IDEAS & INSIGHTS

Next DevProdEng Lowdown: The Kotlin Compiler Team’s Developer Productivity Wins

In this episode, DevProdEng Lowdown chats with Nikolay Krasko, the Infrastructure team lead for the Kotlin Compiler OSS project, to get the “Lowdown” on their developer productivity wins. Nikolay will discuss wins that stemmed from the collaborative effort with Gradle to onboard the Kotlin Compiler OSS project to the Gradle Enterprise platform and achieve their goals of improving build/test times using build caching and providing insights/telemetry to their build/test process.

Topics:

  • How the Kotlin Compiler OSS project structures its developer productivity organization

  • Software and tooling stack

  • Compound repository challenges impacting productivity

  • The peer review process that helped drive developer productivity

  • Fighting for Gradle caches in the Kotlin project

  • How the team uses Gradle Enterprise and Build Scans

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IN THE NEWS

An IT executive introduction to Developer Productivity Engineering

In an article published by Forbes titled "An IT Executive Introduction To Developer Productivity Engineering," Gradle CEO and Founder Hans Dockter discussed why many major technology companies, including Apple, Google, and Microsoft, have prioritized Developer Productivity Engineering (DPE). He identifies the drivers behind the growing interest in DPE and concludes that DPE is taking off because it aligns with C-level objectives, addresses the competitive imperative to win the war for talent, and provides a relatively low-risk investment both financially and in terms of user acceptance. The article started with some advice on how best to get on your journey toward DPE excellence. 
 

Read the article

TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Introducing Gradle Enterprise 2022.4

Gradle recently released Gradle Enterprise 2022.4. Here are some highlights:

  • The Gradle Enterprise plugin for Gradle Build Tool is even more powerful. Test-retry functionality has been added to the Gradle plugin so you can automatically get flaky test data with every build. 

  • For failed tests, the Failure Analytics dashboard now shows you whether the failure was in the test method itself or in the setup and teardown logic that executes outside the scope of the test class methods.

  • In keeping with the Gradle Enterprise team’s commitment to continuously improve integration with CI platforms, such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab, and TeamCity, Jenkins users can now take advantage of a plugin that lets you instrument Gradle Enterprise for all CI builds without editing your Gradle build scripts or Maven POM files.

For more details on all enhancements, check out the complete release notes on the gradle.com website.
 

Go to release notes

EXPERT TAKES

Best practices for identifying developer pain points

During the 2022 DPE Summit, Gradle conducted two live DevProdEng Showdowns! featuring productivity expert panelists from elite development teams. Among the many topics debated and questions asked, the host wanted to know: How do you identify developer pain points during the developer lifecycle? Here are some paraphrased answers:

  • Aubrey Chipman @ Netflix: We use a variety of methods, including direct feedback, leveraging our support team to identify patterns in the requests for help, and behind-the-scenes tracking (exporting metrics and taking a look at what we think might be happening).

  • Simona Bateman @ Google: We use metrics like how long developers go from training class to committing code. We also use surveys to interact directly with developers to find out what they care about.

  • Luke Daley @ Gradle: One of the most effective things you can do is to have developer productivity engineers embedded in the development team getting direct experience with the tooling as users and feeling the pain directly.

  • Yiming Wang @ LinkedIn: At LinkedIn, we also use metrics and surveys, but our secret sauce is having the developer productivity champions in the product teams. They work mostly on the product, but they are also developer productivity enthusiasts and help get feedback directly from the team.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Don’t miss these opportunities to learn more

Jan. 11, 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. PT: Virtual Training - JVM Builds with Gradle Build Tool
Jan. 12, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. PT: Virtual Training - JVM Builds with Gradle Build Tool
Jan. 17, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. PT: Virtual Training - Introduction to Gradle Build Tool
Jan. 18, 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. PT: Virtual Training - Introduction to Gradle Build Tool
Jan. 19, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. PT: Virtual Training - Advanced Dependency Management
Jan. 24, 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. PT: Virtual Training - Intro to DPE Workshop
Jan. 25, 10 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. PT: DevProdEng Lowdown - The Kotlin Compiler Team’s Developer Productivity Wins
Jan. 26, 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. PT: Virtual Training - Configuring Gradle Build Tool with Kotlin
Jan. 31, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. PT:  Virtual Training - Maven Build Cache Deep Dive

Visit our website for the complete schedule of upcoming trainings and events.