Teams & Culture —1 min read
Don't be a rock star

The existence of a "rock star" engineer is a strong indicator of organizational dysfunction.

Teams & Culture —1 min read
How do I convince my team to do it…?

Which tools a team chooses are useful only if they help the team work toward cooperation and collaboration. Focus on these and tools will fall into place.

Teams & Culture —2 min read
Taylorism is dead. Long live Taylorism!

Taylorism has gotten a lot of flack for being inhumane at worst, and ineffective at best. But DevOps is about applying Taylorism to computer systems.

Hiring —2 min read
The hidden costs of hiring too fast

I was making really great progress at instilling a culture of quality until the pressure above from to "hire more people!"

Teams & Culture —3 min read
Core skills vs. company-specific skills

Why are new joiners often quick to offer unwanted advice on how to improve things? Many "newbies" can't distinguish between core skills and company-specific skills.

Teams & Culture —2 min read
When should you pick up the phone?

If a discussion becomes emotional, repetitive, or otherwise unproductive, it's time to pick up the phone.

Teams & Culture —2 min read
Why I don't like the "Tech Lead" role

The "Tech Lead" title is too often (ab)used as a way to "lord it over" people who are "less technically capable".

Teams & Culture —2 min read
Book recommendation: Team Topologies

I read most of "Team Topologies" on a flight to Madrid, and was able to immediately begin to put it to use.

Hiring —1 min read
A simple way to improve your technical onboarding

Somewhere, long ago, I learned of a technique I like to employ when onboarding new team members

Software Delivery —1 min read
Manual deployments are a false safety net

“Whether a human is involved in pressing the deploy button or not, you are going to deploy a bad update eventually.”

Teams & Culture —1 min read
"Process" isn't a dirty word

"Process" gets a bad rap these days. Claiming you don't have a process is like claiming you don't breathe.