Mike Veerman @MikeVeerman@mastodon.technology
Software Strategist. Semi-serious. Fascinated by the web. Writes stuff. Sign up for my Software Strategy mailing list at http://mikeveerman.be/list
Joined Apr 2017
A ticket goes from To Do to Done and can never move back. With all our talks of “Lean” and “agility”, our progress model seems to resemble … a waterfall.
It's never that simple.
https://mikeveerman.be/2019/12/30/your-kanban-board-is-a-waterfall/
Caring deeply about your end-users > knowing what each letter in SOLID stands for.
It's not a trivia quiz.
If you're an experienced developer, don't claim coding is easy.
It's demotivating for those that are struggling to learn.
The amount of things you need to know. The abstract concepts you need to understand. It's a lot.
Impossible to learn? No.
Easy? Absolutely not.
Software developers: "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do the thing I'm passionate about!"
Also software developers: "uuuugh.... Another meeting!"
Q: What's the answer to life, the universe and everything?
Agile coaches: it depends...
I'm a big fan of small teams. What they lose in sheer horse-power, they make up in efficiency.
But a question the small-team proponents like myself have to answer is: when is a team too small?
Most new year's resolutions are masked self-criticism.
"I'm ashamed I didn't read a single book this year, but I vow to better myself in 2020."
Try taking something you did well in 2019 and vow to do more of that in 2020. It's easier and more efficient.
You're good enough.
Most techies seem to want to insulate themselves from them, but office politics are not optional.
https://mikeveerman.be/2019/12/18/office-politics-for-techies/
Bringing a bit of peace and stability to a hectic environment is a valuable professional skill.
People want to hire those that can calm the chaos.
Legacy code is not bad code. It's a product a company stopped caring about. It's not maintained.
It's leaving a car out on the street unattended for 5 years and then complaining about the engine noise.
There is a spectrum between Vision and Implementation.
On the one hand there's the wishy-washy guru that's all talking, no action.
On the other hand there's the dev that's all about ambitionless pragmatism.
Find your place in the gray zone in-between.
The idea that one team can build a product and then hand it over to another is ludicrous.
It's like training hard the entire season and then letting another, unprepared team play the world cup.
You build it, you run it.
Software components are never fully autonomous systems. They are run by people.
Maintenance mode is a fallacy.
Churning out feature ideas without a strategy is a surefire way to tank a product.
You need a written and shared strategic plan.
Developers should learn how to negotiate scope. It's a crucial skill if you want to build great products.
"I have an idea for a diabetes treatment. I just need a few doctors to build it."
Sounds dumb, right?
You can't be the manager and the idea person at the same time. Either you build products or you create an environment where others can.
Software developers love helping people. Their instinct is to build that hotly anticipated feature as fast as possible. So how can you be pragmatic about being pragmatic?
https://www.mikeveerman.be/2019/11/29/pragmatic-software-development/
Your remote meetings are bad because your meetings are bad.
Software Strategist. Semi-serious. Fascinated by the web. Writes stuff. Sign up for my Software Strategy mailing list at http://mikeveerman.be/list
Joined Apr 2017
