Developer on Fire
Developer on Fire
Episode 194 | Paul Merrill - Shared Reflection
Guest:
Paul Merrill talks with Dave Rael about testing and automation, podcasting, business, and communication
Paul Merrill is principal software engineer in test and founder of Beaufort Fairmont Automated Testing Services. Paul works with clients every day to accelerate their automated testing and sync up testing with development in agile environments. An entrepreneur, tester, speaker, and software engineer, Paul has a unique perspective on launching and maintaining quality products. He co-hosts Reflection as a Service, a podcast about software development and entrepreneurship. Follow Paul on Twitter @dpaulmerrill
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Paul Merrill
- - Paul's motivations for specializing in automated testing
- - The types of testing Paul and Beaufort Fairmont do
- - Engaging with the domain
- - Podcasting and the Reflection As a Service Podcast
- - The things that "light Paul up"
- - Paul's entrepreneurial nature and the realities of being in business
- - Paul's story of failure - overengineering soluttions - premature abstraction
- - Another story of failure from Paul - trying to make a business that didn't work without understanding the market (or lack thereof)
- - Paul's success story - family, mentoring and sharing lessons, business, and podcasting
- - The importance of effective communication and the deficiency of it in software
- - Mutual benefit in teaching and learning interactions
- - How Paul stays current with what he needs to know
- - Paul's book recommendations
- - The things that have Paul most excited
- - The difficulty of vocabulary and using different terms in different ways
- - Paul's causes of pain and suffering
- - Paul's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Paul
Resources:
- Paul's Business: Beaufort Fairmont
- The Beaufort Fairmont Blog
- Beaufort Fairmont Webinars
- Reflection As a Service Podcast
- Lisa Crispin on Developer On Fire
- Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd Edition (The XP Series) - Kent Beck
- Robot Class in Java
- Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum - Mike Cohn
- James Jeffers
- Jonathan Stark
- Scott Hanselman on Developer On Fire
- Scott Hanselman's Blog Post on "Dark Matter Developers"
- Joe Colantonio on Developer On Fire
- Uncle Bob Martin on Developer On Fire
- Ward Cunningham on Developer On Fire
- Michael Feathers on Developer On Fire
- No Silver Bullet - Frederick Brooks
- Udi Dahan On Best Practices
- Udi Dahan on Developer On Fire
Paul's book recommendation:
Paul's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Learn about the business you're in
- Listen to your customer
- Learn to communicate better
