Millions of years ago, apes descended from the trees, evolved opposable thumbs and—eventually—became human beings. We see mandatory code reviews in a similar light: something that separates human from beast on the rolling grasslands of the software development savanna. Nonetheless, I sometimes hear comments like these from our…
12 posts tagged
Project Management
Outgrowing Pivotal Tracker
At Salsita, we've been using Pivotal Tracker as our primary project management tool for over two years now. When choosing a tool, we were looking for something generic enough to use both to present a project overview to clients and to manage developers' day-to-day work. We've tried various solutions, but…
"Because We Can" is Not a Good Reason
The two business books that have most influenced me are Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm and Andy Grove’s Only the Paranoid Survive. Grove’s book explains that, for long-term success, established businesses must periodically navigate “strategic inflection points”, moments when a paradigm shift forces them to adopt a…
Agile Pointing: Fibonacci or Fibo-yes-chi?
My natural inclination is to be skeptical of anything billed as a "software development methodology". I still remember my early years as a professional developer in France in the early 90's when the "Merise" methodology was ubiquitous. To me it seemed like an excuse to spend…
In Defense of Netflix
According to investment blog Seeking Alpha, Netflix is going to lower fourth quarter guidance because, among other things, "Everybody hates the split of the brand into Netflix and Qwikster." A couple of web comics, Oatmeal and The Joy of Tech, rip into the company even more mercilessly. Press…
Firefox's Version Controversy isn't Just About Marketing. It's About the Strategic Direction of the Company.
For those who tuned in late, Mozilla announced after the release of Firefox 4 in March that they would be instituting a rapid release schedule like that of Google Chrome, involving a new browser release every six weeks. Resistance to the plan has been widespread. To some degree this reaction…