The following is my response to Ewan Valentine’s blog post “How to never complete anything” that I discovered on Hacker News. Once again, I ask for people’s indulgence for posting a reply on my own blog rather than in the Hacker News comments. I find writing on my own blog a bit easier than wading into the surf that is the sea of many perspectives.
The relationship between determining technical feasibility and productivity
This is an answer to a question asked by Ashvini Chaudhari in the “Agile and Lean Software Development” LinkedIn group:
Read More »Dear All , I m pursuing my PhD in Agile Software Engineering. I have a question regarding spike solution ” If we add spike in project development will it have effect on team velocity? and if yes what could be the parameters ? All the responses will be consider as a general opinion in my PhD thesis.
I pity Tim Cook
It’s clear the Job’s deathbed playbook has long since been used up. The Apple devices are getting worse and worse year over year, but Tim Cook has managed to drive shareholder value despite that. Apple is the most valuable company in the world – no one can take that away from Tim Cook; but Apple has fallen from grace, and as captain of the ship Tim Cook bears all the blame.
CoffeeScript is my Bullwhip
Define your problem before picking a solution
Our industry revels in coming up with solutions, but is quite poor at defining problems. This has resulted in an vast constellation of technological solutions, but with the majority of investment capital being centered around a small handful of banal consumer problems (Hailing Rides, Shopping Convenience, Entertainment, etc.) If we are to solve problems that are worth solving, we’re going to need to get better at defining our problems before we pick solutions.
“Artificial Intelligence” is deeply disappointing, and so are we
The term “Artificial Intelligence” transitioned from Science Fiction to Product Marketing with very little time in-between to consider what exactly qualifies as “AI”. While tackling this definition has been done ad nauseam for hundreds of years, I believe that the modern definition of “AI” and those from Science Fiction are worlds apart. This is my attempt to bridge that gap.
My brief definition of Microservices
James Lewis and Martin Fowler have an excellent description of Microservices that I encourage anyone and everyone to read. Unfortunately, not everyone has the patience to read what amounts to an academic paper, so I will do my best to write something shorter, more approachable, and perhaps less intimidating.
Why management will not change their open office layouts
The first study of how open offices affect communication has been conducted, and the results should not be that surprising. Open offices negatively impact productivity, and we’ve known that for a very long time.
My response to “As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?”
This is my response to a question posted on HackerNews.
How important is code quality vs. getting things done?
Anyone who lacks the knowledge of how to build quality software, as well as the wisdom to know when code is good enough to ship, does not have the experiential background to have a valuable opinion on the code quality vs. getting things done debate.
Are we working or playing?
Recently I’ve been talking to companies that want me to improve staff productivity. The opening conversation tends to be about the same: they pitch me on their company and what a “great place to work” it is. They brag about how smart the people are, how much fun everyone has, and how it’s more like a family that a bunch of co-workers. They describe all the perks like massages, video games, beer-on-tap, coffee bars, and how much everyone loves them. “Sounds like you have it all together,” I say after hearing all of this. “Well,” they reply, “I just wish we could get a bit more out of them.”