Testing software isn't a new subject by any means, but that also doesn't mean it's well understood or easy to approach. If you're starting a new project you have the benefit of only needing to test what you create, but if you have an established, leg...

There are so many things that happen every day within a team and organization. Even companies that seem to move at a glacial pace have lots of moments that avail themselves to the opportunistic consultant seeking change. If you’ve been in any larger...

A core competency for leaders is delegation. While there are plenty of great resources available on the art of delegation, I will share how I typically handle this competency for myself and the leaders I coach. Before we begin, let me quickly make su...

Last week, during stand up a manager that I've been working with said, out of the blue, that several work items now have a deadline of the next Wednesday. My ears perked up. After the stand up was over I asked if I could come back to the deadline, an...

Lets go over some basics when working with software freelancers, contractors, and agencies. If you're not new to software or these kinds of groups, this is probably going to be pretty pointless. The Portfolio When you're shopping around you'll likely...

I often talk about the idea of planning horizons, especially regarding product milestones and architecture. It'd be helpful for me to provide a short example of what I would typically do for a client or group. The Approach The way I approach the prod...

I often wind up with clients who are so fixated on keeping their teams working that they don’t have a clear strategy or vision that they can communicate. They lose themselves in the world of finding more work for the teams to consume. For the few tha...

There is so much heartburn when picking and implementing some metrics. So in this article, I want to give a pretty quick overview of my approach and some ideas to start with. But before I get too far into it, I want to start with a message: No metric...

If I were to ever write an article that would prompt an argument online, this is the one. There is so much noise and hand-wringing about the one true agile framework that it is impossible to make sense of things. Sadly that puts our community in a po...

There is always one meeting that your group has that never seems to go well. For a lot of groups their planning meetings fit this description. After so many poor planning meetings, the group decides they are taking too long, they try to shorten it in...