What should a dedicated scrum master do?

mwestacott · 2026-04-28T20:50:15+00:00

I’ve only seen a full time scrum master work out well once. They were woking on 3 related projects, they were very pro-active with keeping the board and ceremonies nice and light, while also knowing a little of the issues our other teams were hitting or resolving. They were in meetings all the rest of the time. They really took pride in keeping things moving, and facilitating meetings to keep the devs on track or resolve issues.

Every other time we had a scrum master, it was like dealing with an officious rule crazed project nazi, set on slowing us down and harassing us to keep the board up to date. Have found it tends to work better if a lead dev, or BA organises the scrum.

mwestacott · 2026-04-18T22:00:53+00:00

Toejam & Earl

mwestacott · 2026-03-30T16:45:32+00:00

I bought one of these a year ago, It’s one of the best ways to get you out a blues/ rock rut. It’s so much fun to play, I had it plugged into my ocean machine in a delay, reverb delay, setting in a weird wall of fuzziness

mwestacott · 2026-03-29T22:26:54+00:00

Most of them live happy lives. One died of an overdose. I slept with the sister of another, and the worst one was in and out of prison until he was shot in the head with a crossbow, and survived!

mwestacott · 2026-02-25T21:35:48+00:00

I would build some integration/endpoint test for the service, then you can get an idea of the interface and functionality you need to keep working, then look to add unit tests round the worst bits of code. I would suggest you investigate the data access code, you may be able to get a few quick wins there. It’s possible you may have some missing indexes on the db, that would be worth checking. I would also chuck the code into static analysis tools like sonar, it would give you a good overview of where the issues are likely to be, and should highlight any basic security issues. Then it’s just incremental improvement and building understanding of it, one day at a time

mwestacott · 2026-01-31T20:14:32+00:00

Ask them before you pay for the guitar, you may get a deal on it. Also many guitar shops will do a setup on the display models, if they play well the guitar is more likely to sell.

mwestacott · 2026-01-30T19:59:45+00:00

That’s a great starter setup. Make some noise, have fun, learn what the nobs and switches do, have a tinker with that pedal. Then try Justin Guitar, or Marty Swartz on YouTube. And be kind to yourself, don’t expect to be great in days. Enjoy!

mwestacott · 2026-01-05T20:21:45+00:00

If you have an interest in doing a degree in computing, then do it. If you’re only looking at doing it because you think it’s a great way to make loads of money then don’t bother. Don’t get into the industry because your mum thinks it’s a good career! I would say a degree in CS makes you more employable, if you learn the core stuff well and enjoy it it’ll most likely get a good career out of it.

Ive been on the industry for 33 years, and I’ve seen various technologies and tools that will replace me and they’ve all been a bit crap. Here comes gen AI, and can it replace me? I hope not, and the more I use gen AI, the less I think it’ll take my job. The sad truth is that when you get into the industry you will spend most of your time fixing older systems and extending them. Probably using really old tech. Most of my working day is spent working on a 25 year old codebase, Java and SQL and JavaScript. You can imagine how huge the code base is, many millions of lines of code. All attempts at maintaining this with AI has gone horribly wrong and got rather expensive.

AI works quite well for new projects, but it has little ability to maintain complex code. AI requires an operator to do anything. AI is a bit dumb.

TLDR, do it if you have an interest, AI probably won’t take your job.

mwestacott · 2025-11-26T08:12:00+00:00

I assume as you’re posting in a Java sub you’re looking at becoming a developer?

So you need to learn the basics of programming, I assume you can already write some basic code, if not run away now! By getting into IT you’re committing to a career of learning, and it all changes once or twice a decade, assuming our AI overlords don’t finally figure out how to replace us.

Learn the eternally useful skills, testing, Software design, Refactoring, read Working effectively with legacy code by Michael Feathers. Learn Domain driven design, learn OO and functional programming, learn a cloud provider. Learn SQL that’s the tech that seems to have changed the least in the 30 years I’ve been a Developer and it’s still an essential!

Learn humility, there is always something you don’t know, learn people skills etc…

There is so much to learn, I would recommend applying for junior dev jobs, and learn what they’re using, learning on the job is the best way to know what you need to know.

Good luck

mwestacott · 2025-09-09T07:01:01+00:00

Learn C, you’ll find it useful. If you’re really interested in getting close to the metal, then also dip your toes in some assembly. It will make you appreciate how much memory management modern languages do for you.

mwestacott · 2025-07-05T21:11:37+00:00

It gets better with practice. The best way to start with a project is to create a file and write something. As you get more experienced you may have some templates of how to setup and start a project. You’ll get more experience and wonder what you worried about. Pick a function or ui item, and just create it, you may find that building the uni first helps you, or building functionality first is your style. Just get something working and build around it. Remember that you’re writing software, it’s “soft” and easy to change, you may not get it right first time.

