This past week I was pair programming. We had to implement a service object that deletes a model. We actually did it pretty fast and well. It had tests, linter was pleased and we were ready to push it when we noticed that our coverage was not 100% (and we do like 100%, with all its pros and cons).

But we didn’t understand why, because this module should be fully covered. In fact the code was covered when we ran just the suite for that class, but was not covered when we ran the full suite.

Having goals is very important to make sure we’re productive and delivering value.

João Cavalheiro was brought to my attention due to a talk he gave at a local engineering management group.

We can see the talk’s slides at Totally Networked Team.

Managing a remote team is starting to become a common thing, so I was very interested in understanding how João works and what are the pros and cons of managing a remote team.

Having a continuous learning mindset is very important. To reap the most benefits we should make a plan and have goals on what to learn.

Time bound goals

Wanting to learn new things or accomplish something without a deadline may end up being wishful thinking. If we set a date and a goal we have better chances of achieving it. Imagine that we want to learn Japanese. It’s important to time bound that goal. If we instead say that we want to learn Japanese in one year we start to have a clear picture of what we’ll need to invest in terms of our routine.

I first met Ricardo Fiel when I was taking my degree at ISEL. Then we had different career paths, but ended up working at the same company. He was CTO at RUPEAL and I was a lead developer.

We worked closely for a couple of years. The most vivid memory I have of Fiel is that even though we didn’t always see eye to eye, we always had good discussions and were able to overcome obstacles.

I learned a lot with him and at this day I still look up to him for advices and mentoring.