Worrying about maintainability is often a waste of time…
Category: Articles
Stop Measuring Turn Around Time
I authored the following article on InfoQ, enjoy! https://www.infoq.com/articles/stop-measuring-turn-around
Two minds are not better than one
Two minds are not better than one. Checkout my article Pair Programming is no Panacea
The trifecta of Es
Many organizations overly focus on how things are done. Often people debate about the amount of time that should be spent planning versus doing, to avoid wasted time planning what will inevitably change. Usually the debate is between planning for a long period of time (perhaps 1 year) versus planning for a short period of time (perhaps 2 weeks). But…
From minimally viable to amazing
Last year I made the trek from Seattle to New York City. A gym is one of the first things I look for when I move. In fact, it’s a criteria that I evaluate when deciding what neighborhood to live in. Fitness has been a big part of my life for 14 years now. A bad gym experience negatively affects…
Approaching automation
Processes around creating and releasing software are often manually orchestrated. Some steps of the process are more involved than others. There’s immense value in automating the important parts of the process. For example, software testing and verification is ripe for automation. As with automating anything in business, it’s important to apply an investment mentality. Make sure there’s value beyond the…
The cost of dead code and the only technique you need to know to clean it up
Vestigial features are a common plague in software. There’s a special type of this that often goes unnoticed. Vestigial features are usually usable features that simply aren’t used. But under the hood, every system has some code that isn’t even exposed. It doesn’t support a feature users can access. It’s often the result of experimentation, or perhaps a vestigial feature…
Leading A Culture Of Effective Testing
Looking to improve how you verify the software you create? Struggling with how to instill the values of effective testing? Check out my latest article featured on InfoQ: Leading a Culture of Effective Testing
Hourly billing and cost plus pricing aren’t sustainable
I’m obviously passionate about value in software development. Committing to worthwhile results shouldn’t be taken for granted. All too often decisions are made and actions are delegated. Those that act have no understanding of purpose, desired results and the value of those results. They have no ability to correct course to ensure the results are obtained and the effort is…
Copying (branching and forking) should be the exception, not the rule
Git has been wildly successful, partly due to its distributed nature and the ease with which we can create copies of projects. Copies come in several forms: branches within a repository, and clones/forks of an entire repository. The distributed nature allows us to copy an entire project locally and branch to our hearts content to carefully craft a set of…