Category Archives: spike and stabilize

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

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

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 | 41 Comments

The Real Cost of Change

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 | 14 Comments