I still think about one migration project where everything was green until the final month. We did not have the luxury of extending the deadline. This was tied to external regulation and compliance, so missing the date was not really an option. We had to make it. Up until that point, the project had been reported as green. Then, almost […]
A few companies back, my manager and I inherited a group of teams after layoffs. Confidence was already low. People didn’t believe in the systems we maintained. Stakeholders lost trust in what we did. Results were inconsistent, and even routine work needed more verification than it should have. We tried to steady things, but it was hard to know what […]
The other day I was talking with one of my directs. We ended up discussing something we’ve both learned over the years. When execution works, the environment is quiet. Not slow. Not passive. Quiet. Execution happens. People work together. Nothing feels heavy. You sort of question if there’s management in all this or their very existence. That’s a good thing. […]
How many times have you found yourself saying: “I worked all day, but I didn’t get anything done.” I know, we have all been there. We feel bad about it, too. On the surface, it looks busy. Your calendar is full, Slack is notifying you, and your todo list is endless. There’s no shortage of movement, and yet, strangely, very […]
If you’ve worked in software long enough, you’ve probably seen it: a CRUD app serving a handful of users, deployed on a Kubernetes cluster with half the CNCF landscape stitched together for good measure. On paper it looks impressive. In reality, it’s a Rube Goldberg machine solving problems the team doesn’t actually have. Contrast that with Levels.fyi. The site now […]