Unlocking Developer Productivity: A Dual Perspective on Best Practices & Testing
A presentation at Ottawa JUG, October 2023 in in Ottawa, ON, Canada by Baruch Sadogursky
Baruch Sadogursky - @jbaru ch × Developer Productivity Advocate × Gradle Inc × Development -> DevOps -> #DPE
Eli Aleyner - @ealeyner × × × × Co-founder AtomicJar Inc Founding team @AWS Founding team @Bing.com
shownotes × × × × speaking.jbaru.ch Slides Video All the links!
Don’t ruin the flow
“The build takes forever, I am distracted to do other things and the context switch is terrible”
Don’t frustrate the developers
“we have a flanky test, it is irrelevant 99.5% of the time , but it always runs and it is last in the suite”
Don’t boil the frog
“I have a feeling that everything is slower somehow…”
Developer Productivity == A/M Autonomy /P == motivation Tools and people aren’t in my way Mastery Tools and processes help me to excel Purpose I want to be productive, i.e. create the product
Developer productivity Enginee ring!
Developer Productivity Enginee Foster Faster Feedback Collaborate through Effective Tooling Eliminate Toil for Developers Dedicated Organizational Mindset ring Embrace Rigorous Observability for Proactive Improvement Prioritize Automation and Eliminate Bottlenecks Outcomes Over Output
Talk is cheap, show me the goods! 22
Small DPE improvements make a × × × × × huge difference Generate code faster: Better IDE Test better: Testcontainers Enforce better code: Sonar Test more reliably: Flaky test detection Foster Faster Feedback:
feedback efficiency × × × × IDE: Sub-seconds (I type, it marks it red) Build: Seconds CI: Minutes Production: Hours/Days
Reverse dependency on distance from developers IDE Build CI Feedback Time Faster Slower Distance from Developers Expected Production
Reverse dependency on distance from developers IDE Build CI Production Feedback Time Faster Slower Distance from Developers Expected Real
It is slow!
It is slow and the developers h ave no idea why!
What is build? × × × × × Project setup Downloading the Internet Artifact generation: Compilation, packaging, etc Tests Artifact deployment
What can go wrong? × × × × × Project setup Downloading the Internet Artifact generation: Compilation, packaging, etc Tests Artifact deployment
When can it go wrong? At any time.
The Build frustrates the developers
Let’s ask Chatgpt
What the actual f*ck?! × Skipping tests defeats the purpose of the build! × How about skipping compilation? × We want faster feedback, not less feedback
What feedback do we want?
Ci/cd pipeline quality gates It compiles Basic Integration tests Basic Unit tests Basic Quality Linting Quality Code coverage Dependency scanning SAST/DAST Quality Sec Static code analysis Sec Sec Secrets scanning Resource Utilization Nonfunc Nonfunc Load Testing Nonfunc Compliance
Two types of feedback x e.g., CI/CD x we never wait for it x results are distracting x e.g., build x we’ll wait for it in the flow x we’ll be pissed off when it’s slow
Reverse dependency on distance from developers IDE Build CI Feedback Time Faster Slower Distance from Developers Production
Reverse dependency on distance from developers Faster IDE Build CI Feedback Time Commit time synchronous asynchronous Slower Distance from Developers Production
Ideal build time feedback It compiles Basic Integration tests Basic Unit tests Basic Quality Linting Quality Code coverage Dependency scanning SAST/DAST Quality Sec Static code analysis Sec Sec Secrets scanning Resource Utilization Nonfunc Nonfunc Load Testing Nonfunc Compliance
Delightful build (pick two): ☑ provides max feedback ☑ fast
Skip what can be skipped (but no more!)
Avoidance: Incremental build × Don’t build what didn’t changed × Don’t build what isn’t affected
Avoidance: Incremental build s hortcomings × Relies on produced artifacts × Relies on architectural decisions
Avoidance: Caching × × × × Makes the build faster Makes the build faster for everybody Makes the build faster always Makes all parts of the build faster
Avoidance: Predictive test selec tion × Learns code changes effects de-facto × Skips tests with high degree of confidence
How test prediction works × Code changes and test results are thrown into learning model × After a while, the model predicts which changes fail which tests
Test prediction What changed Where it changed Correlate with observed test failures Predictions which changes will fail which tests
Black magic in action × The more tests a project has, the less they break × Refactorings in Java break tests less than in JavaScript
Speed up what can’t be skipped
Test parallelization × Use max power of local machine × (Yes, your boss should buy you the bleeding edge)
Test distribution × × × × CI uses fan-out to speed-up tests Shouldn’t you enjoy it for local tests? Use the cloud to distribute test load RUN ALL THE TESTS!
