Charles Flatt on Learning as a Developer - Episode 124

Charles Flatt is joining the podcast today! He has been a software developer since 1994 and has helped over a dozen organizations succeed on over fifty projects, both small and large. Charles has an unusual breadth of business and personal experience from foodservice and retail to music, business management, hardware installation, and of course, software development.

In this episode, Charles talks about his learning as a developer and some of his successes, big lessons, and key takeaways from the course of his career. He shares actionable advice for developers, teams, and organizations on how to improve; his favorite resources and books for further learning; the metrics that matter the most; and what he sees as being the key components of what makes a DevOps organization successful.

Topics of Discussion:

[:38] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes.

[1:00] About The Azure DevOps Podcast, Clear Measure, and Jeffrey's offer to speak at virtual user groups.

[1:24] Clear Measure is hiring! Be sure to check out the link in the show notes.

[1:34] About today's guest, Charles Flatt!

[1:57] Jeffrey welcomes Charles to the podcast.

[2:34] Charles shares his career journey before software development and how he began his career in software.

[6:49] Charles speaks about where he has worked and what he has been working on in the last decade.

[11:48] Charles shares some of the big lessons and key takeaways from the course of working on over fifty projects in software development.

[18:21] Charles and Jeffrey discuss their favorite books on DevOps and give their recommendations on what you should be reading as a developer today.

[20:50] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast's sponsor: Clear Measure.

[21:22] What Charles sees as needing to change within an organization in order to become more successful.

[23:01] Charles gives some actionable advice on how to begin improving as a developer, as a team, and as an organization.

[28:06] Charles and Jeffrey discuss the metrics that matter the most.

[29:18] Jeffrey and Charles discuss the importance of continuous integration and what it really means to do continuous integration.

[32:32] Charles recommends some go-to resources to check out after today's podcast!

[34:33] Jeffrey thanks Charles for joining the podcast!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Azure DevOps

Clear Measure (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook!

Jeffrey Palermo's Youtube

Jeffrey Palermo's Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

The Azure DevOps Podcast's Twitter: @AzureDevOpsShow

Charles Flatt's LinkedIn

Azure DevOps Podcast Ep. 33: "Rockford Lhotka on Software Architecture"

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations, by Nicole Forsgren PhD

The Phoenix Project (A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win), by Gene Kim

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations, by Gene Kim, Patrick Debois, John Willis, and Jez Humble

Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk, by Paul M. Duvall, Steve Matyas, and Andrew Glover

Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, by Wendy Wood

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs, by John Doerr

Want to Learn More?

Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.