Brewing Software

Coffee powers our best software decisions.

Building great software and brewing great coffee go hand in hand.

There's nothing like sipping a good cup of coffee while pondering ways to fix a hard bug or evolve an architecture.

It works so well that it has become one of my best-known practices, the perfect balance between a full-blown design review and brewing coffee with friends.

Over time, I've grown to appreciate all the nuances of brewing good coffee and building great software. They are very similar.

Coffee and Software Engineering #

Precision & Attention to detail #

Consistently brewing a perfect cup of coffee requires selecting the ideal beans for the method, measuring the right amount of coffee and water, and brewing at the right temperature.

Similarly, building great software requires paying attention to the little details, choosing the right tools, understanding the nuance of distributed systems, and ensuring everything works correctly.

A Process and Ritual #

Brewing a fine cup of coffee requires following a balanced process that changes slightly depending on the brewing method. Different people like different methods, and with time everyone gets to the one that matches their taste and creates their very own ritual around it.

Software Engineering requires following a process. There are different approaches and practices that the industry follows. Small teams prefer simpler practices, and big companies prefer more structured approaches to managing the software delivery life cycle at scale. They tend to pick one that matches their culture and strategy.

Building software to find product-market fit is completely different than building software to control an airplane or process and store health records (or any other heavily regulated industry). But with time, every team will adjust and evolve their approach to match what works best for them—creating their perfect ritual for delivering software.

Constant Learning and Improving #

Learning in Software Engineering, it's a never-ending journey. Staying current with the latest technology, tools, and practices will drive you to experiment and adopt new things.

From a systems perspective, experimenting and improving are critical for building, maintaining, and improving complex software. These principles support the guided, incremental change across multiple dimensions behind evolutionary architectures.

Brewing the perfect cup of coffee is no different. It requires experimenting with different beans and brewing techniques.

Different roasts and processing of the beans give a cup of coffee a unique flavor profile.

Light-roasted, naturally processed coffee beans from America would have a profile leaning to the fruity, citrusy side but not too acidic. Washed, medium-roasted beans from Africa would have a profile that leans toward sweet and syrupy flavors.

Manual brew methods (pour-overs, like the V60 — my favorite) will highlight spices and sweet fruity notes. Cold Brew, on the other hand, emphasizes nutty and chocolaty notes.

An Art #

Making an excellent cup of coffee is an art. It requires creativity, expertise, experimentation, and practice. In the same way, software engineering combines technical knowledge and creativity.

Software is about modeling human behavior and ideas. That makes it so complex and different from other engineering professions, like building skyscrapers or engines.

Most of the time, Software Engineering feels more like a craft than an engineering discipline. That's why comparing a modern agile team to a Camerata from the Renaissance comes so naturally. It's an Art.