Holly Cummins
@hollycummins.com
@IBM - Senior Principal Software Engineer, working on Quarkus. Java Champion, developer, author, #cloud surfer and maker. My views are my own.
Thank you to @charity.wtf and Martin for the lovely sticker delivery – my laptop has now been thoroughly @honeycomb.io-ised. It is now much pinker 🦄 and rainbow-ier 🌈 and contains lots of wisdom about how to deliver software 💖.
November 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Thank you to @charity.wtf and Martin for the lovely sticker delivery – my laptop has now been thoroughly @honeycomb.io-ised. It is now much pinker 🦄 and rainbow-ier 🌈 and contains lots of wisdom about how to deliver software 💖.
Serverless has been top of mind this week.
- @bjschrijver.dev did a super Quarkus Insights about the JFall app and serverless: www.youtube.com/live/iuvLkNl...
- We're considering writing a blog about serverless performance surprises
...and, of course, naming: hollycummins.com/naming-serve...
- @bjschrijver.dev did a super Quarkus Insights about the JFall app and serverless: www.youtube.com/live/iuvLkNl...
- We're considering writing a blog about serverless performance surprises
...and, of course, naming: hollycummins.com/naming-serve...
Serverless doesn't have servers, except when it does - Holly Cummins
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. — Phil Karlton…
hollycummins.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Serverless has been top of mind this week.
- @bjschrijver.dev did a super Quarkus Insights about the JFall app and serverless: www.youtube.com/live/iuvLkNl...
- We're considering writing a blog about serverless performance surprises
...and, of course, naming: hollycummins.com/naming-serve...
- @bjschrijver.dev did a super Quarkus Insights about the JFall app and serverless: www.youtube.com/live/iuvLkNl...
- We're considering writing a blog about serverless performance surprises
...and, of course, naming: hollycummins.com/naming-serve...
The @jnationconf.bsky.social CFP is open now. I can enthusiastically recommend the conference t-shirts (I wore mine last week). As a female speaker, I do not say this often. :)
sessionize.com/jnation-2026
sessionize.com/jnation-2026
JNation 2026: Call for Proposals
JNation is an inclusive developer conference covering various topics relevant to the software development industry.Attendees can get up to speed with ...
sessionize.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:16 AM
The @jnationconf.bsky.social CFP is open now. I can enthusiastically recommend the conference t-shirts (I wore mine last week). As a female speaker, I do not say this often. :)
sessionize.com/jnation-2026
sessionize.com/jnation-2026
Reposted by Holly Cummins
The late Jared Richardson said something similar regarding inheritance of a legacy codebase: hit it with a bat
Build
Automate
Test
If it hurts, do it more often til it doesn‘t. And no, it doesn‘t mean getting used to the pain, rather fix it so that it stops hurting
Build
Automate
Test
If it hurts, do it more often til it doesn‘t. And no, it doesn‘t mean getting used to the pain, rather fix it so that it stops hurting
November 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM
The late Jared Richardson said something similar regarding inheritance of a legacy codebase: hit it with a bat
Build
Automate
Test
If it hurts, do it more often til it doesn‘t. And no, it doesn‘t mean getting used to the pain, rather fix it so that it stops hurting
Build
Automate
Test
If it hurts, do it more often til it doesn‘t. And no, it doesn‘t mean getting used to the pain, rather fix it so that it stops hurting
A family conversation this morning reminded me: releasing is like brushing your teeth. If it bleeds when you do it, do it more.
November 19, 2025 at 11:22 AM
A family conversation this morning reminded me: releasing is like brushing your teeth. If it bleeds when you do it, do it more.
Reposted by Holly Cummins
This is something I have tried to teach management at every job I've had when I wrote code; I sympathize with the need for metrics but this is a hard problem to solve
Now that I'm in management myself I am working hard to find meaningful metrics for my team and the value they deliver.
Now that I'm in management myself I am working hard to find meaningful metrics for my team and the value they deliver.
Trying to measure coding productivity is, and always will be, a fool's errand.
Why? Because I can go for a walk then take a shower and have an idea, then write a single line of code that fixes everything I was working on.
Immense productivity, but by most metrics I didn't do anything at all.
Why? Because I can go for a walk then take a shower and have an idea, then write a single line of code that fixes everything I was working on.
Immense productivity, but by most metrics I didn't do anything at all.
November 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
This is something I have tried to teach management at every job I've had when I wrote code; I sympathize with the need for metrics but this is a hard problem to solve
Now that I'm in management myself I am working hard to find meaningful metrics for my team and the value they deliver.
Now that I'm in management myself I am working hard to find meaningful metrics for my team and the value they deliver.
Reposted by Holly Cummins
Are your metrics KILLING your team?
@hollycummins.com & @trishagee.bsky.social bust the biggest myths of #DeveloperProductivity: lines of code & "busy-ness" destroy business value.
Learn how Developer Joy & Strategic Boredom can unlock 31% higher efficiency and throughput: bit.ly/3Xyl0kA
#InfoQ
@hollycummins.com & @trishagee.bsky.social bust the biggest myths of #DeveloperProductivity: lines of code & "busy-ness" destroy business value.
Learn how Developer Joy & Strategic Boredom can unlock 31% higher efficiency and throughput: bit.ly/3Xyl0kA
#InfoQ
November 17, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Are your metrics KILLING your team?
@hollycummins.com & @trishagee.bsky.social bust the biggest myths of #DeveloperProductivity: lines of code & "busy-ness" destroy business value.
Learn how Developer Joy & Strategic Boredom can unlock 31% higher efficiency and throughput: bit.ly/3Xyl0kA
#InfoQ
@hollycummins.com & @trishagee.bsky.social bust the biggest myths of #DeveloperProductivity: lines of code & "busy-ness" destroy business value.
Learn how Developer Joy & Strategic Boredom can unlock 31% higher efficiency and throughput: bit.ly/3Xyl0kA
#InfoQ
I have a technique I call incompetence-based-mutation-testing.
Start making some changes. Bork everything, comment out half the existing code to just make stuff compile. Run tests. Watch tests pass.
Stop refactoring, go have a stern word with the tests.
Start making some changes. Bork everything, comment out half the existing code to just make stuff compile. Run tests. Watch tests pass.
Stop refactoring, go have a stern word with the tests.
November 14, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I have a technique I call incompetence-based-mutation-testing.
Start making some changes. Bork everything, comment out half the existing code to just make stuff compile. Run tests. Watch tests pass.
Stop refactoring, go have a stern word with the tests.
Start making some changes. Bork everything, comment out half the existing code to just make stuff compile. Run tests. Watch tests pass.
Stop refactoring, go have a stern word with the tests.
My InfoQ talk with @trishagee.bsky.social is live: www.infoq.com/presentation...
Productivity Is Messing Around and Having Fun
Holly Cummins & Trisha Gee explain how to achieve the "Double Win" - boosting both developer joy and productivity. They expose the flaws of traditional metrics, identify sources of developer toil (slo...
www.infoq.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:56 AM
My InfoQ talk with @trishagee.bsky.social is live: www.infoq.com/presentation...
Reposted by Holly Cummins
Why I Think Git Flow Doesn't Fit Most Projects Anymore blog.sunix.org/articles/how...
Why I Think Git Flow Doesn't Fit Most Projects Anymore
I’ve used Git Flow on quite a few projects over the years — and honestly, I’ve reached a point where I don’t think it’s the right choice for most modern team...
blog.sunix.org
November 7, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Why I Think Git Flow Doesn't Fit Most Projects Anymore blog.sunix.org/articles/how...
Check out the new extensions added to the extensions catalog in October!
quarkus.io/extensions/n...
#ExtendQuarkus
quarkus.io/extensions/n...
#ExtendQuarkus
November 4, 2025 at 3:41 PM
One last piece of seasonal tech content: hollycummins.com/vampires-and...
Why vampires and zombies are skulking in your codebase.
Why vampires and zombies are skulking in your codebase.
Zombie Menace, Vampire Peril - Holly Cummins
It’s the spookiest time of year!
You might think spookiness and tech are unrelated, but you’d be wrong.
Well, actually, you’d probably be…
hollycummins.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:26 PM
One last piece of seasonal tech content: hollycummins.com/vampires-and...
Why vampires and zombies are skulking in your codebase.
Why vampires and zombies are skulking in your codebase.
I don't know how to explain this coincidence if my computer doesn't have (a) self-awareness and (b) a malevolent sense of humour.
