Product Management
Scrum is a Crutch
If you've ever broken an ankle, gone through a procedure that immobilized part of your leg, or done anything else that required you to use crutches, you were probably very thank...
Do you need product managers at your software company?
I've written before about how various commercialized forms of "Agile" development completely stripped the original agile manifesto of everything it was supposed to be. A group o...
The Software Maintenance Quotient
Everyone loves the delivery of new software features. Users appreciate the added value. Developers thrive on building new things. Companies want to strengthen market position, e...
Collaborative Software Development Estimates
Software development estimates are often a major point of contention and misunderstanding. These problems are almost always rooted in participants having different language, exp...
Doing root cause analysis the right way
The concept of 5 whys is frequently trotted out as a formula for root cause analysis. Its proponents claim, "Just ask 'why' 5 times, and you will fully understand the root cause...
Reviewing the Agile Manifesto
I love the Agile Manifesto. Go ahead and visit agilemanifesto.org, bask in its turn-of-the-millenium aesthetic, and read it again. (If you are involved in software development, ...
We're all in this together: shared responsibility and incentive alignment in software development
At any business where software is built, strategic decision-makers need to have a basic competence with technology and understand the principles of software development. This kn...
"Be stubborn on vision, but flexible on details" - attitudes towards innovation and failure at Amazon
During a shareholder meeting in 2011, Jeff Bezos was asked a question: "If it's still Amazon's philosophy to make bold bets, I would expect that maybe some of them wouldn't work...
The art of scoping an MVP
The concept of a Minimum Viable Product has been popularized to the point that the phrase is used without even thinking about it. Perhaps you even hear and use it so often that ...