I recently re-read (skimmed) Steve McConnell’s Software Estimation, Demystifying the Black Art. When I met with Microsoft Press to pitch HWTSAM, they gave a hot-off-the press new copy, and while some of the book feels “old school”, it’s still filled with foundational estimation knowledge. I work at home, and absolutely need a quiet PC –…
Happy Friday everyone – here’s some stuff to dump from my head to yours. As I type this, I’m listening to Dead Man’s Pop – the remixed version of the Replacement’s Don’t Tell a Soul. I was/am a big Replacement’s fan, and these recordings are all kinds of excellent. This article on how Boeing’s Managerial…
Here we go again… I’ve once again fallen into the trap of reading too many books at once. I will carve some time out soon to get caught up. The latest book to join my “in progress” queue is Software Estimation Without Guessing by George Dinwiddle. Our views on estimation line up quite a lot,…
It’s the Friday the 13th edition of FfF. Here’s some stuff to read. A few months old, but new to me and something I believe in strongly – Good Developers are Raised, not Born. I’ve been a fan of Sonos speakers for years now, and I’m bummed I don’t really have any need to purchase…
As you may or may not have noticed, I took a few weeks off from FfF. I moved houses, then I traveled, then I went on a short vacation, and then I got sick. But now I’m mostly settled in and back on my regular routine. Here’s some stuff I found. I’m reading Drift Into…
Here we go again… If you’re a regular reader of these Friday links, you may wonder how I keep track of things I want to share. I use Pocket to save things I like. Without it, I’d have to reboot the series as One for Wednesday. Steve Denning is back in FfF with an article…
Back again for five more things you may or may not find interesting I received an advance copy of 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change by Esther Derby, and it’s fantastic and highly recommended. The book is low of fluff and high on pragmatic advice. A few weeks ago I had just installed DashLane and…
Here is my this week’s version of five things I think are worth sharing. I’m moving (about 6 miles away). Our realtor told me about Moving Link – it’s a service that takes care of bidding on the move. They come out and walk through the house, and then go work with movers to get…
Another blurry week in the books, but I found a few things I liked. There’s way too much controversy (some of it valid) around the idea of the 10x engineer. But is there a 10x manager. Check out this article on the 10x …no, Supermanager I found an interesting set of articles on Agile Coaching…
Here we go again… You know how I always rave over Cindy Sridharan’s articles? Well, it turns out she curates a collection of awesome articles on github. Be like me make a clone now. Apparently, Google is paying up to $30k for Chrome bugs. Here’s yet another reminder on using failure as an opportunity to…
It’s smack in the middle of summer in Seattle – which means it rained most of the week. Here’s what I read while watching the clouds. Cindy Sridharan is back with another fantastic blog post – this time on Distributed Tracing There are few things I loathe more than a status meeting. Here’s an article…
It’s the July 4th holiday weekend edition of FfF – here are five links worth reading. Jeff Nyman is back yet again (seriously, once I know all of you read his blog regularly, I’ll stop linking to his posts). This time, he answers the question, Should Testers Own Quality A cool article on the time…
I haven’t used a mechanical keyboard in years, but it’s been on my radar for a while, and now that I have a das keyboard, I’m bummed I didn’t switch back sooner. I have the most basic keyboard of their line, and from the feel and construction, I’m not sure if I’ll ever need to…
Between the job kicking my butt and trying to watch both the Gold Cup and the Women’s World Cup, I haven’t browsed much past Grafana dashboards and Google docs this week. So this week, I’m sharing a few sites that aren’t new to me – but are sites I use a lot. The EV Trip…
I’m reading the Lean Product Playbook – which has this quote (similar to the Poppendiek quote I also frequently mention.As Dave McClure of 500 Startups said, “Customers don’t care about your solution. They care about their problems.” Here’s an article on two of my favorite things – Kanban and Crossing the Chasm – Crossing the…
It’s time for another week of random – and sometimes useful info This is an excellent write up on the curse of flaky tests. Tests that sometimes fail I’ve learned JavaScript enough that I pretty much despise JavaScript. I use it begrudgingly, but it drives me crazy too. Regardless, this is a wonderful post on…
Since last week, I’ve been to Helsinki and back – but still found a few things I think are interesting. This presentation on Increasing Engineering Tempo at Splice is all about accelerating the achievement of shippable quality. I’m reading Agile and Lean Program Management by Johanna Rothman – like her other books, it’s practical, easy…
Another dreary wet day in the pacific northwest. Here are a few things I found interesting this week. FocusMate is an interesting idea. It connects you with an anonymous person over video, and you each just work on your stuff. The idea is, that if someone is watching you, that you are less likely to…
Here we go again… The Heisenbug Conference call for papers is open. These folks treat speakers like rock stars, and I highly recommend the conference. Speaking of conferences, it’s almost time for the Online Test Conference. The lineup is incredible (and I’d say that even if Brent Jensen and I weren’t speaking), it’s free, and…
Still loving my new role at Unity. As I look at the links I saved this week, I’m wondering if an analysis of my FfF posts over the last 18 months will show trends in my actual day-to-day work. I’ll leave that random thought for those smarter than me to investigate. If this isn’t the…