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Dean Michael Berris
Dean Michael Berris

3.8K Followers

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Published in

Better Programming

·Pinned

Principal Stories: What is a Principal Software Engineer?

It has been a year or so since I’ve written about Qualifying Seniority, where I shared my view of what makes a Software Engineer a Senior Software Engineer. Folks in my network have since asked me to give my thoughts on what “Principal” means in “Principal Software Engineer”. I took…

Software Engineering

7 min read

Principal Stories: What is a Principal Software Engineer?
Principal Stories: What is a Principal Software Engineer?
Software Engineering

7 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Aug 30

An Ode to Software Engineers

A love letter to my fellow problem solvers and tinkerers. — We are an odd bunch. We spend our days staring into screens, or sometimes into nothingness trying to understand a problem we’re trying to solve. We also spend our days trying to convince other humans that the problems we’re solving are hard and that we need computers to solve them…

Programming

5 min read

An Ode to Software Engineers
An Ode to Software Engineers
Programming

5 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Aug 8

Modern Software Engineering — Part 5: Continuous Evolution

“If you don’t evolve, you will die. “— Marcus Lemonis This is the final instalment of the series I’ve been working on about Modern Software Engineering. So far, I’ve written about the following topics: System Design (Part 1) Testing (Part 2) Documentation (Part 3) Deployment (Part 4) In this part…

Software Engineering

14 min read

Modern Software Engineering — Part 5: Continuous Evolution
Modern Software Engineering — Part 5: Continuous Evolution
Software Engineering

14 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Jul 17

Modern Software Engineering — Part 4: Deployment

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. — Walt Disney Modern software, especially those that are deployed through the Internet, has gone through many iterations over the past couple of decades. Ever since ubiquitous internet…

Software Engineering

13 min read

Modern Software Engineering — Part 4: Deployment
Modern Software Engineering — Part 4: Deployment
Software Engineering

13 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Jul 2

Modern Software Engineering – Part 3: Documentation

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” – Blaise Pascal — Documentation is a perennially controversial topic because, in my experience, software engineering has focused so much on the business value of artefacts like the source code and shipping features more than others. I constantly hear folks saying that we should only be writing the documentation that’s required in Agile practices…

Programming

13 min read

Modern Software Engineering – Part 3: Documentation
Modern Software Engineering – Part 3: Documentation
Programming

13 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Jun 25

Modern Software Engineering – Part 2: Testing

“If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the act of putting them in.” – Edsger Djikstra Writing automated software tests is like playing a game of telephone with yourself – you’re the only person you can blame when you misunderstand what the message is…

Programming

14 min read

Modern Software Engineering  – Part 2: Testing
Modern Software Engineering  – Part 2: Testing
Programming

14 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Jun 19

Modern Software Engineering — Part 1: System Design

“Make it simple, but significant.” – Don Draper, Mad Men — Growing up in the late ’80s and early ’90s, my exposure to computers was limited to almost exclusively gaming consoles (I considered the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 gaming computers because I only ever saw games being run on them) or the early x86 systems. …

Software Development

15 min read

Modern Software Engineering — Part 1: System Design
Modern Software Engineering — Part 1: System Design
Software Development

15 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·May 29

A Story About a Software Architect

I had a chance to be an interim software architect recently, and here’s a story about what I’ve learned in the process — I’m coming up to two years at my current role as a Principal Software Engineer, and in that time I was able to work in a project as an interim Software Architect. …

Software Engineering

8 min read

A Story About a Software Architect
A Story About a Software Architect
Software Engineering

8 min read


Published in

Better Programming

·Updated Jul 4

Career Planning as an Individual Contributor Software Engineer

Begin with the end in mind. — As a Principal Software Engineer, I get to see a lot of folks joining the industry and trying to find their footing to climb the software engineering career ladder. …

Business

13 min read

Career Planning as an Individual Contributor Software Engineer
Career Planning as an Individual Contributor Software Engineer
Business

13 min read


Dec 8, 2022

Learning to learn; My Learning Process

Learning is a hard endeavour. It helps to have a process that works for you. Learning new things when you’re new to a field or subject used to be a daunting prospect for me. When I was younger, I would have trouble with even the basics of arithmetic to the…

Software Engineering

17 min read

Learning to learn; My Learning Process
Learning to learn; My Learning Process
Software Engineering

17 min read

Dean Michael Berris

Dean Michael Berris

3.8K Followers

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft by profession, writer by passion; thoughts are my own.

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