Working up from first principles, it becomes clear that code reviews (as typically conceived) do far more damage than good. If we want to move past this legacy approach into the faster, better, more valuable world of continuous delivery, we do need to really understand these baseline principles. This episode works through this - and will help you understand how you can apply these principles in your context. The important thing, ultimately, is to be delivering the highest value to our customers....
Mar 21, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Join us as seasoned engineering leader Chuck Goss pops the hood on his eminently practical but quite refined engineering practice. Currently leading the engineering organization at the innovative Kizen Technologies, Chuck will share some key tactical tools that he's used to create a powerful and productive engineering machine - even in a highly distributed context.
Feb 21, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Dr. Kyle Smith joins us today on this extra special episode. This neuro-ophthalmologist turned technology executive explains the lessons he learned as he made the transition from customer to creator! I know you'll appreciate his perspective as much as I do - and that you'll take some great wisdom away from his unique perspective. So grab some coffee and settle in as we take in what Dr. Smith has to say.
Jan 27, 2025•48 min
2025 is all set to be an epic year. As 2024 is coming to a close the question is - what can I be doing to make sure my organization and I are nice and early to the party. How can we be setting ourselves up to maximize the impact and growth that will be coming to us from this bright future. As John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. That's even more true in technology, where we regularly define and redefine the nature of our business. How can we be Executive Craftsmen that bu...
Dec 24, 2024•21 min•Season 1Ep. 13
There aren't a lot of metrics out there that actually work. At least toward building up a great software engineering practice. There is one that does carry a bit of signal with regard to health, and that's TBD. Your maturity with TBD implies maturity with a number of the core practices involved in building software well. Further, it implies that you are actually pretty good at those things (as a team). As long as you avoid the pitfall of "cowboy coding" - there aren't a lot of dangers in measuri...
Nov 21, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Ask 5 people this question and you'll likely get 5 different definitions - "what is software architecture?" It's a challenge because it originates from an very interesting metaphor; one that explains a lot, but that simultaneously opens a number of questions. In this episode with guest Erik Erichsen, we dive into what software architecture is, how it provides value for an organization, and some thoughts about how our practical approach has to be deeply considered in the face of theory. Our guest...
Oct 24, 2024•26 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Large swaths of our technology brethren have concerned themselves with "keeping the lights on". That is, we want to apply technology, but only in proven, predictable ways that don't rock the boat. Like the King's sycophantic advisor, we like our cushy life and we don't want to make waves. Unforunately trying to ensure we safely and securely profit from our easy life is the best way to ensure we won't. In Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma" he shows that this pattern regularly repeats in business...
Sep 20, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 10
This month we dive into the tricky topic of dealing with jerks. Eric Williamson teaches us some tricks for dealing with difficult people. More importantly, of course, he sheds some light on how to not be difficult people ourselves. I hope you enjoy listening in on this conversation as much as Eric and I did having it. Just for some background, Eric is a professional development consultant, business coach and keynote speaker. He is the author of the book, How to Work with Jerks: Getting Stuff Don...
Aug 22, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 9
While you might have seen this month’s topic - “Maximizing Innovation” - on corporate motivational posters, we assure you that we go deep in this month’s podcast to uncover exactly how we can win in this arena. The phrase we like, “Building more cool, useful stuff” maybe says it more aptly. Whatever words you use though - a central part of software development is simply to figure out how we create the most value, the most usefulness for our customer. So please join us as and listen along we dig ...
Jul 26, 2024•15 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Improving in the art of software development can be intimidating. With this month’s episode we dive quickly into the basic algorithm that we’ve used repeatedly to realize powerful improvement on software teams!
Jun 21, 2024•21 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Is this a feature? Or is it an implementation detail? It’s easy to get the answer to this question wrong - and the wrong answer here can have profoundly negative consequences. We’ll look at three regularly mis-interpreted aspects of software development and talk about how to correctly think about them - ultimately, learning to leverage them better in order to enhance our ability to deliver software. Whether it’s data, information security, or devops - join us as we dig into how to model these co...
May 20, 2024•13 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Join us this month as we dive further into team make-up - asking the difficult question, what is a senior engineer? And more practically - how do we create and/or discover them? We have Bob Provencher - CTO at PDHI - with us again to help tackle these tricky but tactically terrific questions. Last month he coined and defined a great term - SINO - senior in name only. This month he will help us learn to discern between top-shelf talent and the seat-warming knock-off (the SINO). He will also provi...
Apr 18, 2024•14 min•Season 1Ep. 5
How do we balance our engineering teams? What are the challenges involved in getting that balance right? Join me as I dig into these questions with Bob Provencher - PDHI’s Chief Technology Officer. He offers powerful insights mined from his many years of success in this arena. You will come away better-armed to optimally shape your teams and your organization!...
Mar 27, 2024•13 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In software architecture it's important to remember - sharing is not caring! There’s a revolution underway - software organizations the world over have begun to realize that dependency-free teams are the way to deliver with speed and to innovate powerfully and regularly. The transition is difficult though - businesses bring with them powerful inertia, making the shift from old-style organization-wide architecture to modern, streamlined design difficult at times. Join me with my special guest, An...
Feb 20, 2024•12 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Leading software development is a unique challenge. We meld the very human activity of convincing others to work with us, but we do it on two separate platforms - as we create actual software, and as we create the people and technology system (of which we are a part) that creates the software. Both areas are vitally important - but wildly different in terms of the approach we might take to leading. Join us as we dive into this important topic....
Jan 20, 2024•14 min•Season 1Ep. 2
As an executive leading a software development organization, mastery in software engineering isn't optional. Understanding this fundamental truth and the powerful reality behind it will allow you to break free from operational mental models - and work in models more appropriate for developing software systems. This is, ultimately, a leverage point that enables leaders at all levels to continually be moving toward higher and higher levels of performance - radically impacting the lives and busines...
Nov 30, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 1
