Software quality, technical excellence, and driving change

Emily Bache from Samman Coaching · May 29, 2025

In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah speaks with Emily Bache, a technical coach and the creator of Samman Coaching, about her work helping teams improve their development practices.

Emily shares her experiences with test-driven development and refactoring, and explains how these practices can transform both code quality and team dynamics.

Highlights:

  • The impact of test-driven development on software quality

  • How to introduce new practices in a resistant environment

  • Why collaborative coding, like ensemble programming, accelerates team growth

  • The role of leadership in creating a culture of continuous learning and quality

In this episode, we cover:

  • (00:00) – Kicking things off with Emily Bache

  • (01:25) – First experience with extreme programming in 2000

  • (02:28) – Struggling to get a new team on board with XP

  • (04:03) – Why TDD transformed Emily’s coding approach

  • (05:22) – Becoming a full-time technical coach and YouTuber

  • (06:48) – Defining what a technical coach actually does

  • (07:21) – Inside a high-performing architecture team’s microservices shift

  • (09:04) – Can siloed experts still outperform collaborative teams?

  • (14:42) – Simple tactics to nudge your team toward better practices

  • (20:57) – Ensemble programming explained: many minds, one keyboard

  • (24:45) – Why refactoring skills matter in the age of AI assistants

References:

Where to connect further: