Lucas on Software Engineering

Why deadlines are pointless and what to do instead

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 11:34:24 GMT

Deadlines are the bane of every software engineer’s existence. We’ve all been there: the project is “due” in two weeks, and we’re nowhere near done. So we pull all-nighters, do poor testing, and cut corners just to get it done. And what happens? The project is buggy, the customers are unhappy, and we’re all exhausted.

In this episode, I’ll explain why deadlines are not a necessary evil and how they harm productivity, morale, and software quality.

Talking to your customers: a disruptive Agile framework

Sun, 11 Sep 2022 16:07:16 GMT

In this episode, I’ll present a robust and disruptive Agile framework. It’s called “talk to your customers” — or, in short, T-T-Y-C.

Soon I’ll be selling a 500-page book with enough diagrams to convince you it’s a framework worth trying. If you are interested, you can also contact me for a $50,000 workshop in which I’ll recite platitudes and declaim all the necessary technical terms to make it “enterprise-ready”.

For now, bear with me. This episode is all I’ve got.

Why your daily stand-ups don't work and how to fix them

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 17:44:13 GMT

Daily stand-ups are a classic example of learned helplessness. We all know they’re useless, but we tell ourselves “that’s just how things are” and do nothing about it.

In this episode, I’ll explain the actual goal of a stand-up and why it’s a productive meeting to have, providing teams to do it right. Furthermore, I’ll explain what “right” means and the nuance involved in tailoring the stand-up meeting to suit your needs. As usual in Software Engineering, there’s no such thing as “one size fits all”.