What Makes a Good Software Developer?

A lot of people think that the best developer is the brilliant person who can crank out tons of bug free code. That person who can sit by themselves, come up with amazing algorithms and solutions to problems, and then get all that code deployed and working. In a lot of cases this is correct, […]

No One Likes Meetings

Who really likes meetings?  I mean, I’m sure some people do, somewhere.  But it seems like a lot of people don’t. So many don’t, in fact, that Scrum and Sprints are designed to minimize meetings. But let’s look at the Agile Manifesto.  It says, “We favor…” Individuals and interactions Customer collaboration Responding to change In […]

Agile Development and Schedule Estimation

You can have fixed time and variable scope, or variable time and fixed scope, but a product owner can’t pick both. Lately, I’ve heard this quote several times.  At first, it makes sense. A product owner/stakeholder can either tell the team the requirements, and the team can then define the schedule.  Or the product owner […]

Why is Your Org Chart Important?

If you want your company to be agile, then your organizational chart is critically important to your ability to execute. (This is assuming you believe in Boyd’s Law: “Speed of iteration beats quality of iteration”.) But why does the Org Chart matter?  What does that have to do with an organization’s agility? Let’s start with […]

Moving From Tech to Management?

A very common question that I see asked is: Should I make the transition from technical to management? Let’s talk about this.  Why are you even asking the question?  The answer is probably because you’re looking for a raise, or for career growth, and your company/peers/mentors/society is telling you that making this transition is the […]

Are Mission Statements Useful?

I think they are, when used properly. Many companies and organizations have wonderfully generic and blank mission statements.  “We synergize technologies to provide innovative solutions!”  Well, great.  So does everyone else.  But what do YOU do? A useful, good mission statement has to start at the top, and should be the driving strategic goal of […]