GenAI and quantum computing feel like they’re pulling us out of an era when computers were reliable. You put in inputs and get consistent, predictable outputs. Now? Not so much. Both tease us with incredible potential but come with a similar problems: they’re unreliable and hard to scale. Quantum computing works on probabilities, not certainties....
I want to share a story I often use when coaching new leaders – a personal anecdote about a lesson I learned the hard way. Back when I was at university, I spent a couple of summers working as a waiter in a restaurant. It was a lovely place – a hotel in Salcombe, Devon, […]
Are GenAI copilots helping us work smarter – or just faster at fixing the wrong problems? Let me introduce you to the concept of “failure demand.” The most widespread adoption of GenAI is copilots – Office365 CoPilot and coding assistants. Most evidences suggests they deliver incremental productivity gains for individuals: write a bit more code,...
Hiring is one of the most impactful decisions for any organisation. The wrong person can badly impact the culture and performance of the organisation, absorb time in performance management and be a significant distraction. Informal recruitment processes are leaving things down to chance. Inefficient processes consume time and risk losing top...
How do Generative AI tools impact software developer productivity and code quality? A recent large-scale study – one of the most empirically robust I’ve seen – tackled this question by analysing 218k+ developers across 880m+ commits (with control groups and everything). The results? A modest but consistent 4% productivity boost without...
I ran a LinkedIn poll asking software developers about their experiences using AI coding assistants with production code. The results were interesting 👇 Why production code? Developers spend most of their time writing it, and AI tools can handle non-critical activities like proof-of-concepts, solo projects, and quick experiments fairly well. I...
Hiring is one of the most impactful decisions for any organisation. The wrong person can badly impact the culture and performance of the organisation, absorb time in performance management and be a significant distraction. Informal recruitment processes are leaving things down to chance. Inefficient processes consume time and risk losing top...
AI toothbrush anyone? Yes this is real, but I don’t want to talk about AI. I want to talk about technology having it’s place. Not everything is best solved by technology. I’m a hardcore techie, but when it comes to personal hygiene, I couldn’t be more lo-fi. After years of trial and error, I’ve settled […]
I believe it was Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix who coined the phrase “brilliant jerk.” Common in tech orgs – smart, technically gifted, and highly productive. They’re seen as the people to go to for solving big problems, and they often save the day in a crisis. But boy do they ruffle some feathers getting […]
In a recent post, I explained why we’re inherently bad at estimating, which is a major reason software projects often run late. But that doesn’t mean we can’t plan ahead for the longer term and manage expectations. Here are some techniques I’ve found effective for longer-term planning, even in the face of uncertainty: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱...
Addressing performance issues is something many shy away from, often putting it off or hoping it will go away. The sooner you do so, the more likely there’ll be a positive outcome for very everyone. The longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes. If it’s clear things aren’t working out then you need to […]
“𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨” I still regularly come across this mindset. Not with any ill-intention. Developers aren’t cheap, so naturally you want them to be productive. Whenever I do, I’m reminded of this meme (image created by Sebastian Hermida). So this is a reminder that with software...
Why are so many software projects late? Estimation (and how we use it) is often at the heart of it. Humans are naturally optimistic. We overestimate how well things will go and underestimate the time required. It’s a well documented phenomenon: 🤞 Optimism Bias: Our tendency to believe things will go better than they likely will. […]
If you’re looking to drive change in your organisation, 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: 🔎 Identify them – look for the people who are most on board with the changes you’re trying to make, the most proactive and unafraid to challenge the status quo. 💪 Empower them – give them a seat at the table, involve […]
The UK’s Research and development (R&D) tax relief scheme has long been a vital resource for tech companies, offering substantial tax relief. Created to encourage investment in R&D, the scheme allows small companies to claim back a percentage of their expenditure on qualifying activities. However, the recent crackdown on fraudulent claims,...
A common misconception is adding more people will speed things up. Often this can lead to only marginal gains and 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 by exacerbating existing inefficiencies. Here are some of the common reasons why 👇 🚧 Key person dependencies – bottlenecks on particular individuals. 🤖 Lack of automated testing –...
A common misconception is adding more people will speed things up. Often this can lead to only marginal gains and 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 by exacerbating existing inefficiencies. Here are some of the common reasons why 👇 🚧 Key person dependencies – bottlenecks on particular individuals. 🤖 Lack of automated testing –...
I’m regularly asked for my advice on 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴, for both start-ups and established orgs, so here you go👇 Early stage start-ups For 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘂𝗽𝘀 unless you’re well funded, I typically recommend outsourcing, as hiring permanent engineers at this stage is a...
Commitment Language is a concept that focuses on creating explicit agreements and expectations between individuals and teams. I was introduced to it by Richard Halliwell (CEng), but it originally comes from the book Elastic Leadership by Roy Osherove. Not commitment language ❌“I *hope* to have this done by tomorrow”“I’ll *see* if I can do it […]
I regularly encounter start-ups and organisations who’ve built things they didn’t need to, when there are many readily available platforms they could have used instead. A key principle of doing less, better and being able to stay small, is to only build what’s unique to your proposition. Creating software can be like buying a pet […]
The answer is probably not. Many jump in too quickly before nailing down the problem they’re solving. You have an idea, have you defined your proposition? Who are your users? What problems are you going to solve for them? What’s your value proposition? Is anyone going to pay for it? How have you validated any […]
Line management is currently on my mind as I’ve moved to a new company (VP Engineering, team of 30+ people). Coincidently it’s also something I’ve recently been asked about by a peer in a similar position. Modern management practices tend to frown on line management as it smacks of traditional organisational structures. However – out with line […]
Last year (2012) I published data on the productivity of our development team at 7digital. I completed the productivity report for this year and would again like to share this with you. We’ve now been collecting data from teams for over 4 years with just under 4,000 data points collected over that time. This report is from April […]
I’ve written up an experience report on my recent adventures trying to improve the way we do pay reviews (it’s more interesting than you might think). Like many companies we’ve been struggling with a problematic pay review process. In our case the feedback mainly revolved around it feeling arbitrary and lacking transparency. Around the time […]
I’ve find 1-2-1s to be hugely valuable, I think it’s the most important thing I do. Why? How many times have you been in the situation where you were stuck on a problem and simply by starting to explain it to someone you solved the problem in your head? The point there is talking is […]
I did a talk at QCon London 2012 about my experiences with introducing Agile practices at 2 organisations (7digital and BBC Worldwide). It’s now available to watch on InfoQ: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Agile-Adoption-is-Fool-s-Gold I regularly refer to my notes being available including links to many of the things I mention. You can access...
I’m a bit of a management junkie as well as a programmer, which is fortunate as I’m now in a position of senior management (although I have to admit I still prefer coding to management). I wanted to recommend some good management reading to people in my management team – particularly regarding organisational strategy and leadership […]
This article is cross-posted from Blogs From The Geeks, the 7digital development team blog: Assuming you had consent from up above*, you’d think it’d be a breeze to get an initiative like innovation time off the ground. Surprisingly at 7digital it took us three attempts before we got something to stick and speaking to someone else recently I […]
Someone reminded me of the Robber’s Cave experiment last night. It was quite an amusing study with a serious motive of showing how easily opposing in-groups and group hostilities can form. It also showed how having superordinate goals can counteract this phenomenon. Basically, if you’re finding yourself in the situation (as, lets face it, we […]
As you might know I’m Programme Chair for the SPA Conference. In the past I’ve also done this for XPDay and presented or run sessions at both (and others). I find it a hugely rewarding activity, particularly because it feels like I’m giving back to communities which have helped and inspired me so much in the […]