Zero Bugs (Defects)

For many people, the notion of Zero Bugs seems like an unsustainable dream and yet the teams that do it are tremendously successful.

Validating assumptions

I was coaching a team once and I made a suggestion to one of the developers about something they could do differently. The actual suggestion isn’t important to the story so I’ll ignore that.

Premature optimization

In the early days of Java, I recall reading a book talking about performance characteristics of various things in Java. One of the tidbits that I latched onto was the suggestion that the default size of a Hashtable object was inefficient if it had to grow in size beyond the default.

Intent of standups / scrum meetings

The intent of a team standup/scrum meeting is to resynchonize on the work in progress and decide how we, as a team, are going to complete it. If your standup is horrible, then focus on the intent, not the format you’ve been doing. What would you have to change to make the meeting useful?

Fairness

We have a biological need for fairness. If we perceive a situation that is unfair, even if that unfairness doesn’t directly affect us, the anterior insula is activated1. The insula is a key part of our brain, relating to empathy2.

  1. Psychological Safety: The key to happy, high-performing people and teams by Radecki and Hull, 2018 ↩

  2. Uddin LQ, Nomi JS, Hébert-Seropian B, Ghaziri J, Boucher O. Structure and Function of the Human Insula. J Clin Neurophysiol. 2017 Jul;34(4):300-306. doi: 10.1097/WNP.0000000000000377. PMID: 28644199; PMCID: PMC6032992. ↩

Understanding the users

My very first professional programming job was at a large bank that had invested in a full UX lab. One-way glass, cameras, and a full setup where we could watch real branch staff using the software we had been working on.

Tip: Run tests in random order

Almost every automated test framework has the ability to run the tests in random order and some even do it that way by default. If you aren’t already running your tests in random order then start now. You’ll be amazed at what problems this will uncover.

Underutilized skills and talent

A common push-back to pairing or ensemble/mobbing work is that not everyone can contribute and therefore it would be a waste to have them there. “We’re building an iPhone app and our backend people can’t help”.

No blockers

When I was a kid, we liked to play with two way radios. I’d say something and end it with “over”. Then my friend would say something and again “over”. The word “over” had no actual meaning to us, except to indicate that we’d finished speaking.