The strongest articles on engineering excellence and technical leadership — ranked by substance, not recency. How this is ranked
Engineering as a Leadership System: Moving Beyond Frameworks
Delivery outcomes are shaped less by frameworks and practices than by the operating model leaders have designed. How an organisation's …
Why Most Companies Operating Models Fail in Dynamic Markets
A concise comparison of Predictive and Adaptive Operating Models, explaining why traditional structures fail in dynamic markets and how …
Telling People What to Do Is Not Leadership. It’s a Failure of System Design
Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability, rather than relying on …
AI Agents Lie About Being Done
My agent reported every task complete when half the tests were missing. Call that a lie if you like. The engineering problem is that the …
Don’t Manage Dependencies, Remove Them
Explains why dependencies are a sign of poor system design and outlines steps to eliminate them by aligning teams, clarifying ownership, and …
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
Is Agile Really Just a Mindset?
Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …
889 resources, newest first
AI Agents Lie About Being Done
My agent reported every task complete when half the tests were missing. Call that a lie if you like. The engineering problem is that the …
Who Owns the Code?
AI-generated code and copyright. Why "who typed it" is the wrong test, where the real legal uncertainty sits for agentic development, and …
How My Father's Business Reverted to the Mean
My father died eight years ago today. In 1980 a leadership team's golf retreat left him holding a ten-year lease on a Glasgow shopfront, so …
Engineering as a Leadership System: Moving Beyond Frameworks
Delivery outcomes are shaped less by frameworks and practices than by the operating model leaders have designed. How an organisation's …
Why Most Companies Operating Models Fail in Dynamic Markets
A concise comparison of Predictive and Adaptive Operating Models, explaining why traditional structures fail in dynamic markets and how …
Don’t Manage Dependencies, Remove Them
Explains why dependencies are a sign of poor system design and outlines steps to eliminate them by aligning teams, clarifying ownership, and …
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
Flow of Value vs Flow of Work – Misnomer or Useful Shorthand?
Compares “flow of value” and “flow of work” in Kanban, explaining why only validated outcomes count as value and stressing the need for …
Estimating Better in an Overloaded System Is a Poor Man’s Strategy
High work in progress (WIP) causes delays and unpredictability; improving estimates won’t help. Limiting WIP and focusing on flow is key to …
Are We Still Pretending Coding Was the Bottleneck?
AI exposes that coding was never the main bottleneck in software delivery; real constraints are in system flow, team practices, and …
Should You Use One Project to Rule Them All in Azure DevOps?
Explores when to use a single Azure DevOps project versus multiple projects, detailing impacts on flow, visibility, governance, and team …
Getting Started with Objectives & Key Results
Learn how to successfully implement OKRs by aligning clear strategy, fostering transparency, empowering teams, focusing on outcomes, and …
Is Agile Really Just a Mindset?
Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset …
Telling People What to Do Is Not Leadership. It’s a Failure of System Design
Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability, rather than relying on …
The Definition of Done is a Commitment to Quality
Defines the Definition of Done in Scrum as a clear, shared standard for quality, ensuring increments are releasable, transparent, and …
Rethinking Capacity Planning
Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …
Why Topic Branches Drive High-Quality Delivery
Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
Human and AI Agency in Adaptive Systems: Strategy Before Optimisation
Explores the distinct roles of human and AI agency in adaptive systems, emphasising human-led strategy and accountability versus AI-driven …
Stop Writing Business Logic in Stored Procedures
Explains why business logic should not be written in stored procedures, highlighting testability, maintainability, scalability, and …
How Lack of Agency is Killing Your DevOps Initiatives
Explores how lacking developer control over production, telemetry, and deployments undermines DevOps, leading to fragile automation and …
Resilience is Part of the Product, Not an Afterthought
Resilience must be designed into products from the start, not added later. Build systems to detect, contain, and recover from failures, …
The Missing Lever in Agile Transformations
Most agile transformations fail by neglecting agency, empowering people and systems to adapt, making true agility possible through autonomy, …
