Exploring Extreme Programming
How do you think about stories? We’ve talked about different levels of stories. Scalable stories let us gradually increase the intensity and utility of system behaviors. As before, I’ll use LinkedIn.com for examples. (This is a reverse-engineering exercise; I have Continue reading Scalable Story Examples
Labyrinths, by Jorge Luis Borges, 2007 edition. ISBN 0811216993. Borges was an Argentine fantasy writer. This book is a collection of 20+ short stories, as well as about 10 essays on writing. His stories often have themes of mirrors, mazes, Continue reading Review: Labyrinths
Parsing Techniques, A Practical Guide (2/e), by Dick Grune and Ceriel J.H. Jacobs This book covers a huge range of parsing techniques – every parsing technique I’d heard of, and many more. Once Donald Knuth gets ready to produce volume Continue reading Review: Parsing Techniques, A Practical Guide (2/e)
Stories Have Multiple Granularities User stories may seem like they are about specifications but they’re really a lightweight way to explore possibilities. Many teams get too focused on the “card” aspect, using tools to turn user stories into an atomized Continue reading Multi-Level Stories
Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change, by Neal Ford, Rebecca Parson, and Patrick Kua. 2017. ISBN 1491986360. This book focuses on evolvability of software, treating it as a top-level architectural concern. “An evolutionary architecture supports guided, incremental change across multiple dimensions.” Continue reading Review: Building Evolutionary Architectures
Kent Beck’s TCR workflow experiment has generated some good discussion. Rachel Carmena has documented several TDD workflows. I’d like to add an approach that I’ve used for a while: “Call Your Shots”. Call Your Shots If you’re playing pool seriously, you don’t just Continue reading The “Call Your Shots” TDD Workflow
How Music Works, by David Byrne. Three Rivers Press, 2017. David Byrne is a founder of the band Talking Heads. He explores music and the music industry. This is not specifically autobiographical, but he often draws on his experiences as Continue reading Review: How Music Works
It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis, 1935. ISBN 0451465644. This story tells how fascism could come to America. Lewis wrote it in 1935 – before Hitler attacked Poland in 1939. It shows that it was not too early to predict Continue reading Review: It Can’t Happen Here
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, by William Goldman. I saw this on a couple lists of favorite books a few weeks ago and had to re-read it. The title has it right Continue reading Review: The Princess Bride
Teams often don’t pay enough attention to language. A team can improve its language by using what Eric Evans calls Ubiquitous Language: “A language structured around the domain model and used by all team members to connect all the activities Continue reading Ubiquitous Language – A Triple-Play for Words