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 …
The AI Decided Is Not an Explanation
When an AI says it got bored or we say it lied, we give a machine feelings and intentions. The false output needs an explanation, not an …
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 …
890 resources, newest first
Investigation - SEO permanent redirects for old URL’s?
Explains how to implement SEO-friendly permanent 301 redirects for old URLs to preserve search rankings, comparing IIS tools and custom …
Create a VHD from the Windows Server 2008 R2 Image disk
Step-by-step guide to create a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) from a Windows Server 2008 R2 image using Windows AIK and WIM2VHD, including common …
Outlook 2010 Beta 2 and Add-Ins: Dynamics CRM, Team Companion, LinkedIn and Plaxo
Covers compatibility and usability of Dynamics CRM, Team Companion, LinkedIn, and Plaxo add-ins in Outlook 2010 Beta 2, including 32-bit and …
Create a VHD from the Windows 7 Image disk
Step-by-step guide to converting a Windows 7 .wim image to a VHD, including extraction, merging, deployment with imageX, and configuring …
Internet connection speed, WOW
A personal account of UK cable internet speed improvements, comparing dial-up, ADSL, and Virgin Media, with real-world download rates and …
Installing Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server SP1
Step-by-step guide to installing Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server SP1, including backup, testing, troubleshooting, and rollback …
Dyslexia Awareness Week
Highlights the unique strengths dyslexic individuals bring to programming, such as 3D visualisation, creative problem-solving, and intuitive …
Deploying Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Beta 2 - Done
Covers the step-by-step process and team effort involved in migrating from TFS 2008 to Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Beta 2, …
A change for the better #2 - Aggreko to SSW
Describes a career move from Aggreko to SSW, focusing on software architecture, ALM, TFS migrations, and applying productivity rules in team …
Configuring Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server on Vista in 12 minutes
Step-by-step guide to configuring Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server on Windows Vista, including setup options, compatibility notes, …
Installing Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server on Windows Vista in 3 minutes
Step-by-step guide to quickly installing Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server on Windows Vista, including setup options and …
Interview with Scottish Developers
A personal interview featured in the Scottish Developers newsletter, discussing experiences and insights from a developer’s perspective …
Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available Now!
Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 introduces new editions, simplified licensing, and enhanced ALM, testing, and lab management features. Now …
Wpf Ninject Dojo: The Data Provider
Explains how to use a custom NinjectDataProvider in WPF to enable dependency injection for ViewModels, improving flexibility and design-time …
Second blogger from my office
A colleague has started blogging, sharing a useful SQL Server function to add working days to a date, helpful for support analysts and …
Silverlight 3
Overview of Silverlight 3 features, improvements, and its use for .NET and WPF developers, with insights from a detailed programmer’s …
Updating the Command Line Parser
Explains how to enhance a .NET command line parser to support multiple and nested commands, custom switches, and delegate-based execution …
Wpf Drag & Drop behaviour
Explains how to implement flexible drag and drop in WPF using MVVM, with customisable drop behaviour and bindable options for ItemsControls, …
The long wait is over
Windows 7 is now available to developers and beta testers, offering improved stability, speed, and features over Vista, with general release …
Finding features: Calendar preview
See your upcoming events at a glance with Outlook 2010’s Calendar preview, making it easy to check your schedule and availability quickly.
