Engineering of Craft

Given at Codemania 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand

Consider the code you write every day: Is it engineering? Is it craft? Is it... both? Is there something we can learn by returning to our creative roots, to help us be even better engineers than we already are?

Join me as I look at engineering from a totally different angle. We’ll talk about patterns, prototypes, testing, and bug fixing... without reviewing a single line of code.

There will be puns. And pockets. And you might even walk away with a better understanding of why your pants don’t fit as well as they could!

Transcript

1. THE ENGINEERING OF CRAFT RAQUEL VÉLEZ @rockbot
2. LET'S REVIEW THE ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
3. AND LET'S DO IT WITH PANTS
4. CODE VS PANTS LET’S COMPARE THE TWO https://bit.ly/2VQvIEO
5. THE PRODUCT SPEC
6. OUR CUSTOMER • Nuclear engineer • Works in a laser lab • Often found leaning over lasers, bending into tight spaces
7. THE PROBLEM • Has difficulty finding jeans that fit • Jeans gape at the waist and sag in the butt, resulting in insufficient coverage https://i.imgur.com/z7TNt9X_d.jpg
8. PROPOSED SOLUTION A custom-made pair of jeans! https://bit.ly/2YwnAar
9. SUCCESS CRITERIA • Fitted in waist • Roomy enough for lots of bending • Personalized with nerdiness
10. THE TECH SPEC
11. TWO OPTIONS FOR CUSTOM JEANS TAKE A PATTERN THAT ALREADY EXISTS AND MODIFY IT • Pros: • Instructions + community exist • Avoid NIH syndrome • Cons: • Made for “generic human”; but every human is unique and making it fit is going to be time- consuming CREATE A PATTERN FROM SCRATCH • Pros: • Make exactly what we want • It’s been done before, in principle • Cons: • Requires skill to do well • Will likely still be painfully time- consuming
12. CREATE A PATTERN FROM SCRATCH • Pros: • Make exactly what we want • It’s been done before, in principle • Cons: • Requires skill to do well • Will likely still be painfully time consuming TWO OPTIONS FOR CUSTOM JEANS TAKE A PATTERN THAT ALREADY EXISTS AND MODIFY IT • Pros: • Instructions + community exist • Avoid NIH syndrome • Cons: • Made for “generic human”; but every human is unique and making it fit is going to be time- consuming
13. THE PATTERN • Instructions • Fabric requirements • Basic fitting • Multiple sizes
14. OUR FIRST PROTOTYPE
16. PROTOTYPING BASICS • Throw away-able • Quick turnaround • Cheap fabric • No finishing touches • Continuous iteration cut the pattern pieces sew the pieces together fit the garment to the end-user modify the pattern
17. TDD: TEST-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
18. NOTE: THE TESTS ARE ALWAYS PERFECT
19. FAILING TESTS THESE ARE BLOCKERS TO PRODUCTION
20. WARNING: YOU CANNOT UNSEE WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE
21. FAILING TESTS THESE ARE BLOCKERS TO PRODUCTION
22. BREAK AND ITERATE • Broken tests = time to fix the code • Let's cut out a larger size and modify the back piece to add more height for the waist in the back
23. PROTOTYPE 2
25. HALP
28. MOAR HALP
29. PROTOTYPE 5
33. PROTOTYPE 8-ISH
37. NO MORE BLOCKERS FOR PRODUCTION!
38. STAGING
40. PRODUCTION
42. POST-PRODUCTION BUGS IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO CLEAN UP AN OOPSIE BEFORE AFTER
43. RETROSPECTIVE
44. LOGGING TFW you're certain you'll remember what that meant and then you get distracted and come back to it later and totally forget
45. MORE FREQUENT COMMITS What did I do here? Why? When? How do I go back?
46. VERSION CONTROL Colors and dates are a start, but are they enough?
47. BACKUPS You never know when your code may be corrupted
48. CODE REVIEWS • It's helpful to get other opinions • These two didn't help much at all
49. SUCCESS? YES! Fitted in waist Roomy enough for lots of bending Personalized with nerdiness
50. BUT WAIT - WHY ARE PANTS SO TRICKY?
51. A QUICK PRIMER ON CLOTHES + FIT EVERYONE HAS TROUBLE FINDING CLOTHES THAT FIT WELL https://bit.ly/2JcVvkN
52. A QUICK PRIMER ON CLOTHES + FIT EVERYONE HAS TROUBLE FINDING CLOTHES THAT FIT WELL divide the pattern piece vertically and horizontally
53. A QUICK PRIMER ON CLOTHES + FIT EVERYONE HAS TROUBLE FINDING CLOTHES THAT FIT WELL cut and spread to create a larger size
54. A QUICK PRIMER ON CLOTHES + FIT EVERYONE HAS TROUBLE FINDING CLOTHES THAT FIT WELL cut and overlap to create a smaller size
55. SIZE GUIDE COMPARISON MEN'S MEDIUM T-SHIRT Patagonia Icebreaker Quicksilver The North Face Variation Chest 96 - 102 cm (38 - 40 in) 91 - 99 cm 99 - 103 cm 99 - 104 cm (39 - 41 in) 13 cm Waist 78 - 84 cm (31 - 33 in) 78 - 85 cm 78.5 - 83 cm 81 - 86 cm (32 - 34 in) 8 cm Sleeve 86 cm (34 in) 87 - 87.5 cm 83 cm 86 cm (34 in) 4.5 cm
56. HOW DOES THAT COMPARE TO THE CODE YOU WRITE?
57. SO WHAT?
58. LOOK AT CODE FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE
59. WE ARE CRAFTSPEOPLE
60. USE WHAT YOU KNOW
61. BUILD SOMETHING DIFFERENT
62. BREAK AND ITERATE
63. AND SURPRISE YOURSELF WITH WHAT YOU LEARN
64. RAQUEL VÉLEZ @rockbot THANK YOU!!