Dave Farley

Gain a clearer understanding of modern software architecture and design.

Spend an hour with industry expert @davefarley77.bsky.social in this Free Tutorial as he explains the essential tools of software engineering and how to apply them in practice.

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Welcome to the Engineering Room Dan Abel! 📣

The nuances of engineering leadership and the evolution of high-performing teams.

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If you’re not treating software development as an scientific discipline, with experiments, feedback loops, and measurable outcomes, then you’re not a software engineer…

YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering It’s Time We Go Beyond The Test Pyramid (& Do This Instead)

It’s Time We Go Beyond The Test Pyramid (& Do This Instead) |
@emilybache.com

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Watch HERE ➡️ youtu.be/IBvYFRSw4do

It’s Time We Go Beyond The Test Pyramid (& Do This Instead) | @emilybache.com

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Modern Software Architecture and Design | Free Course Learn the fundamentals of modern software architecture and design with industry expert Dave Farley. A free course focused on practical engineering principles.

If you want to dive deeper into how to actually apply these ideas in the real world, I have a free webinar on how to design to manage complexity and learn software architecture.

You can register here ➡️ courses.cd.training/courses/desi...

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Ultimately, architecture is just the shared understanding of the system that we all subscribe to. It is the tool we use to manage complexity.

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4. A brilliant concept from George Fairbanks: write code in a way that makes the architecture obvious. If the code you work in closely represents the intended architecture, the shared mental model of the entire team stays up to date.

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3. Good architecture isn't about massive rulebooks. It's about establishing a short list of solid constraints that keep everyone aligned, paired with the freedom and principles to creatively solve problems within those bounds.

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2. When developers get frustrated by an architecture, it's almost always because they don't get to see behind the curtain. If a developer hits a problem and doesn't understand the context of why a constraint exists, they will simply find an "inventive" way to circumvent it.

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1. You need to understand your place in the bigger picture. You might not be able to affect the entire machinery of a massive system, but you need to completely own and understand your specific "cog," as well as the immediate consumers and producers you interact with.

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But how much does a developer actually need to know, especially in a massive system built by hundreds of people? You can't have everyone involved in every single decision.

Here are the core takeaways on what developers must grasp to do their jobs well 👇

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Exactly where does code design stop and architecture begin? The truth is, there is no hard line. It is a continuum.

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Should software developers care about software architecture? If your answer is "no," we are back in the bad old days of the "Ivory Tower Architect" handing down rigid edicts to developers who are told exactly what to do.

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YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering Approval Tests vs Acceptance Tests: What's the Difference?

❓ Approval Tests vs Acceptance Tests: What's the Difference? ❓

One Big Question with @kentbeck.com & @emilybache.com | AVAILABLE NOW 📽️

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Modern software leadership is about moving from a culture of permission to a culture of evidence.

If leaders are still making technical decisions based on their 'gut' rather than creating the feedback loops that allow the team to experiment, they’re becoming the bottleneck.

YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering How to Make the Best of AI Programming Assistants

How to Make the Best of AI Programming Assistants | @davefarley77.bsky.social

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YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering How to Make the Best of AI Programming Assistants

AI programming is changing everything, but are you catching the mistakes? When AI assistants generate 10X more code than you normally would, the feedback loop breaks.

This week's video is on how to make the most of of these ai tools ➡️ youtu.be/XavrebMKH2A

How to Make the Best of AI Programming Assistants | @davefarley77.bsky.social

📅 TOMORROW NIGHT @ 7PM (UK)

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Who is the "worst" programmer you have ever worked with? If you look back far enough, the honest answer is usually "Me."

We often think "bad programming" is just about syntax errors or slow typing, but the real career-killers are habits that prevent us from learning.

Are you actually doing OKRs, or just "Management by Objectives" with a trendy sticker? Companies everywhere are adopting OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), yet they seem to be using them to reward mediocrity rather than drive innovation.

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YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering Skills Developers NEED In 2026 (Because Vibe Coding Changes Everything)

Skills Developers NEED In 2026 (Because Vibe Coding Changes Everything) | @realgenekim.bsky.social

A clip from our Engineering Room episode.

Watch HERE on @modernswe.bsky.social ➡️ youtu.be/06kr0DiDAlU

Polarization is often an 'Experience Gap'. We dismiss practices because we haven't done them enough to understand the problems they solve.

YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering The OKR TRAP Most Companies Fall Into

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YouTube video by Modern Software Engineering We Studied 150 Developers Using AI (Here’s What's Actually Changed...)

In the full video, I dive deeper into the specific metrics we used, but I also warn about two massive long-term risks that this study hints at...

Watch the full breakdown of the study and what it means for the future of our industry here ➡️ youtu.be/b9EbCb5A408

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The study highlights a critical concept: AI is an amplifier. If you are already applying good engineering discipline, working in small batches, testing, and designing for modularity then AI amplifies your impact.

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Does this mean AI is a magic bullet? Um, no.

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The data showed:
• No big difference in maintenance costs between AI and human-generated code.
• AI users were indeed 30% to 55% faster during the initial phase.
• For experienced devs who used AI habitually, we actually saw a small improvement in maintainability.

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1. Creation: Developers wrote code (some with AI, some without).
2. Maintenance: A different group of developers had to evolve that code, without knowing if it was AI-generated or human-written.

The results were not what many of us expected.

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