Published in CodeX·Nov 10, 2021Anatomy of a Software TeamThe building block of an effective software product organisation is the self organising cross functional team. Variously known as a stream-aligned team, an autonomous team, a two pizza team or a feature team. A team that is entrusted by the business with the responsibility and authority to continuously deliver value…Technology10 min read
Published in Geek Culture·Jul 13, 2021The Mixed up Messiness of it AllIn my career in software development, I have witnessed a scourge of the industry. It blights progress and causes endless frustration. Much effort is spent to alleviate it. Practices such as clean code and continuous refactoring. Or following the mantra of high cohesion and low coupling. The cause of this…Software Development14 min read
Published in CodeX·Mar 2, 2021The Beauty in Software Craft“in all things that live there are certain, irregularities and deficiencies which are not only signs of life, but sources of beauty.” John Ruskin It is 20 years since the Agile manifesto so what has been achieved? There is still a great deal of frustration and polarisation. Every few years…Software Development11 min read
Jan 19, 2021Why Agility embraces not changing as much as change“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.” Alfred North Whitehead We live in the digital era. We are interconnected like never before. We are constantly deciding what to process amongst an overwhelming amount of data about almost anything. …Software Development8 min read
Sep 21, 2020Lean Behind a Green MachineIt was April 1968. A cold and grey day at an F2 race in Hockenheim Germany. The crowd had been stunned into silence by the announcement that there had been a fatal accident. The driver involved had defined motor racing for a generation – that man was Jim Clark. Clark…Agile10 min read
Aug 24, 2020The Man Who Turned Efficiency up to Eleven and LostWhen was the last time you thought about efficiency? Probably more recently than you think. You might not realise it but we optimise all the time. Whether it is putting on a jumper, putting your phone in power save mode, taking that shortcut on the way home from work or…Lean7 min read
Aug 7, 2020A Dance with TechnologyIn the film the Birds, Alfred Hitchcock speculated what if our aviarian friends who completely outnumber us were to decide to cooperate en masse. Then they most certainly could annihilate us and take over the world. But nowadays all the birds and the bees pale into insignificance compared to the…Technology7 min read
Published in The Startup·Jul 25, 2020Was Adam Smith an Agilist?You mean the father of economics and capitalism? That’s him. Perhaps you answer the question with “nope, he was an economist”. Or maybe “don’t be silly, he’s been dead for literally hundreds of years”. So how much can we really learn from a 300 year old economist? …Technology7 min read
Published in The Startup·Jul 5, 2020The Second Great Working From Home Experiment, but What Happened to the First?“The real trick in highly reliable systems is somehow to achieve simultaneous centralization and decentralization” Karl E. Weick One of the many consequences of Covid-19 has been the great working from home experiment. Life is suddenly full of Zoom calls, with the now familiar grid of heads, and the cameo…Leadership11 min read
Jun 28, 2020Why We Fascinate and Focus on Total Efficiency“The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency” Aldous Huxley This is a series of articles on the challenges facing modern businesses. It is told by drawing metaphors from the history of entropy. What’s the motivation? Partly to…Technology10 min read
