Whipping the WIP
Tom Breur12 February 2017“Don’t just stand there – do something!” Some agile notions are plain counterintuitive. Like: “Efficient systems require people to be idle on a regular basis”, “slackis...
View ArticleTest Automation
Tom Breur26 February 2017Test automation is a two-edged sword. On the face of it, it makes perfect sense. And oftentimes it does. As you strive to deliver features early, they always and consistently...
View ArticleGroup processes in software estimation
Tom Breur12 March 2017Agile practitioners resent BDUF: Big Design Up Front. The effort of estimation itself is considered waste, and moreover: this effort gets squarely in the way of actually...
View ArticleHow modern is “Modern Agile”?
Tom Breur26 March 2017 Every so often, new “flavors” of Agile see the light. I will readily admit my bias: I don’t feel much has changed since 2001. That being said, I do see new angles into this...
View ArticleBut we don’t have time!
Tom Breur9 April 2017Quality code is something everyone who has been a developer can appreciate. It just looks better! But more importantly, good and readable code dramatically reduces the time and...
View ArticleSafety first!
Tom Breur23 April 2017“Safety first!” Hardly a day goes by that I don’t imprint this wisdom into my three year old son. Whether it is in traffic, on a climbing frame, or when he tries to “help” me in...
View ArticleDealing with technical debt, one line of code at a time
Tom Breur7 May 2017Technical debt is a tricky phenomenon, and often poorly understood. To begin with, many cases of “technical debt” imho are really showcases of sloppy engineering. A more politically...
View ArticleAgile & Setting Priorities
Tom Breur21 May 2017When everything’s a priority, then nothing is. Abundant research has shown that multi-taskingkills productivity. When you try to spread your attention across too many projects, this...
View ArticleSoftware complexity
Tom Breur4 June 2017In software development, we distinguish between inherent (or intrinsic) and accidental complexity. Although he probably didn’t “invent” this distinction, many people point to the...
View ArticleHow do you “sell” agile?
Tom Breur18 June 2017Adopting Agile requires change. Change is not necessarily hard, but it certainly becomes easier when you show how people’s best interests are served. For me, I try to come up with...
View ArticleCost of Delay
Tom Breur2 July 2017Intuitively, anybody can appreciate that getting products out sooner, rather than later is more valuable. “Cost of delay” seems to mean wildly different things to different people....
View ArticleAgile Workspaces
Tom Breur16 July 2017Agile workspaces and open office plans seem to coincide a lot. In fact, so much so, that they are often equated. I used to work for a company where they denoted Agile working...
View ArticleWho Owns the Definition of Done (DoD)?
Tom Breur30 July 2017In Scrumthere is a central role for the “Definition of Done” (DoD) – in itself a nebulous concept. Software is never really “done”, until you stop working on it. And that of course...
View ArticleWalking away from technical debt
Tom Breur13 August 2017Technical debt is a tricky phenomenon, and often poorly understood. To begin with, many cases of “technical debt” imho are really showcases of sloppy engineering. A more...
View ArticleDoes Pair Programming “Work”?
Tom Breur27 August 2017Pair programming is a core practice in XP, one of the (very) early Agile methods. As legend has it, the fundamentals of XP were conceived in the mid-nineties, when Kent Beck was...
View ArticleThe Efficiency Fallacy
Tom Breur10 September 2017The notion of “efficiency” is deeply rooted in the industrial age paradigm, and there are few things that destroy value as quickly and effectively as the belief that higher...
View ArticleMaximizing the Work NOT Done
Tom Breur24 September 2017The “art” of Agile is maximizing the work not done. Despite fantasies that many managers seem to hold, transitioning to a more “agile” mode of operating will not suddenly...
View ArticleSolving problems backwards
Tom Breur8 October 2017Writing software is hard enough, as it is. Attempting to solve particularly difficult problems can be downright vexing. “Try the simplest possible solution that might work” is...
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Working on Overdrive?
Tom Breur22 October 2017Working at a “sustainable pace” is one of the cornerstones of Agile, and one of the principlesof the Agile Manifesto states:“Agile processes promote sustainable development. The...
View ArticleCost and Profit Centers
Tom Breur9 December 2017Yesterday, my laptop had to go in for repair in the office, and they gave me a loaner. Next thing, they find an unexpected hardware defect, the issue turns out to be more severe...
View ArticleWhy is writing software so hard?
Tom Breur24 December 2017“Software is eating the world”, people say. If my sources are correct, it was Marc Andreessen who said this first in 2011, and with that statement he directed attention to the...
View ArticleIs DataOps actually a thing?
Tom Breur7 January 2018Lately, my attention has been caught by a new buzzword: “DataOps.” Since I rate several of the people advocating for it, this got me wondering: “DataOps – is that actually a...
View ArticleKill the Zombies!
Tom Breur21 January 2018Zombiesare horror figures that are neither dead nor alive. “Zombie projects” are those that are not valuable enough to merit assigning sufficient resources to, but then are...
View ArticleWhen do you cut your losses?
Tom Breur20 May 2018Business and IT never looked like a marriage made in heaven to me. Whether that is because DBA’s and MBA’s don’t mingle, I don’t know. To me it sometimes looks like trying to...
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Moscow – not about POTUS #45, for a change…
Tom Breur14 July 2018Moscow is an acronym from early agile-related practitioners. I heard it being used myself in the late 90’s, in the context of DSDM, originally developed by Dai Clegg. MoSCoWstands...
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