The SDLC Story
The SDLC process should offer reassuring guardrails, not roadblocks
Productivity
Paper Notes Are Better
I have written quite a few posts on note-taking over the last year or so. Physical paper, and especially blank pages, has also been a topic that has shown up with some frequency. Let’s explore these a bit more in this post. The Blank Page In A Blank Page, I delved into why sometimes a … Read more
Just One More Thing
It is difficult to balance being agile and not allowing scope-creep. Obviously, in an agile shop, we want to be agile with requirements. We get something in front of customers quickly. We react to what the customers say once they see the product in action. This means we reprioritize tickets, create new tickets, and otherwise … Read more
Note Taking for Devs
I like to attend conferences. At these conferences, I also find it interesting to observe how people take notes. No Notes You of course will find the people that do not take any notes at all. Some of these are those incredibly smart folks that seem to be able to just remember everything. Some are … Read more
A Blank Page
The creativity a blank page allows is very exciting. Some will look at it as a start to a great novel. Some will see a great painting. Others may see the notes needed for the next test. Reference material. Children’s art. The possibilities are endless. Paper We write things down. We print them out. Characters … Read more
Taking Breaks
This is expounding a bit more on last week’s Hammock Driven Development post. This one will deal more with taking longer breaks (vacation or holiday). I typically don’t take many breaks. When I do, it is rarely actually for vacation purposes. It is usually in order to get more time at home, to work on … Read more
Hammock Driven Development
I first heard this term from Michael Carducci at one of the No Fluff Just Stuff conferences. At least in this case, it is a way of saying: take a step back, relax, and think about this from another perspective. Relax It is amazing how much you can actually do when you are not stressing … Read more
The Dysfunctional Team
Do you know the dysfunctional team? The team where nobody knows what the “business” wants. Communication Even though the team spends the majority of their time talking to each other, they don’t actually communicate. The Product Owner does not seem able to relay useful or timely information. The devs only talk to QA to say … Read more
Productivity Tools
These are some of the tools that I use and have found indispensable in my personal productivity. Todoist For a TODO list, I use Todoist. I like this app because it is so easy to add recurring tasks. You can use plain English to schedule your tasks, for example “Take out the trash everyday”. It … Read more
Views of Work
There are many ways to view work. When you were growing up the adults probably told you to find a job doing something you enjoy. Then you had to pay bills, and get a “real” job. Or were these two the same thing? Break From Home For some people, mostly parents, work is really a … Read more