Author Posts - Programming

Management is a discipline that isn't short of coverage. In fact, it's probably fair to say that the world throws too much attention its way. This only serves to muddy the waters of management principles and make it hard to determine what really matters. To complicate things, technology is ripping up the rule book when it comes to processes and hierarchies. Programming and engineering are forcing management gurus to rethink what it means to 'manage' today. However, while the wealth of perspectives on modern management amount to a bit of a cacophony, looking specifically at what it means to be a manager in a world defined by software can be useful. That's why, in the latest episode of the Packt Podcast, we spoke to Herman Fung. Herman is someone with both development and management experience, and, following the publication of his book The Successful Software Manager earlier this year, he's been spending a lot of time seriously considering what it means to be a software manager. Listen to the podcast episode: https://soundcloud.com/packt-podcasts/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-software-manager-herman-fung-explains Some of the topics covered in this episode include: How to approach software management if you haven't done it before The impact of Agile and DevOps What makes managing in the context of engineering and technology different from other domains The differences between leadership and management You can buy The Successful Software Manager from the Packt store as a print or eBook. Click here. Follow Herman on Twitter: @FUNG14

"Open source back in the late nineties - and even throughout the 2000s - was really hard to use," ActiveState CEO Bart Copeland says. "Our job," he continues, "was to make it much easier for developers to use open source and much easier for enterprises to use open source." How does ActiveState work? But how does ActiveState actually do this? Copeland explains: "ActiveState is exactly like Red Hat. So what Red Hat did to Linux - providing enterprise-grade Linux distributions - ActiveState does for open source programming languages." Clearly ActiveState is an interesting product that's playing an important part in helping enterprises to better manage the widespread migration to open source technology. For the latest edition of the Packt Podcast we spoke to Copeland about ActiveState and the growth of open source over the last decade. We think you'll find what he has to say interesting... Listen: https://soundcloud.com/packt-podcasts/activestate-making-open-source-more-accessible-for-the-enterprise-interview-with-bart-copeland   Read next: Can a modified MIT ‘Hippocratic License’ to restrict misuse of open source software prompt a wave of ethical innovation in tech? Key quotes from Bart Copeland Copeland on the relationship between enterprise management and developers: "If you look at the enterprise… they want to make sure that it works and it doesn’t cause security threats and their in compliance with all the licenses. And the result is, due to the complexities of open source, management within the enterprise will often limit developers on what languages and what open source stacks they can use because the more stacks you have, the more complexity you have in an organization." Copeland on developer freedom: "A developer is a very technical and creative individual and they want to be able to use the right tools to build the right solution. And so if a developer is handcuffed to certain technology stacks, they may not be able to use the best technology to solve the problem." Learn more about ActiveState here.

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