I have a conversation with David Barr about Assurance, his automated testing app for NetSuite.

We discuss:

• David's career experiences with automated testing, or the lack thereof
• the technical designs and challenges of building Assurance
• obstacles SuiteScript developers face with automated testing
• how building a React app within NetSuite is less complicated than you might think

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

In the latest episode of the SuiteScript Stories podcast, I have a conversation with Tim Dietrich about his evolving opinion on generative AI.

We discuss:

• Tim's recent experimentation with the N/llm SuiteScript module
• how the NetSuite LLM interacts (or doesn't) with account-specific data
• the power and responsibility of working with LLMs

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

In the latest episode of the SuiteScript Stories podcast, I have a conversation with Lauren Polasek, Finance Systems Administrator and NetSuite User Group guru.

We discuss:

• Lauren's NetSuite journey without formal education
• how to build community and network in a small niche like NetSuite
• how to add resiliency to your career through skill diversification
• why you should check out your nearest NetSuite regional user group

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

I cover my approach to tracking what's deployed in a NetSuite account using SDF and source control.

I discuss:

• how to create snapshots of what is deployed in an account
• where to store those snapshots in your repository
• what storing them this way allows you to do
• why you can't expect your main branch to match your Production account
• who this approach is and is not a fit for

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

Over the past year, I've worked with many clients on source control usage for NetSuite development; I reflect on those projects, and distill those observations down into actionable advice.

I cover:

• getting started with source control
• choosing a branching strategy
• why you can't expect your main branch to match your Production account
• why source control won't solve your collision problems
• not using your repository as a project management tool
• why I don't want NetSuite to build a source control feature

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

I have a conversation with Cris Morfopoulos, who runs the SuperTraining learning site. Cris' passion for teaching is infectious, and it comes through in our conversation. We discuss:

• Cris' passion for training and sharing knowledge with as many people as possible
• how SuperTraining can train NetSuite users of all roles
• Cris' background in Hollywood and love for education
• where NetSuite might go with AI and how that might impact us
• advice for building a wide variety of new skills

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

I have a conversation with Isabella Romanazzi, Director of NetSuite Recruitment at SystemsAccountants. We discuss:

• Isabella's journey into recruiting
• her observations of trends in the current NetSuite job market
• her advice for NetSuite job seekers and employers alike
• her passion for networking events

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

I share my backstory, including:

• Learning to write code on a calculator
• Changing my mind halfway through a college degree
• Starting out in government contracting
• Transitioning cluelessly into NetSuite and JavaScript
• Getting fired from a NetSuite developer job

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

We say farewell to Tim as he saunters off into the sunset toward his next adventure. On his way out, we discuss:

• more SuiteQL FAQs
• Tim's reasons for moving on
• what's next for Tim's products and services

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

Jacob Terneus (CEO) and Caleb Schmitz (CRO) of The Anchor Group about their lengthy experience working with SuiteCommerce.

• the challenges and skills required for ecommerce roles
• the evolution of Anchor Group's focus to SuiteCommerce
• the differences between various ecommerce solutions
• the benefits of knowledge sharing and training within a company

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

We discuss our observations of the explosion in popularity of generative AI

• What are our individual reactions to the rise of generative AI?
• How are we using AI in our lives?
• How well does generative AI write SuiteScript right now?
• Enthusiasm and reservations about the nature of work in the age of AI

This episode was hosted and sponsored by Salto.

Salto is not a consulting company looking to sell you services. Instead they're a software company that has built a powerful DevOps platform for NetSuite users to manage, track, deploy, and monitor changes to NetSuite.

If you'd like to learn more about the Salto DevOps platform, check out salto.io where you can sign up for a free demo and a free 30-day trial.

We discuss our ideas to expand the NetSuite development ecosystem.

• improving access to SuiteQL metadata table access, views, indexes, query plans
• enhancing developer tooling like debugging environments and dependency management
• tailored learning paths for all experience levels
• better community engagement through a developer relations team
• Tim's weekly "SuiteDigest" newsletter aggregating NetSuite news and jobs

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

We follow-up with Jonathan Stark to discuss the concept of authority. Jonathan shares his definition of authority, why establishing authority is important (especially to soloists), and strategies for building authority.

We also discuss Jonathan's career pivots, the steps that he went through to establish authority in new areas, and how he and Rochelle Moulton started the popular Business of Authority podcast.

