Reflections on 2022

My big thank you to our readers, my pause for October-November, news for Technical Coaching for next year, and what's coming up for the future

Let’s see where we’ve come to and what’s coming up next… While most people write these kinds of messages during December, I do it a few months earlier..

Big thank you to everyone

Since I started writing articles 10 months ago, I’ve met so many intelligent people; it was great to exchange ideas and continue learning. I like hearing different perspectives and debates because it makes us all come to a synthesis - collective knowledge. This level of insight is much deeper than what is individually accessible.

In particular, I highly appreciated the ongoing discussions with Michaël Azerhad regarding insights about TDD & DDD. Furthermore, the other significant impact came from discussions with Bryan Finster and Andrea Laforgia regarding Continuous Delivery, particularly the website MinimumCD.org; this is indeed the foundation for quality. Last but not least, I am grateful that I had a chance to meet people who have initiatives for all-rounded quality, Jean-Baptiste Musso, and for introducing me to Antoine Craske from QE Unit (Quality Engineering Community), and a strong alignment with the direction of TechExcellence.io.

Optivem Journal after 1.5 months

Thank you very much to our readers from Optivem Journal; your support means a lot to me. When I started, I had to decide whether to write articles with a broader mainstream appeal or more in-depth research/analytical posts for a more advanced audience. I chose the latter.

Now, 1.5 months later, we’ve reached 600+ subscribers. This is far beyond any expectations I had when launching. Looking forward to further growth.

Upcoming pauses in writing

I will be taking the following pauses in writing on Substack & LinkedIn - which means that during the following periods; I don’t plan on writing any long articles:

• Full October & partial November 2022 - I am working on development team assessments in preparation for next year’s technical coaching

• Mid-December 2022 until mid-January 2023 - I am taking a vacation

During these periods, I won’t be publishing long articles; I will be less active on platforms. I might occasionally do some shorter posts, and that’s all.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll activate my writing “pause“ on Substack. What this means for you:

• As a paid subscriber, you will continue having access to everything and will NOT be charged during my pause, i.e., your payments are “frozen“.

• As a free subscriber, you will NOT be able to upgrade to a paid subscriber during this pause. That’s the way it works on Substack. So if you want to access the premium posts, upgrade now because it will NOT be possible for you to upgrade during my pause from tomorrow onwards.

Emails & LinkedIn DMs

I will be going through my emails from subscribers and LinkedIn DMs.

I aim to respond to you this week & next week.

If you wish to reach out to me in the future, you can also see the process on valentinacupac.com.

Technical Coaching for 2023

I’ve been getting more messages for Technical Coaching from Engineering Managers and Tech CEOs. During October & November, we’ll be reserving coaching engagements for 2023.

If you want to build a culture of Technical Excellence and find out how we can help your teams deliver quality software faster, in a sustainable and scalable way, then you can book a call with me.

I take on a limited number of coaching clients, so any reservations are generally months done in advance. Therefore, the final time to get in contact with me is now during October, since I'm finishing up assessments by November 2022. These assessments are prerequisites for technical coaching reservations for 2023.

What’s coming up in the future

The following are my plans for the future:

• Continue writing in-depth technical articles in Optivem Journal, mainly targeting Technical Leaders and Architects

• I’ve been thinking about making content for Tech CEOs and Engineering Managers about how to transform their teams by introducing Continuous Delivery, refactoring legacy applications, and introducing TDD & Clean Architecture; so if this is of interest to you, feel free to let me know

Looking for feedback

I am always looking for feedback about what you like and don’t like and what I can do to improve. Your feedback is important to me. Nearly every initiative I started was based on YOUR feedback rather than my ideas.

I want to provide you with the biggest value, and your feedback means so much to me.

I wish you all an amazing day!

Thanks for all your support,

Valentina