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Three reasons why Tech Business Owners NEED Sourcetape

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 23:00:59 GMT

1. Reduce the high cost of losing your engineers

Losing your most Sr. Engineers who know EVERYTHING about your codebase would create a serious slowdown in new feature work and bug fixes. Add time for recruiting, interviews, onboarding, and your new hire getting familiar with the code — it’s easy to see how the cost of losing these rockstars is high.[1][2]

Turnover is so frequent that it’s just become a way of life in the tech world (as high as 21.7% in some cases!)[2]. At Sourcetape we think that the pain and cost associated with employee churn can be significantly reduced. Sourcetape reduces the time needed for new engineers to get familiar with your codebase. How? Sourcetape is an extremely low friction way for your engineers to generate feature-rich screen recordings without even leaving their IDE. BUT it’s so much more than that. Sourcetape is made by software engineers and engineering managers who truly understand the problem , so it’s way more than just a screen recorder.

2. Increase the productivity of your engineering department

You’d rather have your engineers writing new code rather than writing documentation. Sourcetape is like automating documentation for your engineering department. All they have to do is hit record and Sourcetape takes care of the rest which makes for less context switching. The ROI on this type of documentation is high.

What happens is that Sr. Engineers who really know a codebase tend to become the go-to-person and end up explaining things over and over. With Sourcetape when a teammate asks for details about a code path or a particular file, your engineers can simply share the relevant Sourcetape recording. Your Sr. Engineers could be working on new features or architecture and mentoring Jr. Devs to become even more productive. Your whole engineering department will become more productive by using Sourcetape!

3. Don’t let employee attrition derail your mission

You’re running a business. You’ve got a mission. A mission that’s bigger than just writing software. At the end of the day it’s about delivering value to your target market. Since the churn rate is so high in the software industry it’s not uncommon to lose your most valued employees. With them goes the deep knowledge they have of your systems. This could slow down your mission, but it doesn’t have to be as drastic as it has been in years past.

Sourcetape will allow you to keep the deep knowledge of your codebases long after your employees have moved on. Let Sourcetape help keep your business on mission by reducing the impact of employee churn.

Allow us to partner with you for the success of your company and your engineering organization!

Engineers! Use Sourcetape - your future self will thank you

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:52:46 GMT

Already forgot that code you wrote a month ago?

Does this resonate with you? Sourcetape was written by engineers for engineers, so we totally get it. As engineers we are often asked to write new features and fix bugs fast. This makes it difficult to remember what you wrote even two weeks ago. If you use Sourcetape to record yourself talking through your prior code paths it becomes like a second brain for you.

When you have to debug something in the future you can simply re-visit your Sourcetape recordings. It’s like a care package from your past self! On top of that you will be even more of a rockstar because your productivity will increase.

Since Sourcetape runs right in your IDE you don’t even have to switch context in order to create great documentation. Just hit record! (and it’s WAY more than just a screen capture).

Spend less time writing documentation and more time doing what you love

“I LOVE writing documentation”. Maybe some people say that - but we’d go out on a limb and guess that if you’re an engineer you probably like writing code more ��. We get it. Writing documentation can definitely be tedious and boring. Sourcetape is a new form of documentation that you don’t need to write at all. It’s like automation for your documentation!

Documentation so good that you’ll actually want to use it

What good is documentation that you write up and it just sits in Confluence or in your notes? It just gets stale and could become worse than useless. Stale docs could lead you down the wrong path if it’s out of date. Plus it can be boring and tedious digging through your old notes for the right info.

Yet you might be thinking: how good could this documentation be if I’m not writing anything down?

We’ve built some amazing features into Sourcetape in order to make it so useful that you’ll actually want to go back and re-visit it.

