Fixing Bugs in the Real World

Given at iOSDevCampDC on July 22, 2016

Transcript

1. FIXING BUGS IN THE REAL WORLD SAMUEL GIDDINS
2. SAMUEL GIDDINS Now: > CocoaPods > Bundler & RubyGems Then: > Tumblr > Realm > RestKit
5. > Bugs > Real World > Oh My!
6. WHAT IS THE REAL WORLD?
7. REAL ! > Our job is ! > We face constraints > Time > Money > Developer " > Every other resource
8. Aside: this is targeted at developers, not their CTOs or VC backers
9. FIXING BUGS
10. WHAT IS A !?
11. Unhelpful Answer: it depends
12. Unhelpful Answer: everything
13. WHAT IS A !? Popular answers: > "This is broken!" > "I can't use this!" > "I want this thing to be easier!" > "I want to do this but I can't!"
14. WHAT IS A !? SOMETHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF YOUR THING DOING ITS JOB
15. I'm writing this to learn something !: I'm stuck on something that's irrelevant.
16. I'm writing this under pressure for a conference talk !: It doesn't need to work, but I need to know it well enough to drone on about it for 20 minutes.
17. iOS 8 is coming out !: The share extension just needs to be able to post things, I don't care about the color of the status bar.
18. I'm an indy developer and my users are clamoring for this feature !: I need to implement the feature to keep my customer sat high.
19. I run an open source project that doesn't do X !: People want my project to do X and they might not use it until it does.
20. I run an open source project that doesn't do X !: People want my project to do X and they won't stop filing issues until it does.
21. Most ! don't have a single-button fix
22. SAMUEL, AREN'T THOSE ALL FEATURES?
23. It's a !, not a ". - Old dig directed at Microsoft
24. WHAT IS A !? SOMETHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF YOUR THING DOING ITS JOB
25. SO, THAT'S A ! " HOW DO I FIX THEM?
26. HOW DO I ! "? YOU WRITE MORE !
27. HOW DO I ! "? > 99 ! in Jira, 99 ! > Take 1 down, " it around > 117 ! in Jira
28. More software == More bugs Always.
29. More users == More bugs The only bug-free software has no users
30. HOW DO I ! "? > Find what the problem really is > Determine 3-5 ways to fix it > Estimate the benfit from each approach > Pick the one with the highest ROI
31. BUT SAMUEL, THAT SOUNDS EASY!
32. Easy to list != easy to do.
33. Sometimes, bug reports make me feel like my users are sending me this. In the heat of the moment, it feels like a personal attack.
34. But really, they care enough to try and help me fix it.
35. So take a deep breath. And approach the problem rationally & systematically.
36. DETERMINE THE PROBLEM > Usually not what the text of the issue is > Ask lots of questions > Put yourself in your user's shoes
37. COME UP WITH FIXES > Hacks ..< rewriting the entire thing > "Here's a workaround..." > "Behaves as intended" > "Behaves as implemented" / ¯\_(ϑ)_/¯
38. ESTIMATE BENEFITS > What else can you knock out with this fix? > How much tech debt does this introduce? > Does it get in the way of other work you're doing? > How many new bugs will this introduce? > Are we getting dangerously close to feature territory? > Slash do we want to?
39. KEEP AN OPEN MIND CONSTANTLY RE-EVALUATE
40. KEEP AN OPEN MIND > Brain-dump as you go along > Am I making progress? > Is it time to just call it a day and move on? > Now that I understand what's going on, is there someone to hand off to? > Have I fixed it already without realizing?
41. BUILD KNOWING YOU WILL ⌨ " > Always keep failure modes in mind > Make sure you get high quality !" > Don't take ! personally > Write software that users can work around*
42. BUT REMEMBER...
43. WHAT IS A !? SOMETHING THAT GETS IN THE WAY OF YOUR THING DOING ITS JOB
44. That means your thing already does something. It's probably doing a lot of things right. Never forget that.
45. WHAT IS A !? IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY
46. YOUR APP WILL HAVE MANY, MANY !
47. Since so many things can be seen as ! by someone. One person's ! is another's feature.
48. ! ==
49. A ! IS NOT AN OBJECTIVE TRUTH, BUT RATHER A PERSONAL STATEMENT.
50. SOMETIMES, THAT MEANS ITS OK TO FIX A FEW
51. AND LEAVE SOME MORE FOR TOMORROW
52. SAMUEL GIDDINS @SEGIDDINS