October 27, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I don't know how to explain this coincidence if my computer doesn't have (a) self-awareness and (b) a malevolent sense of humour.
Change of plans - Quarkus is one hour *earlier* for the EU folks. :)
Reminder for the US folks, Quarkus Insights will be live one hour later this week than usual due to the difference between EU and US daylight savings.
October 27, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Change of plans - Quarkus is one hour *earlier* for the EU folks. :)
Reposted by Holly Cummins
This reminds me about a walking route from Germany to NYC, USA I tried for fun some years ago. But back then Google listed „swim xxxx kilometers through the Atlantic ocean“ which surprised me in a positive way (that it recognized swimming).
October 21, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This reminds me about a walking route from Germany to NYC, USA I tried for fun some years ago. But back then Google listed „swim xxxx kilometers through the Atlantic ocean“ which surprised me in a positive way (that it recognized swimming).
Reposted by Holly Cummins
Great talk by @hollycummins.com at Lindholmen developer day. As a data person and as someone who used to work with healthcare this resonated a lot: "don't make human tell computer things the computer already knows". It is so key but so often neglected in practice (&definitely a thief of joy) #databs
October 22, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Great talk by @hollycummins.com at Lindholmen developer day. As a data person and as someone who used to work with healthcare this resonated a lot: "don't make human tell computer things the computer already knows". It is so key but so often neglected in practice (&definitely a thief of joy) #databs
This looks more like a swimming route than a walking route, Google.
October 21, 2025 at 12:16 PM
This looks more like a swimming route than a walking route, Google.
... and apparently our streaming provider uses AWS. :)
So no Quarkus Insights today. Sorry, everyone!
So no Quarkus Insights today. Sorry, everyone!
⏰ Starting soon! Join us for Quarkus Insights Ep. #223 as Ben Evans @[email protected] discusses the evolution of managed execution in the JVM, its shifting role in the cloud, and innovations like build-time optimization and constrained dynamism.
bit.ly/quarkusinsig...
#quarkusinsights
bit.ly/quarkusinsig...
#quarkusinsights
October 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
... and apparently our streaming provider uses AWS. :)
So no Quarkus Insights today. Sorry, everyone!
So no Quarkus Insights today. Sorry, everyone!
Reposted by Holly Cummins
Big hugs to everyone whose status page origin server is hosted on AWS and just pushes updates to a CDN cache.
October 20, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Big hugs to everyone whose status page origin server is hosted on AWS and just pushes updates to a CDN cache.
As it's Friday, and coming up to halloween, please enjoy my favourite-ever slide deck: hollycummins.com/blood-curdli...
The PDF doesn't capture how I animated the bat wings to flap on the containers, or how I used a greenscreen and and bat cutouts to make it look like bats were hovering over me.
The PDF doesn't capture how I animated the bat wings to flap on the containers, or how I used a greenscreen and and bat cutouts to make it look like bats were hovering over me.
Blood-curdling tales of microservices misadventure, devops dread, and grisly governance - Holly Cummins
Cloud native – the perfect recipe for innovation, adaptability, and engineering excellence. Right? Well, when it goes right. When it goes…
hollycummins.com
October 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
As it's Friday, and coming up to halloween, please enjoy my favourite-ever slide deck: hollycummins.com/blood-curdli...
The PDF doesn't capture how I animated the bat wings to flap on the containers, or how I used a greenscreen and and bat cutouts to make it look like bats were hovering over me.
The PDF doesn't capture how I animated the bat wings to flap on the containers, or how I used a greenscreen and and bat cutouts to make it look like bats were hovering over me.
I don't often donate to Wikipedia, but @molly.wiki's coverage of the current attacks on it has prompted me to pause-and-plunk-up.
October 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM
I don't often donate to Wikipedia, but @molly.wiki's coverage of the current attacks on it has prompted me to pause-and-plunk-up.
It's 2025, and sharing a large file in a work context is still a significant headache. Shouldn't we have ... done better than this?
October 16, 2025 at 9:33 AM
It's 2025, and sharing a large file in a work context is still a significant headache. Shouldn't we have ... done better than this?
Darn. I should have worn my "assume all women are technical and can breathe fire" t-shirt.
October 9, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Darn. I should have worn my "assume all women are technical and can breathe fire" t-shirt.
