Author Archives: robert

At an open space at Agilepalooza today, we were discussing the role of QA in Agile.  The level of interest, as well as the sheer number of QAs attending, was surprising. One frequent theme was that the QA folks have … Continue reading →

Around our office, the product owner and I have started to use the metaphor of “killing zombies” to discuss moving tickets through our issue tracking system.  It makes the discussion a lot more fun, and it turns out to be … Continue reading →

I just finished attending an excellent Certified ScrumMaster training course by Mike Cohn.  I knew most of the material already but it was an excellent refresher course and it was also great to hear Mike’s experience and opinion on several … Continue reading →

I saw an article in the New York Times that the lawyers who provided the legal rationale for waterboarding may be subject to professional discipline, but probably not criminal charges. Without getting into any political issues, or whether these interrogation … Continue reading →

Bob Martin recently ranted YOU, and NO    ONE ELSE, is responsible for your career. Your employer is not responsible for it. You should not depend on your employer to advance your career.  You should not depend on your employer … Continue reading →

Benjamin Nortier at 21st Century Code Works has a great post exploring of the Liskov Substititution Principle in which he tries to determine if Square “is-a” Rectangle. He rightly concludes that a Square is not a Rectangle as far as … Continue reading →

I recently wrote about some reasons that standardizing your development process is a terrible idea.  But I’ll admit there are a few reasons that it might be a great idea instead. Depending on the company you work for, you might … Continue reading →

The Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship has been published.  Go read it and sign it! I’m thrilled to see something like this come out.  I know from my own experience the tendency to just hack it and go on, and then … Continue reading →

Soon after an organization adopts agile software development methods, it seems that mangers inevitably talk about the need to “mature” and “standardize” their process. Here are a few reasons standardizing your agile process is a terrible idea. Continue reading →

I advocate unit testing, and particularly test driven development, for several reasons.  The most obvious is that unit testing helps prevent bugs.  Good unit tests also help you design better – if it’s hard to test your class, you’ll refactor … Continue reading →