Why not just using ci fan-out ? × Relying on shared CI infrastructure × CI infrastructure is not optimized for real-time feedback! × Are the agents as fast as they can be?
Don’t let it slide
Observe and improve × Measure local build times across time and environments × Detect downfacing trends × Find root causes and improve
Same tradeoff for tests expensive, slow, but prod-like Or naïve, useless, but fast
AWS S3 - Bunny! × Integration Tests – as main quality gate × Creative, Relatable test status × Sad and depressed outcome over time
Why the Depressed bunny? × Flakiness due to: × Data, Deployments, Environment × Don’t care syndrome × Self-fulfilling prophecies
Delightful Test (pick two): ☑ Prod-like ☑ Local
Self contained tests are the a nswer × Real tests (not just mocks) × No dependency on centralized resources × No interdependency of tests × Treated as code! Same life-cycle × Allow for clone-and-run
Ehe.. But how? Testcontainers is the answer
Testcontainers is used by
Test against any database, message broker, browser… or just about anything that runs in a Docker container!
Very nais!
But We can Go Further! Foster Faster Feedback Collaborate through Effective Tooling Eliminate Toil for Developers Dedicated Organizational Mindset Embrace Rigorous Observability for Proactive Improvement Prioritize Automation and Eliminate Bottlenecks Outcomes Over Output
Test Observability & Debugging Eliminate Toil for Developers Embrace Rigorous Observability for Proactive Improvement Outcomes Over Output
Testcontainers Desktop: Batter × × × × ies Included Freeze container shutdown Service configuration Enables re-usable containers Bonus: Embedded Runtime
Test Consistency , Repeatability & Scale Dedicated Organizational Mindset Prioritize Automation and Eliminate Bottlenecks Outcomes Over Output
Testcontainers Cloud: Consist × × × × ent Experience for all Apple-silicon? Windows? - No problem! Docker-in-Docker in CI? – No problem! Turbo mode – for parallelization Team and enterprise-wide visibility for your Testcontainers usage
How it works
Testcontainers is DPE: Foster Faster Feedback Collaborate through Effective Tooling Eliminate Toil for Developers Dedicated Organizational Mindset Embrace Rigorous Observability for Proactive Improvement Prioritize Automation and Eliminate Bottlenecks Outcomes Over Output
The gains are real!
Learn more and try it today! × × × × Take the Gradle/Maven Speed Challenge! Be DPE Agent of Change! Read the DPE Handbook! Watch the DPE Summit videos! x speaking.jbaru.ch
In today’s fast-paced development environment, efficiency is king. But how do you streamline your workflow without sacrificing quality? Enter Developer Productivity Engineering (DPE), a discipline that focuses on optimizing the software development process from start to finish. Join Baruch Sadogursky and Eli Aleyner as they offer a dual perspective on making DPE work for you.
The talk kicks off with a joint introduction to DPE, demystifying the term and explaining why it’s crucial for modern software development. They’ll then outline the core tenets of DPE, offering a framework that can guide your approach to coding, testing, and deployment.
Baruch takes the stage next to focus on making your build process as efficient as possible. Learn about avoidance techniques like caching and predictive test selection that can speed up your builds without compromising quality.
Eli follows up with a deep dive into intelligent testing strategies. He’ll discuss “shifting everything left,” enabling faster feedback cycles by running as many tests as necessary—but no more. The talk concludes with a joint summary, offering key takeaways and actionable insights you can immediately apply to your projects. Don’t miss this comprehensive look at optimizing your development process, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or new to the field.
Video
Resources
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
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Baruch’s Book DevOps Tools for Java Developers
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Baruch’s Book Liquid Software
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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivites Us
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ChatGPT plugins documentation
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Predictive Test Selection Paper from Meta
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Mantium AI (adding your KB to Chat-GPT easly!)
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Spring Framework Project PDT Simulations
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Developer Productivity Engineering (DPE) Handbook
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Testcontainers Framework
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Gradle BuildScan®
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Testcontainers Slack - Join today!
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Parallel local tests execution
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Try DPE today: Gradle and Maven Build Speed Challenge
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Test Distribution (Parallel cloud test execution)
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Be A DPE Agent of Change!
Join our DPE advocacy program to earn awesome prizes while DPE-ing all the way!
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Gradle Build Cache (Local and Remote)
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The Developer Productivity Engineering Summit 2023 - September 20-21
The videos will be published soon!
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Predictive Test Selection Feature in Develocity
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Failure Analytics (Flaky Tests Mitigation)
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Trends, Reporting and Insights
