Everything. Testing is everything. If you aren’t testing then you aren’t shipping. Consider that the next time you are trying to squeeze your QA team down from four months to three months to two weeks in the hope that “everything works”. Hint: It won’t, but that’s why we test.
I’m a big fan of doing demos on the fly. Fire up the compiler, and show people what you’ve done. They are meant to be exciting, exhilarating and the best forum in the world to get feedback on how you are doing. Whether you plan it or not, you should always show up ready to go. If you aren’t ready to go, push it off, an hour, a day (no more than a day) but…
Whenever I’m stuck on a piece of code I can’t get past or take a look at that one user story no one wants to work on or look at the daunting amount of email I have in my inbox I always ask myself that same question… Can you Lead the Army of One? This question takes on greater meaning when working with new developers that want to take on leadership roles (whether with people,…
When you own something you treat it very differently than if you were simply running it. Owning it means you are responsible for it, you have a vested interest in it, you want to see it succeed and become something greater. Running it is making it gets from point A to B as quickly as possible. We make Owning it sound like a bad thing because then we are responsible and accountable for the outcome…
This is the general response when something isn’t going well, we blurt it out in a moment of frustration as we throw our hands up in the air. There is another response though, one that doesn’t get used often enough. Here, let me show you. We don’t say offer that enough, because it takes more time and energy.