Software deployment is one of the last but essential steps of the software development lifecycle. All planning, designing, coding, testing, and teamwork end up with deployment. Make it right; it's smooth and exciting. All the effort pays off. Make it wrong; disaster awaits: downtime and cluttered data are...

When I look back on work from five or six years ago—heck, I don’t even have to go back that far—I see it clearly now: a few extra sentences here, another repetitive chunk of stuff over there. I’m so desperate to impress and swoon, so desperate to make a reader sit back and declare “ah, yes! Here is a very smart egg...