Buzzwords may last them a few productive years before they fall out of favor… A lot of the debate that goes on in the world of software development about the processes, practices, and techniques that we should be applying seems to hinge on what we choose to call what we…

And this is my solution… Putting my Iconoclast hat on temporarily, I just wanted to share a thought that I’ve harbored almost my entire career: why aren’t very small teams (1–2 developers) the default model in our industry? I think back to products I’ve used that were written and maintained…

13 good lessons for developers… Everyone wants to be good in what he’s doing — that’s human nature, that’s how we’re raised. The key is constant improvement without being disappointed by small failures and bumps on the way. In the last 10 years, I’ve been working as a developer and…

It’s the age-old quandry… How do we learn new skills and improve as software developers when we’re under pressure to focus almost exclusively on delivering software now? As a trainer and coach, it’s the number one biggest barrier to getting results. The management wants their teams to be more productive…

Granted, it takes real nerve… It takes real nerve to do the right thing when your delivery date’s looming and you’re behind on your plan. Here are four things you should really probably avoid when the schedule’s slipping: 1. Hire more developers It’s been over 48 years since the publication of Fred L. Brooks’…

What could we do to get us back on track? A recent tweet about things teams do when the schedule is slipping that can actually make things worse seems to have resonated with a lot of people.

Who’s with me? Are you a software developer? A real one, who does actual programming and technical architecture and builds automation and testing and stuff? Have you — in some language(s) on some platform(s) — created valuable working software for a real customer in the real world by yourself? …

How about “software development”? There’s a growing consensus among people who’ve been involved with Agile Software Development since the early days that something is rotten in the state of Agile. Having slowly backed out of the Agile movement over the last decade or more, I approach the movement as a…

Just time for a few thoughts on software development’s grand follies. Just time for a few thoughts on software development’s grand follies — things many teams chase that tend to make things worse. Scale — on and on and on we go about scaling up or scaling out our software…