Some of Sourcetape’s most notable features:

Voiceover w/ voice transcription allows you to explain your thought process
Easily generate workflow diagrams with a few clicks
All of your Sourcetapes are cataloged in one easy-to-access dashboard
You can interact with Sourcetapes - the actual code appears during playback!
You can add additional notes to any point in the recording
Git branch and commit are logged so you’ll always know what version of the code the recording is for
Integrates with Confluence

Keep it DRY

Sending someone a Sourcetape is just like them pulling up a chair to your desk and you giving them a walkthrough of the code. You’ll no longer have to repeat yourself over and over to new engineers who join your team, engineers on other teams, or even to yourself. Now you can stop repeating the same explanations, and stop re-tracing your old footsteps. DRY does not just apply to code! Simplify your life with Sourcetape today, your future self will thank you :)

5 Reasons why Engineering Managers NEED Sourcetape

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 14:06:38 GMT

1. Never fear employee churn again

Are you a little nervous about losing your most Sr. Engineers? You know who I’m talking about - the ones who know EVERYTHING about your codebase. Losing them would create a serious slowdown in new feature work and bug remediation. Add time for recruiting , interviews, onboarding, and your new hire getting familiar with the code — it’s easy to see how the cost of losing these rockstars is high.[1][2]

Seasoned engineering managers know this, and in ways they’ve come to accept it. Turnover is so frequent that it’s just become a way of life in the tech world (as high as 21.7% in some cases!)[2]. At Sourcetape we think that the pain and cost associated with employee churn can be significantly reduced. Sourcetape reduces the time needed for new engineers to get familiar with your codebase. How? Sourcetape is an extremely low friction way for your engineers to generate feature-rich screen recordings without even leaving their IDE. BUT it’s so much more than that. Sourcetape is made by software engineers and engineering managers who truly understand the problem , so it’s way more than just a screen recorder.

Some of Sourcetape's most notable features:

Voiceover allows engineers to explain their thought process
Easily generate workflow diagrams with a few clicks
All of your Sourcetapes are cataloged in one easy-to-access dashboard
You can interact with Sourcetapes - the actual code appears during playback!
Engineers can add additional notes to any point in the recording
It’s secure. Use our self-hosted option so your source code never leaves your network
Git branch and commit are logged so engineers know what version of the code the recording is for

2. Reduce your "Bus Rate"

Sourcetape makes it seamless and quick for engineers to document code paths and their thought processes. When your engineers watch their teammate’s Sourcetapes they create a shared understanding of the code, which in turn reduces your bus rate.

It’s just like pulling up a chair to their colleague’s desk and getting a walkthrough of the code! This proactive knowledge sharing allows you to reduce single points of failure on your teams. Plus Sourcetapes are recorded right in the IDE, so they’re more detailed and tech-oriented than written documentation could ever be.

3. Less talking, more doing!

When we’re asking our teams to deliver new features and fix bugs, writing technical documentation is the last thing anyone wants to do. It’s a “necessary evil” and they may not even be good at it.[3] You’d rather have your engineers writing new code rather than writing documentation. Your engineers would rather be writing code too!

When a teammate asks for details about a code path or a particular file, your engineers can simply share the relevant Sourcetape. Don’t Repeat Yourself doesn’t just have to just apply to code. Sr. Engineers who really know a codebase tend to become the go-to-person and end up explaining things over and over. This is an added incentive for your engineers to record Sourcetapes. Less talking, more coding!

4. Onboard new engineers faster

Introduce playing Sourcetapes to your onboarding process and your new engineers can be walked through the code by your most senior engineer’s Sourcetapes with no added time or cost. Since Sr. Engineers are typically busy coding and solving complex problems, they can only offer so much guidance in one day. New joiners can get familiar with the code right away using Sourcetapes. No need to wait until your Sr. Engineer has availability to guide them!

5. Meet your deadlines and delight your customers!

Sourcetape at its core is a tool that Engineering Managers like yourself can use to keep your teams on track. Sourcetape reduces knowledge silos, keeps your engineers on task, and provides a solid contingency plan for employee churn. All of these are all critical to delivering on time and under budget. Let Sourcetape help you and your team shine!