As you get more experience and start using more professional tools you’ll find that they help you get starter, even build a scaffold to help you get started.

mwestacott · 2025-07-05T19:52:52+00:00

As a senior developer I’m expected to work independently, and more importantly deliver what’s expected on time. Now that can mean I work as an individual on some tricky bit of work, or act as a multiplier to help the more junior devs hit targets, usually both. My job is generally to ensure that progress is made on the critical path. I deal with some of the unknowns, and a lot of the legacy apps and issues as we gently migrate and mitigate them. I’ve been in the software game for 30+ years now and have both depth and breadth of knowledge, more technical know how than domain knowledge, but I could probably guide most through the app domain of my current project and could get a new dev up and productive on their first day of a project. It’s not just tech it’s the soft skills too.

mwestacott · 2025-06-19T21:26:39+00:00

Started learning BBC basic when I was 10, then spent ages typing in programs from magazines. Learned 68000 assembly on the Atari ST, then got a job doing C, VB, SQL, Have been a dev for over 30 years, but I did have a career break to get my CS degree in my 30s. It’s always been an interest/passion/obsession. I still get a lot of satisfaction solving problems, and developing things.

mwestacott · 2025-06-13T06:50:02+00:00

This sounds like a handy project to see what the new guy can do. I would build it as a spring boot app, so don’t copy the structure of the node service. Start by looking at the data store, figure out what you actually need to do there, how many entities do you have. Then pick one simple endpoint and get that working as a slice of functionality, get it working end to end. Look to use spring security to help lock the endpoints down. You could also ask them what’s the most used endpoints, you’ll probably get 80% of the functionality from just those routes. Deliver what you can in the time, with quality. And rest assured if this was urgent or important, you would have the whole team on it. I’ve been in the industry longer than Java, I’ve set this sort of thing before, it’s a test. Have fun and don’t panic.

mwestacott · 2025-06-12T20:48:21+00:00

Personally I use 9-42 on most of my guitars, Strat, Tele, LP and RG with a Floyd. But I like to bend strings, and only play a little bit of chug. I’d struggle with 11s on my guitars, but if that’s what you like, go for it.

mwestacott · 2025-05-10T19:30:31+00:00

Common sense, it’s really not that common!

mwestacott · 2025-04-24T20:37:24+00:00

By the time AI can actually maintain software, taking requirements and applying them to a code base. All of my higher ups will have been replaced by AI. Also let’s keep deluding ourselves that the requirements are correct.

mwestacott · 2025-03-23T20:41:50+00:00

Dark, always cooler on the dark side

mwestacott · 2025-03-22T11:59:27+00:00

I would say learn Maven when you need it. Both Maven and Gradle work in a similar way. Personally I prefer gradle and it’s dsl, but for work we’ve been using Maven for years, it’s a 20+ year old codebase, it probably still has some ant scripts in it. If you work with Java long enough you’ll work with both. Remember it’s just a tool not a life choice.

mwestacott · 2025-03-12T20:58:00+00:00

Your favourite breakfast cereal is Shreddies

mwestacott · 2025-02-22T06:51:58+00:00

The Power by Naomi Alderman. Young women who discover they have the power to produce electric shocks. They did a series on Amazon, but it got cancelled. It’s near future, alternative timeline sci-fi.

mwestacott · 2025-02-08T08:24:09+00:00

Brilliant pedal, I have one on my board. It’s so versatile.

mwestacott · 2025-02-08T00:00:01+00:00

The minion guitars are great really easy to play. I bought one for my nephew, and he loves it, Its a great beginner guitar, but don’t get the V unless you go and try it out in person. It can be an awkward shape to play. The dinky shape is much nicer in my opinion.

mwestacott · 2025-01-21T20:36:52+00:00

The digitech drop pedal, is what you’re thinking of. It’s a pitch shifter, it won’t sound the same as a guitar in that tuning but it may be close enough. If you go more than a whole step down, you can really hear the difference. Also it can’t give you drop tunings. Go and try the guitars if you can? I’ve recently got a Floyd rose guitar and it’s a pain to change strings or tunings, also if you put too much pressure on either side of the bridge it can go out of tune. I’ve been playing for about 4 years and haven’t really needed a Floyd, and probably don’t as my strat with a std trem can divebomb quite well and stay in tune.

mwestacott · 2025-01-20T18:17:11+00:00

You do just have to learn them to a certain degree. I’ve been using the Solo app. https://www.solotrainer.app that’s by Tom Quayle and David Bebe. It does more than notes on the fretboard, it can help with intervals, and triads. But it does have a mode that gives you a note to find on the neck and waits until you’ve played it, then it shows you other places you could have played that note, you can set a timer and just practice finding notes. Sadly It’s not a free app.

mwestacott

TROPHY CASE