Scott Sosna

CORE

Senior Software Engineer II at Datasite

Saint Paul, US

Joined Jul 2010

https://scottsosna.com

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Reputation:	1202
Pageviews:	171.7K
Articles:	29
Comments:	2

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Articles

Over-Architected? Maybe, Maybe Not

Reviewing a software solution? Identifying complexity beyond what you feel is necessary? Consider the implications before dissing the architecture and approach.

August 12, 2024

· 3,702 Views · 3 Likes

Compound Interest in Software

Is it possible to calculate the impact of delivering constant improvements to a software solution against the cost of accrued debt assumed as a result?

August 3, 2024

· 2,286 Views · 1 Like

Software Engineering Grief

Change is inevitable, especially in software engineering. If you're not driving change, how do you respond when change is foisted upon you?

July 31, 2024

· 3,177 Views · 2 Likes

DSL Validations: The Whole Enchilada

As a conclusion to the series where we have learned to create the building blocks for DSL-based validations, let's put it all together for a complete solution.

April 9, 2024

· 2,237 Views · 1 Like

DSL Validations: Operators

Now that we have seen how the DSL validates individual properties, the next step is to combine individual property validations into larger, more complex conditionals.

April 2, 2024

· 1,117 Views · 1 Like

DSL Validations: Child Properties

After learning how to validate simple properties on a class, the DSL is extended to allow accessing properties on sub-objects contained within the top-level class.

March 28, 2024

· 1,473 Views · 1 Like

DSL Validations: Properties

Jakarta Bean Validations are a powerful tool to ensure data quality in your objects, but custom, more complex validations can be difficult to maintain.

March 28, 2024

· 2,358 Views · 1 Like

Those Were The Days?! A Humorous Reflection on the Evolution of Software Engineering

Writing software is ever more complicated, but have you ever wondered what it was like before all the tools and technology we have today? You may regret asking!

March 21, 2024

· 6,205 Views · 5 Likes

The Impact of Technical Ignorance

Often, engineers and technologists are blamed for technical problems and tech debt, and while true to a degree, ignorance among non-techies definitely contributes.

February 21, 2024

· 4,537 Views · 4 Likes

Return To Office Insanity

Return-to-office mandates are all the rage, but why? Financial impact usually touted, but now proven to not be. So what is it? And will I eventually have to relent?

February 6, 2024

· 1,835 Views · 1 Like

Pull Requests and Tech Debt

We all do pull requests, but are we doing them right? However well-intentioned, pull requests can actually contribute to tech debt when you're not careful!

January 11, 2024

· 2,354 Views · 2 Likes

Non-Functional Testing

Non-functional testing compliments functional testing, but can anyone actually explain what problem you're testing for? I thought not...

January 2, 2024

· 3,142 Views · 4 Likes

Me, a Conference Speaker? Yes, You!

You may not have considered speaking at a conference, you may think you have nothing unique to offer, but I disagree: your story is just as important as others.

August 22, 2023

· 4,498 Views · 6 Likes

Performance Reviews Are A Waste of Time

Employee performance reviews are fairly pervasive for most jobs, but have you ever asked yourself what is achieved?

August 4, 2023

· 6,325 Views · 6 Likes

Probing Questions for Your Interview

It's difficult to learn much about a potential employer during interviews but improve your chances by asking questions intended to extract info from the interviewer.

July 13, 2023

· 4,577 Views · 5 Likes

Graph Databases and Baseball

Baseball is a statistics-driven sport and has been since its inception. Can a graph database be used to further analyze the data? You'd be surprised...

July 6, 2023

· 3,936 Views · 7 Likes

It's Elementary Privacy, Watson!

How a book of children's academic records from the 1940s got me considering privacy issues concerning non-digital record keeping.

June 27, 2023

· 2,187 Views · 3 Likes

Non-Traditional Project Planning

Many different ways of project planning exist. Many are discarded as unworkable, but there is no universal way to plan a project and ensure success.

June 21, 2023

· 5,652 Views · 9 Likes

Dependent Feature Flags

Most engineers view feature flags as simple on/off checks, but other possibilities, like dependent flags, can release new functionality more safely.

June 15, 2023

· 3,322 Views · 4 Likes

Software Shops and Name Recognition

Do your technology friends have no idea that your company even exists, much less what they do? Unable to attract talent? Perhaps they need some name recognition.

June 12, 2023

· 3,210 Views · 3 Likes

Personalized Code Searches Using OpenGrok

Improve your efficiency by deploying OpenGrok to provide code search capabilities on just the code you're interested in and not everything available.

June 6, 2023

· 6,216 Views · 3 Likes

Understanding Dependencies...Visually!

Whether from the command line or within an IDE, understanding your project's dependencies is challenging because it's text-based. Are there alternatives?

June 5, 2023

· 5,296 Views · 5 Likes

From On-Prem to SaaS

What happens when your organization prefers a software-as-a-service business model and your existing on-premise customers don't?

June 1, 2023

· 3,104 Views · 2 Likes

Neo4J and Virtual Nodes/Relationships

Let's take a look at Neo4j and virtual nodes and relationships.

October 1, 2019

· 14,089 Views · 4 Likes

Analyzing US Lobbying Data in Neo4J

Let's analyze US lobbying data in Neo4j.

September 23, 2019

· 12,204 Views · 6 Likes

Loading US Lobbying Data Into Neo4J

Let's see how to load US lobbying data into Neo4j.

September 16, 2019

· 8,911 Views · 5 Likes

Spring Cloud Config and Self-Signed Certificates

What is a Spring Cloud Config? And how can I implement it with a self-signed certificate?

November 28, 2018

· 13,344 Views · 3 Likes

Intro to Querying Neo4j Using OGM

Let's take a look at how to add examples of querying the data that was loaded in the previous article.

August 15, 2018

· 9,088 Views · 3 Likes

Introduction to Neo4j OGM

View this sample project that creates family members as Neo4j nodes and establishes marriage and parent-child between them.

Updated July 17, 2018

· 10,530 Views · 5 Likes

Comments

Those Were The Days?! A Humorous Reflection on the Evolution of Software Engineering

Mar 28, 2024 · Scott Sosna

...admittedly yes...

Performance Reviews Are A Waste of Time

Oct 19, 2023 · Scott Sosna

I'd say keeping teams moving towards a common goal and succeeding is due to open and consistent communications with the team, making sure everyone has the context of why, when, how, etc., but isn't IMO the purpose of a performance review (correctly done or not).