Skip to content

How to do Software Engineering

Hi, I’m Richard Bown.

I help companies improve engineering happiness and adapt software systems to changing market needs. This means recognising and learning to adapt to Conway’s Law (knowing what’s outside our control) and focussing on efficient and rewarding human interactions with a clear focus on the customer.

A sociotechnical software system is any system built from a combination of software engineering knowledge and human effort. It could be enterprise software, an open-source project, a SaaS platform, a mobile app, or even a website — anything that requires the organization of people and software.

As a software engineer and engineering leader, I’ve worked with dozens of global companies, including investment, commercial and retail banks, insurance companies, telecoms, retailers, manufacturers, and smaller companies specialising in accountancy products, IoT, mobile and web.

Product and interactions

To build a happy engineering organisation, focus on what brings clarity to daily actions.

This means:

  • Clear boundaries, roles and interactions that help teams work together more pleasantly.
  • Good interactions == efficient interactions.
  • Clearly defined internal and external products.
  • Ensuring code quality and repeatability through automation, tooling pipelines and development practices.

I write (and sometimes speak) about software engineering organisations.

I also have an occasional newsletter called Human DevOps.

Humans DevOps Newsletter

Latest from the blog