Creating a Data Access layer using Unity
Learn how to build a flexible data access layer in .NET using Unity for dependency injection, interface mapping, and factory patterns with …
A perfect match TFS and DLR
Explores integrating Team Foundation Server check-in policies with the Dynamic Language Runtime to enable flexible, centralised policy …
Log Elmah errors in Team Foundation Server
Explains how to log Elmah error reports as work items in Team Foundation Server, including attaching error logs, using templates, and …
Disable a timer at every level of your ASP.NET control hierarchy
Learn how to recursively find and disable all Timer controls in an ASP.NET page, even without knowing their IDs, to prevent unwanted UI …
List all files changed under an Iteration
Shows how to use TFS API calls to list all files changed in a specific iteration, including querying work items and extracting changesets to …
Office 2010 gotcha 2: Visual Studio 2008 Locks
Explains how installing Office 2010 can cause Visual Studio 2008 to freeze when editing ASPX files, and provides a fix by repairing the Web …
Finding features: Conversations
Explains how email conversation view groups related messages into threads, making it easier to follow discussions and manage multiple …
Office 2010 First run
A first look at Office 2010’s setup, Outlook features, user feedback prompts, activation process, and improved email conversation tools …
Office 2010 Install
Step-by-step guide to installing Office 2010 on Windows Vista 64-bit, including full installation tips, system responsiveness issues, and …
Installing Office 2010 gotcha 1
Explains issues when upgrading from Office 2007 32-bit to Office 2010 64-bit, including uninstall requirements, Outlook settings loss, and …
Twitter with style
Review of Twikini, a Twitter app for Windows Mobile 6.5, highlighting its features, usability, and a minor issue with tweet confirmation on …
Project Natal available soon
Project Natal, a motion-sensing device for Xbox, is rumoured to launch before Christmas at around £121, with pre-orders expected to open …
Stuck with Vista?
Overview of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 release, its availability, installation process, and potential improvements for users experiencing …
Connecting VS2008 to any TFS2010 Project Collection
Learn how to connect Visual Studio 2008 SP1 to any TFS 2010 project collection using the correct URL format, including compatibility notes …
Upgrading to TFS 2010 Beta 1 and SQL Collation
Explains issues upgrading from TFS 2008 to TFS 2010 Beta 1 due to SQL Server collation conflicts, error messages, and the need to align …
You May Be a Tech Whiz, but Are You Certifiable?
Test your IT knowledge with a Microsoft quiz designed to challenge tech skills and see if you can earn a spot on the leaderboard. Try it and …
Microsoft MyPhone service available to the public
Sync your mobile phone data, contacts, calendar, tasks, photos, and more, with the web using Microsoft MyPhone, enabling easy backup and …
Solution to connecting to TFS using HTTPS over the Internet from behind ISA
Explains how to resolve TFS connection issues over HTTPS from behind an ISA server by updating Visual Studio registry settings for proxy …
Unable to connect to TFS using HTTPS over the Internet from behind ISA
Explains issues connecting to TFS via HTTPS from behind an ISA proxy, including proxy authentication errors and ServicePointManager …
Why is the VS2010 iso so small?
The VS2010 ISO is small because it excludes MSDN documentation, which is not yet available offline; users can access documentation online …
Uninstalling Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1
Step-by-step account of uninstalling Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 and .NET 4.0, including common issues, manual cleanup, and troubleshooting on …
Visual Studio 2010 Supports UML
Visual Studio 2010 introduces support for UML, enabling developers to create and manage Unified Modeling Language diagrams directly within …
Multi-Targeting in Visual Studio 2010
Explains how Visual Studio 2010 allows developers to target multiple .NET Framework versions, enabling work on legacy and new projects …
Connecting VS2010 to TFS 2008
Learn how to connect Visual Studio 2010 to Team Foundation Server 2008, view legacy project collections, and access projects without …
Installing Visual Studio 2010 Team Suit Beta 1
Step-by-step guide to installing Visual Studio 2010 Team Suite Beta 1, highlighting setup options, customisation, improved installer, and …
Installing .NET 4.0 Beta 1 on Windows Vista 64x
Step-by-step guide to installing .NET 4.0 Beta 1 on Windows Vista 64-bit, including installation time, key new features, and links to …
Visual Studio Team System 2010 Beta 1 Ships
Microsoft releases the first beta of Visual Studio Team System 2010, featuring new tools for architecture, testing, lab management, TFS, and …
Unity and ASP.NET
Explains how to use Unity for dependency injection in ASP.NET, enabling runtime component swapping without redeploying, with practical code …
My.Unity.Resolve(Of Ninja)
Shows how to create a shared UnityContainer singleton in VB.NET using the “My” namespace, enabling dependency injection across WPF and …
The Hinshelwood Family Portrait
A family shares their positive experience with a professional photo shoot, highlighting the photographer’s skill, patience with children, …