Alec Burton's Blog

Finding a Dev Role in London

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 16:30:00 +0100

With an apparent shortage of talent and a seemingly high demand for developers in the London area, finding a new job should of been easy right? A look back at what has been at times both a joyous and demoralising experience.

A Definition of Done With Intent

Sun, 09 Jun 2019 12:00:00 +0100

Designing a better of Definition of Done for multiple cross-functional Scrum teams working on the same product.

5 Ways to Make Annual Appraisals Less Terrible

Mon, 27 May 2019 16:00:00 +0100

Annual appraisals can be painful for both the appraiser and appraisee. While there are ways to give people better, more regular feedback and help them progress their careers faster, often HR or company policy makes the usual yearly cycle difficult to avoid. Below are 5 tips on making annual appraisals less painful for all involved.

Creating a Raspberry Pi Based Personal Information Radiator

Sun, 19 May 2019 16:00:00 +0100

Information radiators in the office are great, especially for development teams. Broadcasting the state of CI builds, automated tests and environments ensures that everyone is aware of any breakages, and that these breakages are less likely to be ignored. Attach a Raspberry Pi to large TV or monitor, and you’ve got a cheap and easy way to set this up anywhere in the office.

Here I explore how this idea could be applied at home. Looking at what’s involved in building and coding an information radiator at home, displaying at-a-glance details of daily life.

Using Docker to teach new languages

Tue, 14 May 2019 09:00:00 +0100

Often the hardest, most time-consuming, part of running a hands-on teaching session to a room of developers, is getting everyone’s environment set up. What if there was an easy way to get everyone up and running quickly at the start of the session? Here are my experiences with using Docker to do just that.

Tips for Better 1-to-1s

Mon, 06 May 2019 15:00:00 +0100

As time scheduled between you and your manager to talk about you and your career, one-to-ones can be very powerful tool for career growth. Here a few tips on how to make the most out of them.

Let's Try This Again...

Sun, 28 Apr 2019 15:00:00 +0100

It’s 2017 and I’m starting to get to grips with my new role as a Senior Developer. This new role contained new competencies aimed to encourage more involvement with the wider developer community. For me it seemed ideal place to start to do this was to run my own blog. Unfortunately after 3 months, and just 3 posts, progress stalled.

About

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 12:21:22 +0100

Alec Burton Alec Burton is a Software Engineer based in London and the South East of England. Experienced in Java, Spring Boot, Agile, BDD, Continuous Integration, Docker and Coaching. Contact Email: mail@alecburton.co.uk Twitter: @AlecJBurton LinkedIn: Alec Burton Join us at the Surrey and Sussex Agile and Scrum User Group Banner image taken from Croggan on the Isle of Mull, looking towards mainland Scotland. 56°22’57.0”N 5°41’28.6”W

Printing From a Docker Container

Sun, 05 Nov 2017 12:21:22 +0100

Printing from a Docker Container!? Why would someone want to do that?