Reading List: Process

These resources helped shape my thinking on the software development process. I prefer developer driven, true agile (opposed to waterfall in scrum clothes) projects that are shipped early and often. Feedback is gathered quickly and the customer gets a larger say in the process.

Books #

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business

Blog Posts #

Agile Manifesto
- If you have to have some sort of process (Yes, development can work without process) then this is it. It’s undefined, figure out what works for the team.
Beware SAFe (the Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprise), an Unholy Incarnation of Darkness
- SAFe is the worst process ever. It’s waterfall except you’re supposed to pretend it’s agile.
Design by Committee
FrequencyReducesDifficulty
- Why should you deploy often? The same reason you go to the gym often!
Classic Mistakes: Steve McConnell
Don’t (guess)timate your projects, forecast with confidence

Videos #

Agile #

A Retake on the Agile Manifesto
- Martin Fowler has a great take on the abbreviation S.A.F.E. in this video. It’s a terrible project management system to work under.
The death of Agile – Allen Holub

Estimation #

I do not believe that estimation is a requirement in the development world. I have no problem with t-shirt sizing (dev days, dev weeks, dev months, etc) but even then I’ve had leadership “hold developers accountable” to the rough estimate. It causes more problems than it’s worth, corners are cut, teams get stressed and burnout, technical debt isn’t paid off, etc.