When I create Agile bug tickets, I don’t add Agile story points. In this post, I’d like to explain this preference via two arguments: pointing bugs creates backward incentives, and bugs are surprisingly difficult to point.

I’ve written a weekly summary for myself and my teams for years. In this post, I’ll explain why I do and how I use this tool.

Here’s a technique I’ve used on launches: instead of a big scary waterfall, or, in tandem with a phased release, let customers opt into a new feature.

I have collected a group of mentors over the years. I call on them frequently to talk through tough problems. I think I’m better at my job because of this regular, impartial outside feedback. I’d wish this for everyone! In this post, I’ll try to reverse-engineer the path I took to get here.

An engineering technique I recommend: when you sign up for any service, even on a side project that’s just getting off the ground, create an email group called dev@<your-domain.com> that forwards to you and any other technologists, and use that email to sign up.

I enjoy answering questions on Stack Overflow.com. It helps me learn about common challenges and practice reviewing code. In the beginning, it also unlocked basic site features like voting.¹

Maybe you’d like to answer questions too! In this post, I’ll explain how I answer questions on Stack Overflow.

Hard-coded test expectations have many benefits that I’ll explore in this post.

When possible, I prefer to use the presence of data to represent a boolean, rather than a boolean itself.

An idea I find useful as an individual contributor is starting my consulting with this phrase: “I think that…”. The idea is to let your arguments stand on their own, rather than appealing to your experience or other authorities.

Me: Hey, I’m experiencing an issue with your software. Here’s a detailed bug report.

SAAS Engineer: What you’re describing isn’t possible.

Narrator: But it was possible.

This is a frustrating, unproductive snippet of a conversation I’ve had a few times in my career. What can we learn? Treat bug reports like gold.