How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …
Robots and AI Are Not Taking Our Jobs They Are Giving Us Our Dignity Back
Explores how robots and AI automate repetitive work, challenging outdated job structures and enabling humans to focus on creativity, …
Fragile by Design: The Cost of Pretending to Be Resilient
Explores how poor engineering, shallow product thinking, and organisational denial lead to fragile systems, stressing that true resilience …
The Role of Agency in Scrum: Why Self-Management Without Agency is a Lie
Explains why true Scrum requires real team agency, not just self-management in name, and how lacking agency leads to ineffective, …
Your Evolving Definition of Done
Explains how the Definition of Done evolves in Scrum, aligning team practices with organisational standards to ensure consistent quality, …
Great Scrum Masters Need Technical, Business, and Organisational Mastery
Scrum Masters are most effective when they combine leadership skills with technical, business, and organisational mastery to support teams, …
Balance of Leadership and Control in Scrum
Explores how Scrum Masters and Product Owners balance leadership, authority, and team autonomy to ensure accountability, effective …
Why Measuring Individual Cycle Time is Killing Your Flow (And What to Do Instead)
Measuring individual cycle time in Kanban misleads teams, hides real bottlenecks, and harms flow. Focus on system-wide metrics like PCE, …
Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and …
There Is No Such Thing as a "Junior" Scrum Master
Argues that the Scrum Master role requires proven mastery and real-world experience, not entry-level skills or certifications, and should be …
Testing in Production Maximises Quality and Value
Explains how audience-based deployment and testing in production enable faster feedback, safer rollouts, and higher software quality by …
Without Delivery, There Is No Value
Value in software is only realised through delivery. Frequent releases validate assumptions, reduce risk, and enable rapid feedback, …
Stop Promoting Branches
Explains why promoting code through multiple branches slows delivery, increases risk, and suggests GitHub Flow or Release Flow as simpler, …
Delivery is the only Measure of Progress in Scrum
Scrum teams must deliver working software to real users every Sprint; true progress is measured by delivery to production, not just by …
The Scrum Master is accountable for Delivery
Explains how the Scrum Master is accountable for enabling effective product delivery, fostering team success, and ensuring each sprint …
Why Handoffs Are Killing Your Agility
Excessive handoffs in software development create delays, reduce quality, and harm team morale. Learn how eliminating handoffs boosts …
Definition of Done - Objective vs Subjective
Explains the difference between subjective goals and the objective Definition of Done in Scrum, highlighting how clear, measurable criteria …
Why Most Scrum Masters Are Failing and What They Should Know
Many Scrum Masters lack core Scrum knowledge and technical skills, leading to poor team support. Learn key competencies needed for …
You can't stop the signal! But you can ignore it!
Explores why teams ignore clear signals from Agile and Scrum, highlighting how culture and fear hinder continuous improvement and effective …
Pragmatism crushes Dogma in the wild
Explores how practical use of Scrum fosters adaptability and resilience in teams, highlighting the value of flexibility over rigid rules in …
Blocked Columns on Kanban Boards Obfuscate Workflow and Undermine Effectiveness
Using Blocked columns on Kanban boards hides workflow issues, causes task stagnation, and reduces transparency. Use tags to indicate …
The Evolution of Agile Learning: Insights from Scrum.org's Webinar
Explores the shift from traditional to immersive Agile learning, highlighting how ongoing, real-world practice and reflection improve …
The 7 Deadly Sins of Agile: A Grecian Odyssey through Modern Software Development
Explores how the seven deadly sins from Greek philosophy mirror common pitfalls in agile software development, offering insights to avoid …
How to Set and Achieve Effective Sprint Goals
Learn how to define, craft, and achieve effective Sprint Goals in Scrum, using frameworks like SMART and OKR to align teams, deliver value, …
The Definition of Done: Ensuring Quality without Compromising Value
Explains how to maintain clear, measurable quality standards with the Definition of Done, while avoiding confusion with acceptance criteria …
Deciphering the Enigma of Story Points Across Teams
Explains why Story Points are subjective and unsuitable for comparing teams, and highlights objective metrics like throughput and value for …
Decoding Scrum Team Work: Balancing Sprint and Refinement Work
Explains how Scrum teams can balance Sprint work and Refinement, with strategies and visual tools to track, manage, and visualise both for …