Let's make Cloud #25: Limitations of DORA metrics, coding superpowers with CodeWhisperer, addressing architectural technical debt

Hello CloudMakers!

Today we shall see:

• cautionary tales: the limitations of DORA metrics in measuring DevOps performance

• unlocking your coding superpowers with CodeWhisperer

• addressing architectural technical debt for sustainable and agile applications

Enjoy!

How not to use the DORA metrics to measure DevOps performance

If you're interested in DevOps, you may have heard of the DORA metrics that are used to measure software delivery performance. However, it's essential to understand the pitfalls of relying solely on these metrics and the dangers of making them the primary focus of your DevOps strategy. This article highlights the potential negative consequences of using metrics to drive improvements without considering the impact on other aspects of software delivery, since chasing metrics can lead to taking shortcuts with testing, producing buggy or brittle software, and reducing the effectiveness of other metrics.

10 ways to build applications faster with Amazon CodeWhisperer

Have you heard of CodeWhisperer, the new generative AI tool for coding from Amazon? It's a powerful and free resource that can help you speed up your workflow and become a more efficient developer. This article shares some tips and techniques to help you get the most out of CodeWhisperer, exploring how to use it to generate code and classes, simplify regular expressions, write unit tests, create sample data, learn third-party code libraries, and document your code. With practical examples and clear explanations, you'll be able to see exactly how CodeWhisperer can enhance your programming workflow.

Finding and Fixing Five Kinds of Architectural Technical Debt

This article talks about a problem that is all too familiar to developers, architects, and application teams - technical debt. It's a constant struggle to keep up with and too often gets pushed to the side until it becomes too much to handle. This can lead to slower development, increased testing cycles, and higher costs - not to mention the risk of applications tipping over completely.

Architectural technical debt is a specific type of debt that can be especially tricky to detect and manage. It's often found in older monoliths that are defined by their dense dependencies and lack of common code libraries, but even newer microservices can suffer from this issue, as they can begin to resemble monoliths themselves.

The article stresses the importance of addressing architectural technical debt to ensure the sustainability and agility of applications. So, if you're a developer or architect responsible for maintaining and extending an older application, you'll definitely want to pay attention to this issue: there are some great tools available to scan for source code quality and security, but tracking and managing architectural drift can be a bit trickier.

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