Deploys at Slack – Several People Are Coding

Every day, we do about 12 scheduled deploys. During each deploy, an engineer is designated as the deploy commander in charge of rolling out the new build to production. This is a multistep process that ensures builds are rolled out slowly so that we can detect errors before they affect everyone. These builds can be rolled back if there is a spike in errors and easily hotfixed if we detect a problem after release.

Deploys at Slack https://slack.engineering/deploys-at-slack-cd0d28c61701

This is an interesting look at how development is done at Slack. Weirdly, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get away with this sort of iteration anymore because our community it’s relatively small and hesitant to change.

Once upon a time I did make changes on the fly to add new features or tweak the interface but now folks depends on us to maintain a certain level of stability as they learn about it teach the law. Of course it could be that as I get older I’m less tolerant of getting pinged about changes

Amazon’s Alexa has 80,000 Apps—and No Runaway Hit ::  Bloomberg

Echo-branded smart speakers have attracted millions of fans with their ability to play music and respond to queries spoken from across the room. But almost four years after inviting outside developers to write apps for Alexa, Amazon’s voice system has yet to offer a transformative new experience. Surveys show most people use their smart speakers to listen to tunes or make relatively simple requests—“Alexa, set a timer for 30 minutes”—while more complicated tasks prompt them to give up and reach for their smartphone.

Amazon’s Alexa has 80,000 Apps—and No Runaway Hit :: Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-11/amazon-s-alexa-has-80-000-apps-and-no-runaway-hit