There is something puzzling about software development. It doesn’t work like many tasks, it doesn’t break down the same way. It feels strangely personal, like there’s a connection between the code and the coder, or else it goes brittle. Today I learned a word for this! Ursula Franklin was a physicist, among other things, and … Read moreSoftware development is…
The other day my partner said, “Thank you. You’re the best.” I thought: Yeah, I’m the best for a lot of people these days. My kids, work, you. When do I get to be my best? And then I remembered: people are people through other people. Meaning comes from between us, not within us. Connection … Read moreBeing the Best
For: [Virtual open Space] Systems Thinking and Skillful Interaction 20 September, 2023 Keynote by Jessica Kerr, jessitron.com These are my notes, publishing for people who were there (or anyone who wants to read them) Working Skillfully in Complexity Plan: about half on the technical side of sociotechnical systems, half on social. I can’t define what … Read moreWorking Skillfully in Complexity (for VDDD)
Have you ever been on a really good software team? There’s this feeling of connectedness, of shared purpose. We know what we’re building, and we are skilled at building it together. This kind of team can grow some amazing software. When we work at making our team great like this, we look for new ways … Read moreSoftware development pushes us to get better as people
At my first real job, around the turn of the millenium, software engineers were graded on a bell curve. On a scale of 1 to 5, most people should get 3s, with a lower number of 4s and 2s and a much lower number of 1s and 5s. The bell curve, also called the normal … Read moreSymmathesies follow a power law, not a bell curve
TL;DR: Projects ask teams do what is asked of them; Products ask teams to invent their work. This requires a different way of seeing the world, and not everyone can do it yet. Software is not an up-front investment that pays off over its use. Software is an ongoing concern, an intricate piece of a … Read moreProject to Product asks more of our software, and more of us
Here’s my keynote for 2021, a sequel to Camerata. Follow this link to the video, abstract, and references over at: systemsthinking.dev.
No one wants to review pull requests. This is a sign of a deeper problem than “people aren’t following the process”
Why dig into problems that you could work around? Three reasons: one about my work, one about the team, and one about me.
Say you’re aiming for outcome-based product teams that write and operate software. Maybe you hire for roles in these teams like Software Developer, Product Owner, Designer, Tester. How do you define each role? We usually ask, what does each person do? A typical job description includes: what does the person do? What are they responsible … Read moreDefine roles by what each person increasingly knows