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

We talk about maintaining a healthy and sustainable productivity system.

• keeping your focus on consistency in task execution and progress towards goals over raw outputs (e.g. "how much did users' lives improve?", not "how many lines of code did I type?").
• the importance of rest and evaluation.
• Tim’s use of text files for task planning and search features for easy access.
• the need for a flexible productivity system that accommodates unexpected events and allows for presence in family life.
• the importance of focus, managing interruptions, and structuring routines with larger time blocks.
• the value of rest and relaxation, setting boundaries, and saying no to new projects.
• the significance of establishing systems and routines to enhance productivity, adapting methods to suit individual needs, and continuous improvement.

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

Adam Smith joins us to talk about SuiteAdvanced, his popular premium browser extension for NetSuite.

• Adam's journey to becoming a NetSuite developer.
• the motivation for building and sharing SuiteAdvanced.
• the technical challenges of building and distributing a browser extension.
• Adam's experience winning the Hackathon for Good at SuiteWorld.

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

Jonathan Stark joins us to talk about the insanity of hourly billing.

• Jonathan's and Tim's shared history in the FileMaker Pro space.
• Jonathan's AHA moment when he realized hourly billing was killing his business.
• the misaligned financial incentives created by hourly billing.
• how specializing into a narrower target market amplifies your opportunities.
• the various forms of specialization: Vertical, Horizontal, Platform
• the obstacles an agency faces when trying to specialize.

This episode is made possible by the members of the Sustainable SuiteScript community. We are a community of NetSuite admins and developers who help each other build skills, confidence, and professional networks.

You can join hundreds of other NetSuite developers who receive regular lessons and ideas directly from me for free by signing up at https://sustainablesuitescript.com/.

We discuss an article called "The Butterfly Effect" which Eric wrote, describing his observations of the NetSuite development space. Often, our eagerness to say YES to every client, to every project, to every task, flings us into a spiral of dysfunction.

• Business, teams, and individuals are all interconnected systems. Nothing and no one operates in a vacuum.
• How can you avoid the fear and anxiety of an empty project pipeline?
• Can your project pipeline be too full? Yes. Yes it can.
• Are things any better three years after the article?

This episode was hosted and sponsored by Salto.

Salto is not a consulting company looking to sell you services. Instead they're a software company that has built a powerful DevOps platform for NetSuite users to manage, track, deploy, and monitor changes to NetSuite.

If you'd like to learn more about the Salto DevOps platform, check out salto.io where you can sign up for a free demo and a free 30-day trial.

We discuss the pros and cons of being able to customize NetSuite as broadly and deeply as you want.

• How do you decide when to customize NetSuite to your business needs versus when to adapt your business process to NetSuite?
• Whose responsibility is it to make that decision?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of either choice?

This episode was hosted and sponsored by Salto.

Salto is not a consulting company looking to sell you services. Instead they're a software company that has built a powerful DevOps platform for NetSuite users to manage, track, deploy, and monitor changes to NetSuite.

If you'd like to learn more about the Salto DevOps platform, check out salto.io where you can sign up for a free demo and a free 30-day trial.

We highlight the significance of clear, concise, and consistent naming conventions in coding. Poor naming can lead to confusion, increased cognitive load, and avoidance of code. We talk about using domain-specific language in your code, the importance of consistency, the benefits of having a standard set of rules within a team, and the importance of good documentation.

This episode was hosted and sponsored by Salto.

Salto is not a consulting company looking to sell you services. Instead they're a software company that has built a powerful DevOps platform for NetSuite users to manage, track, deploy, and monitor changes to NetSuite.

If you'd like to learn more about the Salto DevOps platform, check out salto.io where you can sign up for a free demo and a free 30-day trial.

An interview with Gil Hoffer, co-founder and CTO of Salto. We discuss Gil's long tenure as a leader in tech and Salto's mission of making our lives as business engineers easier. We also talk about the reasons that high-quality DevOps and engineering practices are critical within the business applications space, as well as the rewards and challenges of building both a team and a large system on the NetSuite platform.

This episode was hosted and sponsored by Salto.

Salto is not a consulting company looking to sell you services. Instead they're a software company that has built a powerful DevOps platform for NetSuite users to manage, track, deploy, and monitor changes to NetSuite.

If you'd like to learn more about the Salto DevOps platform, check out salto.io where you can sign up for a free demo and a free 30-day trial.