Platform Centric

Category: Software Development

  • The Never Permanent Team

    One interesting phenomena we’ve noticed on long running projects and teams (> 1 year), is that when we take the same people and make new mini teams to attack certain problems the results are suddenly better.  The results seem to last as the team is disbanded and the individuals return to their previous roles, they…

  • A Company Should Act Like a Cloud

    I’m reading Harvard Business Review again after taking a few years hiatus after finishing an MBA.  There’s an excellent article in the Nov 2012 issue about innovation and work and having an additional operating system to manage innovation (ACCELERATE!, by John Kotter).  This got me thinking about how a company should act more like a…

  • The Little Switch in my Head

    Learning to Ride a Fixie One aspect of riding a fixie that was unexpected was that I discovered the little switch in my head.  While first riding a fixie, a little signal went off every time I thought I should shift gears. On my geared bikes I simply shifted gears when that happened and never…

  • Architect Driven Development

    Architect Driven Development, or ADD (just add the H in the appropriate place for most of us), is my new methodology of choice.  In the large Enterprise context, where Agile is difficult to implement across many teams, ADD hits the gap by positioning the Architect to enforce the development methodology as well as the software…

  • What’s Wrong with the Twin Cities’ Developer Career Path

    I’ve hired over 100 developers and architects throughout the years.  I’ve worked at around 20 companies, some very briefly, as both an employee and consultant.  I like fast development teams that ride the fine line between excellence and chaos.  But I’ve recently come to understand that a lot of my attitudes around being a developer…