Tech debt and duct tape

Tech debt cannot be fixed with duct tape. Fixing your technical debt with duct tape only makes it worse. I’ve written earlier that tech debt needs to be managed carefully or it will overwhelm you. Below, you will find a video where I and Joakim Lindbom discuss tech debt with Casimir Artmann.
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Three camera setup for remote video interviews

How do you create a great vlog post when the person you want to talk to is remote? This is a question that has occupied Casimir and me ever since we started adding video to the conversation. After reading up on the subject, experimenting and failing — remote interviews are not all that easy — we have come up with an approach to make remote video interviews that seems to work. The key is to use the right equipment, and you need more than you think you do, but it does not have to be expensive.
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Legacy software as a valuable inheritance

Legacy software is often seen as something negative. Wiktionary has a depressing definition of a computer system that has been in service for many years and that a business still relies upon, even though it is becoming expensive or difficult to maintain. I have never liked that definition, because obviously if you keep investing in something for many years, it must be bringing some value to you. As Woody Zuill pointed out to me when I met him recently, the original definition of legacy is much more positive: Continue reading

I need help with home automation IoT

Today, I am starting on a new project. I am going to automate my hen-house and I need your help to do it. I have never really been a gadget person. I have used the same personal computer at home since I built it from spare parts in 2003. I don’t own a tablet or a smart watch. I chop my wood with an axe, not a machine. It’s not that I don’t like gadgets, I just don’t see the business case. Continue reading

Mob programming – with Woody Zuill

Whenever we have urgent, complex work we sit down and do it together. In our every day work, we make do with occasional meetings. Why do daily scrums when you can do day long scrums? That is how I understand mob programming, but that is not why Woody Zuill and his team started with it. Continue reading

Will ITIL survive Agile and DevOps?

ITIL is the gold standard for running IT departments in most large companies. ITIL is in many ways geared towards limiting and managing change. But how can managed change with long lead times be compatible with an outside world that changes ever faster? Can ITIL and agile change co-exist? Continue reading

Hiring team members

There are so many questions when it comes to hiring new team members and forming a team.

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Hangouts with Greger Wikstrand and friends

So far, I have done three public hangouts with friends in different places. I’ve created a playlist with all of them for your convenience.

At this time, there are three YouTube videos in the playlist, one for each of the hangouts I’ve done so far. You will find two videos where I discuss agile and lean contracts with Jacopo Romei and one video where I discuss agile retrospectives with Mario Lucero.

The playlist will be expanded with each future hangout. Will my next hangout be with you? Let me know and we’ll set it up. 🙂

Guest appearance on Architecture Corner

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Casimir Artmann and feature as a guest on his “Architecture Corner”. We talked about agile and why it is necessary. Read more here on the blog or watch the video:
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