I'm sure you know how deadlines work: collect the requirements/expectations & grok through them (understand them)estimate the effort needed to deliver the outcome, quantify risks, "guesstimate" unknown unknowns, ...... and "collide" what you've got with current commitments & team availability (to assemble a rough allocation plan)the result will be the estimated date for the moment when feature will be available to the end-users/clientsstrive to make it happenNo-brainer. This mechanism didn't change much since the "waterfall era". Surprisingly (or not ...) deadlines still exist in the "agile world" - just the delivery is sliced into smaller "sprints" & the…
Disclaimer: I'm not a psychotherapist. This whole post is based on my individual observations & experiences - these may apply to you, but also may not. Don't blame me, but if you find these scribblings relevant, toss me a +1. I'm not going to cover the topic of burnout end-to-end here, there's no need as there are already very informative articles to be found on the web, e.g.: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/burnout-prevention-and-recovery.htm My problem with these articles is that they focus on clear symptoms of burnout that's already taking place - which is IMHO a…
"Conversion, software version 7.0 Looking at life through the eyes of a tired hub Eating seeds as a pastime activity The toxicity of our city, our city" "Toxicity" - System Of A DownI've already written a similar post some time ago (you can find it here), but after some consideration I've decided that "assholery" ain't really synonymous to "toxicity". There are some subtle details that may "blend" toxicity so much that it's barely visible, but it still has its destructive impact - it's an effect nearly unthinkable in case of assholery. That's why I've decided to feature a standalone…
There are so many myths about software architecture ... that it's done once and there's no further cost associatedthat if you do it properly, it will serve foreverthat there's "the correct way to do it" & you measure correctness with "software architecture" aestheticsThere's one more I find especially irritating: that architectural change can happen as a side effect (of feature work). That it's "free" - meaning that an architectural improvement is an "upgrade" over the original idea that doesn't require specific skills or additional effort. Ain't no "free-ride"Frankly, all the professional experience has taught me to avoid definitive statements, but…
Quite recently I've shared my personal interpretation of "seniority" in tech (based on the concept of "leverage" - shamelessly stolen from Andy Grove ...). This term ("seniority") is frequently closely associated (as an enabler) to the role of an "architect" - which is another topic I use to share my thoughts about from time to time. So far I've been depicting an architect as: a navigatora technical product ownera person accountable for 1 of 3 pillars in the concept of "triumvirate of power"But there's one more personal lesson about what does it mean to be an architect that I find…
I have an idea that keeps haunting me now and then. To take a break from my current role (a leader of 60+ engineering unit) & go for a temporal (1 month?) contract assignment as an individual contributor - front-line software engineer. What has inspired such an idea? No, it's not about any kind of burn-out. Or because I'm fed up with my current work environment/role - quite the opposite. Have you heard about the idea of management by walking around (MBWA)? It has originated in Toyota's Kaizen culture - when Taiichi Ono has found out that to bring…
I'm not really a Scrum aficionado. Actually I'm pretty far from calling myself that way ;) But I can still remember the moment years ago when I was reading through Scrum Guide & some accompanying materials and I've found out a term that has really caught my attention: "the quality built-in"It may look inconspicuous, but in fact it's a very powerful concept. It can be described with the following statements: once the product has a desired level of quality, the effort to keep it there (at that level) is very low but continuousonce the product's quality has decreased, getting it…
99% of articles on this blog are in English, but this one is explicitly aimed at local, Polish community, so to lower the entry threshold for readers, I've decided to make an exception and use Polish. Sorry for inconvenience. To nie ja wymyśliłem Elixira w Shedulu. Stało sie to rok przed moim przyjściem do firmy, czyli ok. 2.5 roku temu i ojcem pomysłu był Karol - ówczesny CTO, a obecnie Architekt w firmie. Pomysł był zdecydowanie z kategorii tych odważnych - technologia młoda, mało kto o niej słyszał, nie stoi za nią żaden prężny koncern, praktycznie nie ma jej…