As organizations build out complex systems in the cloud, writing reliable software gets exponentially more difficult. With each new piece of architecture, complexity rises, and software engineers lose visibility into how their code is executed. Less visibility means more bugs making it further into the software development life cycle. More last minute fixes. More late nights. It doesn't have to be that way.
By making use of automated tooling, configurable convention, and lots of targeted communication, we can help to give the software engineers back their visibility. More visibility means fewer bugs, less frustration, higher morale, and that the overall quality of the codebase will improve! However, building tooling that developers will love takes proper planning and care. As far as end users go, these will be some of the most fickle customers you will ever build for. It is worth the time and effort though: Happy developers write happy code. Come learn how to delight your coworkers and build tools that will take your organization to the next level.
In this talk we will look at real tools built in the process of supporting developers building code for the cloud. Covering usability and utility, from local development environments to accessing cloud instances in an easy way, you will learn what developers want and need out of their toolchain, and how to give it to them.
Tools looked at:
Vagrant
Jenkins
Ruby (specifically Thor, and OptionParser)
Bash scripts
Native desktop applications (for example, built in XCode for OSX)
As presented at Open West 2015