(Short list this week as I am heading down to South Florida in the morning. Have a safe Labor Day!)
- “My finest moment was estimating stories with a team in “number of tests”. We took one iteration’s worth of work, did a quick design by layer, then estimated the whole thing at about 275 programmer tests. We took the number of pairs, the available hours and the 2-week iteration length, divided by 275 and got a pace of one passing test every 45 minutes. That gave them confidence that they could do it. They did.” (J.B. Rainsberger)
- “There’s a little mantra I repeat to myself after changing existing code:
“Is the code easier to understand now?”
If the answer’s no – I hit revert.” (Adrian Howard) - “Lifting a process used by a really good team and dropping it onto a lesser-skilled team isn’t going to turn the second team into gurus. People matter more than process, tools, and techniques, therefore the second team isn’t going to be as productive.” (Robert Watkins)
- (Done before, but worth repeating)
“If we’re not shipping our software when it’s ready,
it’s poor business practice.
If we’re not sure whether our software is ready,
it’s poor software practice.” (Frequent Releases) - “Growth is a false goal. Many companies try to get bigger or go faster instead of understanding how to adapt to change and get smarter.” (Sharon Villines)