Raju Gandhi
Founder, DefMacro Software
Raju is a software craftsman with almost 20 years of hands-on experience scoping, architecting, designing, implementing full stack applications.
He provides a 360 view of the development cycle, is proficient in a variety of programming languages and paradigms, experienced with software development methodologies, as well an expert in infrastructure and tooling.
He has long been in the pursuit of hermeticism across the development stack by championing immutability during development (with languages like Clojure), deployment (leveraging tools like Docker and Kubernetes), and provisioning and configuration via code (toolkits like Ansible, Terraform, Packer, everything-as-code).
Raju is a published author, internationally known public speaker and trainer.
Raju can be found on Twitter as @looselytyped.
In his spare time, you will find Raju reading, playing with technology, or spending time with his wonderful (and significantly better) other half.
Presentations
Modular Monoliths: A happy middle
Tuesday, 8:30 AM EST
In this session we will discuss what modular monoliths are, what they bring to the table, and how they offer a great middle ground between monoliths and distributed architectures like microservices.
Monoliths get a bad rep. Experienced software developers have seen one too many monoliths devolve into a big ball of mud, leaving everyone frustrated, with an itch to do a “rewrite”. But monoliths have their pros! They are usually simpler, easier to understand, and faster to build and debug.
On the other side of the spectrum you have microservices—that offer scale, both technically and organizationally, as well as having the badge of honor of being “the new cool kid on the block”. But productionizing microservices is HARD.
Why can't we have our cake and eat it too? Turns out, we can. In this session we will explore the modular monolith—all the upsides of a monolith with none of the downsides of distributed architectures. We'll see what it means to build a modular monolith, and how that differs from a traditional layered architecture. We will discuss how we can build architectural governance to ensure our modules remain decoupled. Finally we'll see how our modules can communicate with one another without violating modularity.
By the end of this session you'll walk away with a greater appreciation for the monolith, and see how you can leverage this within your system architecture.
Measuring your architecture
Tuesday, 10:30 AM EST
It's not just architecture—it's evolutionary architecture. But to evolve your architecture, you need to measure it. And how does that work exactly? How does one measure something as abstract as architecture?
In this session we'll discuss various strategies for measuring your architecture. We'll see how you know if your software architecture is working for you, and how to know which metrics to keep an eye on. We'll also see the benefits of measuring your architecture.
We'll cover a range of topics in this session, including
Different kinds of metrics to measure your architecture
The benefits of measurements
Improving visibility into architecture metrics
Documenting your architecture
Tuesday, 1:00 PM EST
In this session we will discuss the need to document architecture, and see what mechanisms are available to us to document architecture—both present and future.
We've all learned that documenting your code is a good idea. But what about your architecture? What should we be thinking about when we document architecture? What tools and techniques can we reach for as we pursue this endeavor? Can we even make this a sustainable activity, or are we forever doomed to architectural documentation getting outdated before the ink is even dry?
In this session we will discuss a range of techniques that will not only help document your architecture, but even provide a mechanism to think about architecture upfront, and make it more predictable. You'll walk away armed with everything you need to know about documenting your current, and future architectures.
Books
Head First Software Architecture: A Learner's Guide to Architectural Thinking
by Raju Gandhi
- If you're a software developer looking for a quick on-ramp to software architecture, this handy guide is a great place to start. From the authors of Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Head First Software Architecture teaches you how to think architecturally and explores the unique challenges of software architecture. You'll learn the distinction between architecture and design and the relationship between code, components, and architectural styles. You'll also learn how to work with some common architectural styles through vivid, fun examples. Quick, easy, and entertaining, this book is a valuable introduction to the world of software architecture.
Head First Git: A Learner's Guide to Understanding Git from the Inside Out
by Raju Gandhi
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Many people who use Git rely on "recipes"--copying and pasting commands they find on the internet without really understanding how Git actually works. But what do you do if you find yourself in a tight spot? You can't simply wing it. With this unique hands-on guide, you'll learn the ways of Git and have fun while doing it. Raju Gandhi peels back the layers to reveal the simple yet powerful engine that powers Git, so you'll understand not just the how but the why. You'll master branches, merges, commit messages, search, utilities, and more; learn best practices for collaborative work; and unlock the full potential of Git.
If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. With this book, you'll learn Git through a multisensory experience that engages your mind rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.
JavaScript Next: Your Complete Guide to the New Features Introduced in JavaScript, Starting from ES6 to ES9
by Raju Gandhi
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JavaScript has finally grown up. Armed with a slew of new features, JavaScript now makes writing the code that powers your applications elegant, concise, and easy to understand. This book is a pragmatic guide to the new features introduced in JavaScript, starting with Edition 6 of ECMAScript, and ending with Edition 9.
Using a "compare and contrast" approach, each chapter offers a deep dive into new features, highlighting how best to use them moving forward. As you progress through the book, you'll be offered multiple opportunities to see the new features in action, and in concert with one another.
Backed by an example-driven writing style, you'll learn by doing, and get ready to embrace the new world of JavaScript.
What You'll Learn
- Provide a deep exposition of the new features introduced in ES6 through ES9
- Review how JavaScript's new features by-pass any limitations of an existing approach
- Examine the refactoring necessary to go from old to new
- Demonstrate how JavaScript's new features work in unison with each other
Who This Book Is For
New and experienced developers who wish to keep abreast of the changes to JavaScript and deepen their understanding of the language.