Interview with Peter Caron, former SVP Global Engineering at HelloFresh and member of CodeScene's Advisory Board, on his usage of CodeScene and how they've leveraged the tool during his time at HelloFresh.
How did you discover CodeScene?
It is a long story, actually. I first started using the tool in 2014 when there was an open-source version, and before it became the CodeScene we know today. Since this was in the early start for the tool I had a lot of contact with Adam Tornhill, CTO and founder of CodeScene, discussing the possibilities of adding more features and improving the tool. Since the start I have used CodeScene continuously to match quality assurance and process object absorption rates.
Is Technical Debt a Problem?
I do not find technical debt to be a problem in and of itself; however, technical risk is a real problem. In the context of CodeScene, the software helps me identify technical risks while prioritizing which actions are needed to mitigate them. Oftentimes technical debt and technical risks are correlated. For example, we conducted a detailed analysis of our bugs and traced them back to code. What we found was a direct correlation between different code bugs and risks in 2019 and have used this functionality since then with great results.
How do you think programming will evolve in the coming years?
Hard to say, really. But for a long time the guiding principle of most software projects has been a more or less waterfall model where coding was a linear ordeal. In today’s world, however, development tries to be more agile and, in the best cases, more focused on certain components of the code stack. On a more general level, I think that some programming languages need to change. For example, Python can too easily produce sloppy software products, which should be contrary to the community’s general goals. Of course, any language is only as good as the programmers who use it.
What are the biggest trends in terms of SaaS in the coming years?
A quite tricky question, but as I see it this goes through phases. For the past couple of years, everyone has been talking about cloud and microservices, but in some cases these are hard to accomplish depending on the requirements. It is not always clear why cloud should be better off the bat, but I am pretty sure that traditional on-premise solutions will be more seldom used.
What are the biggest benefits for companies using CodeScene?
I use CodeScene from many perspectives. Generally speaking, the ability to find trends in the code base and take fast action based on prioritization really empowers companies that are aware of the importance of maintaining high code quality. CodeScene also allows users to work in a more focused way in both development and refactoring. Instead of working on a general level with code, developers can work directly with weaknesses in specific parts of the code, saving both time and increasing efficiency.
An important function is understanding what resources are available and distributing them where needed. Working with CodeScene makes prioritizing the efforts of the development team much easier, and with predictive refactoring and pull-request analysis, developers can get instant feedback. In fact, one weakness of CodeScene as a product is that it is so potent and can do so much that it is hard to communicate to people unfamiliar with it just how useful it can be. But the biggest benefit of all, I’d say, is that there is a lot of money to save by using CodeScene to decrease excess rework when developing code.
How would you say CodeScene stands out from the competition?
First of all, I do not really see that CodeScene has competition right now. Sure, there are many tools that give you static analyses, but it is not the same thing. Point-in-time data does not say much; for it to be relevant, you need real-time data, and CodeScene does just that, among other things. We use, for example, the prioritization functionality to focus our work in the best way possible, meaning that we save quite a bit of time and money by decreasing excess rework.
Benefits with CodeScene
Monitor Trends and Progress
Ability to find trends in the code base and take fast action based on prioritization.
Use CodeScene in Daily Development and Refactoring
Users can work in a more focused way in both development and refactoring. Prioritizing the efforts of the development team is much easier, developers get instant feedback in pull requests, and they can work directly with weaknesses in specific parts of the code—saving time and increasing efficiency.
Time and Money Saved by Decreasing Excess Rework
Using CodeScene to decrease excess rework in code development means that a lot of development costs are saved.
About Peter Caron
Peter Caron is a senior and executive-level operations and development leader with more than 20 years of expertise in development, operations, and leading digital transformations. With experience across many domains and businesses — among others, HelloFresh — Peter leads digital transformation efforts as part of operations, CI/CD, quality assurance, release automation, and DevOps/SRE groups.
