Harness the Power of Debugging!
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Locked
Kiruthika Ganesan
Head of Quality Assurance
Talk Description
This talk is a reflection on how debugging has changed my life and empowered me to navigate the various challenges in my career.
I started debugging as part of analysing bugs, then used it to understand and read code. Later got involved in writing automated checks which in turn gave me the tools to expand my testing and look at software implementations with a different perspective. Following the positive results, I have tried to employ the same routine on other problem areas. From my experiences, I have found that one could debug a production issue to do root cause analysis, debug a process to identify gaps, debug an idea/problem to understand the scope, debug an initiative to explore the possibilities and many more.
The whole journey takes a different turn when done alone, when done with someone or a group, when different tools and techniques are used. It is interesting to see how the different phases of debugging change with respect to the context too. In the talk, I would like to share my debugging routine for technical and people problems and go over the similarities and differences.
I feel like critical thinking and curiosity can accelerate the journey and reduce the iterations needed to find the solution or reach the destination. There is also a caveat of overdoing it and stepping into the overthinking mode which becomes a vicious circle from which one can't escape. So, some tips from my end to identify patterns and proceed with caution while debugging.
By the end of this session, you'll be able to:
- This session will warm people to the idea of usual software debugging if they are new to it. Give them some useful resources on how to get started and employ it in their daily work. They could try the techniques alone or with their team even on a remote set up
- Next would be to encourage people to try the same debugging techniques with a small twist on other problem areas outside of the codebase. Debugging is an important transferable skill one can leverage when making the leap to a leadership role from that of a solo contributor
- Finally some tips to identify patterns and not to overdo it
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