Category Archives: spike and stabilize

If you can’t write tests first, at least write tests second

Posted on April 24, 2013 by

I had a very interesting discussion at GOTO Chicago with the awesome Corey Haines, software journeyman and founder of the Code Retreat movement. We were talking about the “Spike and Stabilize” pattern, and whether it was a good idea to … Continue reading →

Posted in spike and stabilize | 4 Comments

Beyond Test Driven Development

Posted on June 24, 2012 by

Clarification: this isn’t a post about BDD vs. TDD, it’s a post about Spike and Stabilize. Tagging those now. For love of TDD Dan North and I have been talking about some different ways of writing software that matters. We’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in spike and stabilize, uncertainty | 27 Comments

The Real Cost of Change

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

We have a strange desire for control. I was in a planning meeting with my project manager and several of the devs. “What happened?” the project manager said. “Why did this one story take so long?” “There was some functionality … Continue reading →

Posted in breaking models, cynefin, learning, spike and stabilize, testing, uncertainty | 13 Comments