Category Archives: Uncategorized

You can be fast, or have control, but must sacrifice one for the other. How much of each you can have depends on your platforms. (*Actual music was the Locomotion. No self-respecting goth would be seen dead dancing to the … Continue reading →

I finally got around to putting a simple version of the Game of Life kata on the web. This is the exercise which we’ll be using to teach BDD at Oopsla. If you’ve never heard of the Game of Life … Continue reading →

Quite often on my current project, I hear conversations like, “That was estimated at three days, and it’s taken five. Why do you think that was?” This is never asked with any sense of blame; rather, it’s a learning experience. … Continue reading →

Dan and I will be running a joint tutorial on BDD at Oopsla. Participants will get the chance to create executable stories and scenarios from predefined story cards and follow their implementation through to a unit level understand the role … Continue reading →

How people August’s workload looks easy. This isn’t a good sign. Either you haven’t got enough work scheduled to keep people happy, or reality is about to make its presence felt. On the bright side, a new coffee shop has … Continue reading →

Next time you hear someone compare software engineering to building a house, point them at this: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/snefrubentp.htm “The Bent Pyramid, though largely intact, owes its preservation to the builder’s realization of their errors soon enough to make changes to their … Continue reading →

How people Just when you thought you had a handle on how things worked, someone changed it again. Even coffee tastes of the ashes of your defeat. Keep smiling; it’s nothing that can’t be solved with some fava beans and … Continue reading →

A great article about Agile adoption at Farm Credit Services of America, and why the people who still don’t do Agile don’t do Agile. http://www.cio.com/article/109751 Here’s the bit I really like: The Standish Group, which famously compiles its Chaos data … Continue reading →

A new word for me, as in: “I reckon you can spend three weeks failing to fix that.” “Yeah, it’s a bit of a Heisenbug.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual_software_bug

How people A bon-mot from a stranger indicates that May will be full of irony. Striving for perfection will bring you into conflict with those who want it now, dammit! This month someone with dark hair will annoy you; a … Continue reading →