Approaching the end of 2023, our editorial team shares the top 5 posts of the year. Despite demanding roles, our engineers delivered content every two weeks – a remarkable feat. Dive into blogs posts that left a lasting impression. Ready to be inspired? Read on!
Before we dive into the content, allow me to introduce our essential engineering blog team: Front End Engineer Lars Schuitema, DevOps Engineer David Soff (currently on parental leave after a new addition to his family), Creative Copywriter Imke Hamacher, Software Engineer Melvin Zehl, and myself, Blog Coordinator Daphne Keislair. We actively brainstormed ideas, identified writers, and maintained high-quality standards.
Each of our team members added their own specialties: Lars, Melvin, and David not only brought in blog ideas, but they also wrote a few blog posts themselves. Imke contributed ideas and ensured adherence to funda guidelines, while Daphne coordinated the entire effort. Excitingly, this team will continue its endeavours in 2024.
Top blog posts - the best of 2023
For our ultimate blog posts, we opted to highlight the impactful posts that resonated with us the most. Here they are; we hope they inspire you.
Chosen by Imke
- Imke's top pick is the blog post written by Engineer Tom van Lieshout where he details his career switch decision. She explains, 'His blog post is my first choice because I always find career switch stories delightful and am constantly curious about what triggers people to make such a switch. It shows that so much is possible, and you can always choose to follow a new path.'
Explore Tom's blog post here if his journey intrigues you too: Game changer: Tom's career shift from musician to engineer at funda - Imke was also impressed by another blog post, this time from Flutter Developer Filip Davidse, focused on, of course, Flutter. She notes, 'Because I found it to be a super understandable and insightful story about a very relevant question (how do you combine such a new technology with existing technology?) as well as solutions.'
You can find Filip's post here: How to integrate Flutter into an existing native app: 2 options
Chosen by Lars
- Lars, too, handpicked his top blog posts for 2023. Interestingly, his first choice aligns with Imke's selection—the post by Filip about Flutter. For Lars, this post captured his attention because: 'As a Front End Developer within a feature team, working on both web and Flutter, I'm fascinated by the insights into the technical decisions behind integrating Flutter into our existing native app and the progress beyond that.' If you're into Flutter and eager to learn more, this one is definitely worth a read.
- His second pick is the post from Staff Engineer Aleix Domenèch about the use of Golden Paths, which involves developing templates that provide significant benefits for funda's developers. Lars notes: 'As both a Scrum Master and Front End Developer, I find this article invaluable for our teams due to its focus on accelerating development processes, allowing us to prioritize what truly matters in our work.'
Read Aleix's post here and discover how Golden Paths could benefit your job as well: How Golden Paths give our developers more time to actually develop
Chosen by Melvin
- Melvin selected a blog post written by DevOps Engineer Matt Bennett, delving into lessons learned from Terraform and reflections on what he wished he knew earlier. Our editor found the blog post 'conceptually enlightening and a useful reference.'
Read Matt's post here and see for yourself: Learning Terraform: What I wish I had known earlier - Melvin was also impressed by a blog post authored by Software Engineer Marek Broda. Marek aims to convince readers why a product mindset contributes to a streamlined Azure DevOps experience. Melvin found the blog post 'nicely pragmatic'.
Read Marek's blog post here and discover just how pragmatic it is: Streamlining the Azure DevOps experience
Chosen by Daphne
- And finally, Daphne made her choice for the engineering blog. She selected the blog interviewing Marije, where she explains her journey within funda—starting from customer service to becoming a service owner overseeing two service development teams. Daphne shares: 'It's impressive to read about her struggles, growth within the company, and the added twist of finding love at funda.'
Read the post about Marije here: From Customer Service to Service Owner: Marije's journey at funda - Another blog post that left an impression on Daphne was by Software Engineer Tom Freijsen. In his post, he explains how funda used composability to empower teams to manage their own pipelines while maintaining consistency across the organization. Daphne remarks: 'What impressed me about Tom's blog post was not just the valuable content but also his hands-on dedication. With keen precision, he fine-tuned the details, ensuring readers were in for a genuine engineering treat. Thanks to Tom, we have developer code in our blogs that can be copied directly (which sounds easy but wasn't).'
Read the blog post from Tom here: How we use modular pipelines to empower our development teams.
Finally
You've just received our top picks for the best blogs posts of 2023. Choosing from an abundance of great content was challenging, and we're committed to maintaining this quality in the new year. Thank you for your support in 2023. Keep reading, and we look forward to welcoming you in 2024.
Happy New Year from the entire editors team!
