Take and break and spend some downtime with us. Check out what our authors are writing about lately in our digest below.
Tech Debt: A Thorough Explanation and Guide to Fixing It
Technical debt is an incredibly useful metaphor in software engineering. It can encourage meaningful conversations about the trade-offs and hard choices that are part of the daily routine of software development teams and organizations. Those conversations can then lead organizations to make smarter decisions on how to allocate their resources and prioritize their various activities. Unfortunately, due to misconceptions and conflicting definitions, the term “technical debt” has become quite loaded. Different people might mean diametrically different things when they say “tech debt,” which reduces the usefulness of the term as a conversation starter. For instance, there are people who equate technical debt with “bad code.” As you’ll see today, the real meaning of the term is deeper than that. Learn more from Carlos Schults on Plutora’s blog.
Plan-Do-Check-Act: Understanding and Applying PDCA
The world of business transforms at the speed of light. Businesses try to define new processes and improve existing ones. However, what works and what doesn’t work? It’s a matter of experimentation to find processes that work well for your organization. Nowadays, businesses can pick from a whole range of methodologies that support process improvement. To name just a few methodologies, there’s Kanban, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), and Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). Find out more from Michiel Mulders on Plutora’s blog.
What Is End To End Testing? A Helpful Introductory Guide
No company would release a piece of software without testing it. But there are many ways of testing software. End to end testing is one way. It might even be the most important way, though often the most time- and resource-intensive one. Luckily, there are ways to automate end to end tests. In today’s post, we’ll clarify not only what end to end testing is, but how it fits into an overall testing strategy that can benefit every organization. Peter Morlion can fill you in on Testim’s blog.
Automated Testing Tools for 2020: The 11 Essential Ones
Let’s talk about automated testing tools. Are they valuable? While some people seem to think of them as a mere accessory, that couldn’t be further from the truth. To design, implement, and maintain said strategy, you’ve got to have the right tools in your toolbelt. Sure, tools aren’t everything. Like in any field, mastering the fundamentals is always going to be vital. As soon as you get the basics out of the way, though, finding and employing the best tools available becomes imperative. And that’s what this post is all about: helping you with the “finding the best tools” part. Find out more from Carlos Schults on Testim’s blog.
Sinon JS Tutorial: A Beginner’s Guide To Mocking
Sinon JS is a popular JavaScript library that lets you replace complicated parts of your code that are hard to test for “placeholders,” so you can keep your unit tests fast and deterministic, as they should be. If the line above didn’t make much sense, there’s no reason to despair, since we’ll explain what these placeholders are and why we need them before getting to the tutorial. Learn more from Carlos Schults on Testim’s blog.
Heroku Log Management: Best Add-Ons in 2020
Heroku is a platform as a service (PaaS) product for developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud. Heroku, among other PaaS services, is important for both the Development and DevOps teams because of the developer experience (DX) it offers. Specifically, Heroku tries to bring an app-centric approach to software delivery, so developers can focus solely on developing applications. Find out more about it from Michiel Mulders on TEK-Tools’ blog.
Best Tools for Java GC Log Analysis
Thanks to garbage collection (GC), memory management in languages like Java is a nonissue. As a developer, most of the time, you don’t have to do anything. But things aren’t always perfect. The garbage collection process certainly isn’t. It’s important to keep an eye on it so you can quickly diagnose and fix issues to prevent serious performance problems. This is where a solution like Java GC log analysis comes in handy. One of the ways you can monitor GC is through GC log analysis, which is what this post is all about. Carlos Schults can tell you all about it on DNS Stuff’s blog.
Docker Syslog Logging and Troubleshooting
When you’re troubleshooting an application, the first instinct is to read the logs to understand what’s happening. When working with containers, though, we need to consider the ephemeral nature of a container. By the time you find out there’s a problem with your application, the container and the logs might be gone. Fortunately, Docker has a native way of reading logs from a container. Find out more from Christian Meléndez on Solarwinds’ blog.
Top Apache Log Analyzer Tools (Free and Paid)
Logs are messy. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. But they can be very helpful for understanding what’s happening in your system. To get from “can be helpful” to “they are helpful,” you need to know how to use logs. Logs are raw records of events happening in your system. These records tell you who accessed your system, how someone interacted with it when an event occurred, and more. Learn more from Omkar Hiremath on TEK-Tools’ blog.
Top Software for Infrastructure Health Monitoring
Businesses need systems to monitor IT infrastructure to ensure the launch and subsequent operation of their network systems and services. However, monitoring various parts of your IT infrastructure can be a real headache if you don’t choose the right solution. Regardless of the size of the infrastructure you manage, be it small or enterprise-wide, you can’t do without reliable monitoring tools. Even if you’re just the owner of a personal site, you still need round-the-clock monitoring of your resource availability. Today we’re taking a look at five of the best solutions for infrastructure health monitoring. Find out more from Daniel de Oliveira on TEK-Tools’ blog.