IT and software projects regularly under-deliver because, despite best efforts, the nature of the change is often unexpected. Consider this scenario: A business decides they need better insights into customer behaviour The current CRM is identified as the bottleneck for extracting reliable insights A decision is taken to implement a…

Under the laws of our universe, gravity is inviolable — except when it isn’t. Gravity works differently at different scales and we still don’t have an explanation for everything we see. Because in fact there are no rules. Humans just make up rules to explain what we experience. These blind…

Having devoured the Unicorn Project first, I took my time and savoured the Phoenix Project. There is so much clever detail hidden in the conversations between particularly Bill and Patty. It pays dividends to analyse it closely. What it shows us clearly is how is easy to get overwhelmed by…

If we acknowledge that we live in a software engineering world where complexity is inevitable, you may ask, what’s the point in trying to change anything about how we work? Additionally, with so many clamouring voices around us trying to make us see sense, how can we go from day…

This has been a tough week for many in tech. Mass layoffs announced by Google, Facebook and Microsoft total over 30,000. Many commentators seem to think that Elon Musk’s approach to his takeover has given carte blanche to tech leaders to swing the axe with the year-end review process. Also…

Developer experience, developer happiness, developer productivity. Three terms that treat symptoms, not causes. Why? Developer experience — how a developer feels when they get to work, what slows them down, and what needs to get out of the way. Developer happiness — happy coders are productive coders. Developer productivity —…