The strongest articles on engineering excellence and technical leadership — ranked by substance, not recency. How this is ranked
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 …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The articles that speak most directly to technical leadership — ranked by that classification’s score alone.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
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 …
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 …
The articles that speak most directly to engineering excellence — ranked by that classification’s score alone.
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
Rethinking Capacity Planning
Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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, …
420 resources, newest first
PowerShell TFS 2013 API #2 - Adding to a GlobalList
Learn how to use PowerShell and the TFS 2013 API to automate adding items to a GlobalList by exporting, editing, and re-importing global …
PowerShell TFS 2013 API #1 - Get TfsCollection and TFS Services
Learn how to use PowerShell to connect to TFS 2013, import required assemblies, and access core TFS services like Work Item Store, Version …
Upgrading from the TFS 2013 Preview to TFS 2013 RC
Step-by-step guide to upgrading from TFS 2013 Preview to TFS 2013 RC, covering prerequisites, trial upgrades, installation, configuration, …
What's new in Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013 RC
Overview of new features in Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013 RC, including Team Explorer updates, agile tools, test management, charting, and …
Professional Scrum Foundations coming to Glasgow, Scotland in November 2013
Professional Scrum training courses in Glasgow, Scotland, offer foundational and advanced Scrum skills for teams, Scrum Masters, and …
There is no "do agile" there is only "be agile"
Explores the difference between adopting agile practices superficially and truly embracing agile values, highlighting the need for deep …
Review: The Professional Scrum Masters Handbook
A critical review of The Professional Scrum Masters Handbook, highlighting its practical tips for new Scrum Masters and common Scrum …
The great Team Foundation Server 2013 Upgrade Weekend
Microsoft experts will provide free support for upgrading, installing, or configuring Team Foundation Server 2013 during a special event on …
A change for the better #4 - Homecoming
Details a move from the USA back to Scotland for family and education reasons, continuing ALM consulting, and plans to offer agile coaching …
Searching for self-organisation
Explores the challenges and benefits of self-organising teams, highlighting key factors like team accountability, identity, size, and …
Quality enablement to achieve predictable delivery
Explains how defining quality standards, acceptance criteria, and automation in software delivery leads to predictable outcomes, fewer bugs, …
Team Foundation Server 2013 is production ready
Team Foundation Server 2013 is stable for production use, addressing past update issues with improved agility, technical debt management, …
Creating a custom Activity for Team Foundation Build
Learn how to create and integrate custom activities in Team Foundation Build, including class library setup, workflow design, argument …
Modelling Teams in Team Foundation Server 2013
Guidance on structuring teams, areas, iterations, source control, and security in Team Foundation Server 2013 to support project management …
Issue [ TFS 2013 ] You get TF400324 when connecting InRelease to TFS
Explains how to resolve TF400324 errors when connecting InRelease 3 to TFS 2013, including correct URL usage and a supported PowerShell fix …
Does your company culture resemble Survivor?
Explores how individualistic, competitive company cultures hinder collaboration and agility, and highlights the benefits of fostering …
Create a Portfolio Backlog hierarchy in Team Foundation Server 2013
Learn how to customise Team Foundation Server 2013 to add a multi-level Portfolio Backlog hierarchy by editing work item types, categories, …
Engaging with complexity - Team Foundation Server Edition
Detailed walkthrough of a complex Team Foundation Server migration, covering remediation, hardware moves, upgrades, user management, and …
Upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2013
Step-by-step guide to upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2013, including backup, installation, configuration, validation, and estimated …
What's new in Visual Studio 2013 Team Foundation Server Preview
Highlights new features in Visual Studio 2013 Team Foundation Server, including agile portfolio management, enhanced team collaboration, and …
Issue [ TFS 2012.2 ] Detaching collection fails on SnapshotIdentities with object reference not set to an instance of an object
Explains how detaching a Team Project Collection in TFS 2012.x can fail due to orphaned identities, causing a NullReferenceException, and …
SharePoint 2013 Issue - After migration from 2010 user permission not working
After migrating from SharePoint 2010 to 2013, users may face permission and authentication issues due to changes in claims-based …
Restore TFS backups from SQL Enterprise to SQL Express
Explains how to resolve errors when restoring TFS backups from SQL Enterprise to SQL Express by removing unsupported data compression …
Quality enablement with Visual Studio 2012
Explores how Visual Studio 2012 supports continuous quality enablement, automated testing, and rapid delivery in modern software development …
Configure Test Plans for web access in TFS 2012.2
Explains how to configure Test Plans for web access in TFS 2012.2, focusing on Area Path, team field settings, visibility issues, and …
TFS2012.2 - Issue: Object not set to instance of object with TF400898, TF53010 & TF30065
Explains causes and solutions for "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" errors (TF400898, TF53010, TF30065) in TFS 2012.2, …
Naked ALM: starting with why and getting naked
Explores the importance of understanding purpose in Application Lifecycle Management, focusing on transparency, customer value, and …
Release Management with Team Foundation Server 2012
Explains how to automate and streamline software release management using Team Foundation Server 2012, Lab Management, and Octopus, focusing …
Upgrading your process template from MSF for Agile 4 to Visual Studio Scrum 2.x
Step-by-step guide to safely upgrade from MSF for Agile 4 to Visual Studio Scrum 2.x process templates in TFS, including handling …
New un-versioned repository in TFS 2012
Explains how TFS 2012 introduced an un-versioned repository for build outputs, reducing version control clutter and offering easier storage …