons Tech, il nous parle de modularisation, qui vise à segmenter et découper les applications et qui est un projet important chez Energy Pool ✨

Energy Pool est sur W3D : https://t.co/qcxMYjEf4O

🍿 https://t.co/8dqX62OPh2

[Vladislav Pernin @vladislavpernin]

Death by a thousand microservices:
https://t.co/QcWCDaewgR

[Waly Dia @WalyDIA]

Je suis une des rares personnes en France dont ils rendent le boulot plus facile.

[Vladislav Pernin @vladislavpernin]

Lecture intéressante :
https://t.co/PxU334Xcvg

[Mathieu Petitdant @mpetitdant]

@ygrenzinger En voilà une bonne question, en flux (je n'ose pas dire kanban car pas de métriques) depuis 10ans et un soft qui avance... Je ne sais pas quoi répondre quand on me demande ces métriques. Du coup à l'inverse on me pousse scrum et je ne sais pas bien défendre la chose...

[Vladislav Pernin @vladislavpernin]

Conway’s Law Doesn’t Apply to Rigid Designs https://t.co/8r369DS0tN via @mathiasverraes

[Vladislav Pernin @vladislavpernin]

Mid Career Stuckness :
https://t.co/pTCzMHzAJ7
#leadership