~ Systems thinking ~

Motivation

What motivates you? Is it internal or external? Can it be both? Should it be both?

Home Ownership and Software Updates

While software engineers are engineers, software development is NOT construction. There are however some similarities between the two. Especially when thinking about remodeling.

Safety Nets and Guardrails

You might thing Safety Nets and Guardrails are the same thing, but they’re not. They both make things safer, but how and when they work are very different.

Testing Schedules

Or more accurately, scheduling tests. Which tests do you run when?

Test Classification

Tests come in many different flavors, and which flavor you want depends on what you’re trying to validate with the test.

Demands ...

Providing customer value is what we’re all here for. Unfortunately, it’s not the only thing we end up doing because of demands on our time.

K. I. S. S.

We think we want a one size fits all solution because it will be easier and save time. But it never does.

Radiating Information

No one reads those automated status emails. You’ve got to radiate the information

Games And Agency

What if we were to think of the role of engineering manager as equivalent to a dungeon master? How does that lens change how we see things?

Shallow Hurry

The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.

Lead With the Why, Not the Way

Don’t just tell people what to do. Help them understand why they want to do it and how it’s good for them (and everyone).

How Buildings Learn

Can you design for change and re-use? Should you? Isn’t doing one thing and doing it well the goal?

Seeing Like a State

It’s very easy to fall into the habit of seeing like a state. It’s also not very helpful.

What You Do Next

What can Jazz teach us about the art of software development.

Incident Response

There’s a lot to learn from aviation. Particularly around incident management

Autonomy, Alignment, Purpose, and Urgency

What are these forces, and how do they interact?

Effective Software Engineers

Perhaps oddly, perhaps not, the traits of an effective software engineer have nothing to do with software

Breaker Breaker Rubber Duck

You can rubber duck too much, but please, take a moment to think about the problem before you give up trying.

Tensegrity

Balancing forces can make for apparent paradoxes

Policies

What are those policies for? Why do we have them and how long should they live?

This Is The Way

60 years in, the Unix way still makes a lot of sense

Design Is Iterative

As long ago as 1968, BDUF was a bad idea.

Software Development Is A Social Activity

We aspire to uncouple with clear boundaries, but we need to work together

Error Based Development

If you can’t change the error how can you fix it?

Loops and Ratios

How does the time it takes to do something change the incentives to do it?