Articles for category: Delivery

May 30, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Pilot Problem

The problem with every pilot is always the date. Always has been, always will be, primarily because when we agree on a pilot we are doing it off of what we know at a certain point in time before the pilot begins. We think we know what we are going to build and be able to get done. By that date. As you approach the pilot, you realize you might not get there – either the delivery was too ambitious, the workload grew, problems arose, people and teams changed, whatever the reason – you’re not going to hit the date.

May 28, 2021

Greg Thomas

Missing that Remote Commute?

So am I. There are days I miss being stuck in traffic and listening to radio banter or my favourite podcast or simply going into auto-pilot as I make my way into the office. I’ve always enjoyed being remote with a sprinkling of on-site days to revitalize and refresh the memory – “Oh, that’s why we’re doing this.” This is a great convo on Remotely Prepared we’re having on that old commute. https://www.upsidedownoffice.com/podcast/the-remote-commute

May 25, 2021

Greg Thomas

What’s your Capacity?

In agile, there is a concept called “Capacity”, drilled down further to be in a per sprint cycle – “Sprint Capacity”. A sprint is a block of time in which you set out to accomplish a particular task, generally 2 – 3 weeks, capacity is the allocation you have to complete a certain amount of work in that time period. A typical developer, dedicated to one sprint (let’s say it is 2 weeks) might be 5 – 6 hours a day (giving leeway for some non-sprint meetings, bathroom breaks, and other things). From here you are looking at approximately 50

May 22, 2021

Greg Thomas

That Pile of Work

Having a pile of work, coupled with a fully booked calendar is enough to make you start hyperventilating. After all, you have deliverables that need to be done, and discussions that need to be had. The two are not mutually exclusive, both need to get done. The tendency is push one of the two off. “I need to work, these meetings can wait a week” And then those meetings turn into more work, fires, and emergencies because we pushed them off. We can delegate the work to others which would help get it done. Maybe we’ll have to review their

May 17, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Merge

Not the company merge, but the CODE merge. Minor CODE merges aren’t a problem, but the big ones, the ones we have drifted so far apart on for too long, that we have been afraid to merge back in because “it’s not going to be run anytime soon” – those merges, those are the ones that strike fear into a developer’s heart. The first question a developer will ask is – “how long”? And if the answer isn’t “not long”, minds start racing with impacts and outcomes as to what might happen and ways to mitigate what will invariably happen.

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