Programmer by trade (primarily backend), Instigator by nature. Learn more from my bio and by following the links in the nav menu.
The views expressed here are solely my own, and not those of my present, past, or future employers.
Latest posts
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- 23 Oct 2023 » Business as Usual: the Normalization of Deviance, Groupthink, and the Arms Race
Accepting unnecessary complexity, risk, waste, and suffering as part of Business as Usual produces cultural failures that have actually taken lives. It also encourages an Arms Race mindset that makes problems worse.
- 16 Oct 2023 » Why Software Quality Is Often Unappreciated and Sacrificed
We need to understand, if software quality is so important, why it's so often unappreciated and sacrificed. The next few posts will examine several psychological and cultural factors that are detrimental to software quality.
- 12 Oct 2023 » What Software Quality Is and Why It Matters
To advocate effectively for an investment in software quality, we need to define clearly what it is and why it's so important. We'll consider the economic and social impacts of both internal and external quality.
- 18 Sep 2023 » Vital Signs Reveal the Matrix
Vital Signs are a collection of signals designed by a team to monitor project and process health and to resolve problems quickly. This is as opposed to so-called, performative "data-driven decision making."
- 13 Sep 2023 » The Inverted Test Pyramid
Many projects have too many large, slow, flaky tests and few smaller ones. Retrying failed tests and marking known failures introduce risk and waste. Examining the root causes is essential to breaking the cycle.