Article Archive
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Supply Chain Attacks: The Hidden Risk in Your Codebase
Every modern software project relies on hundreds or thousands of external dependencies.
Modernizing Legacy VBA with AI and the Swiss Cheese Model
When your business runs on a decade-old application with VBA customizations that nobody fully understands, modernization isn't optional — it's surv...
Why Electricians Have Authority and Developers Don't
Electricians work with objective pass/fail states, codified standards, and inspectable outcomes.
Skip the Framework Cycle: A Case for Technical Capability
Organizations reach for management frameworks when delivery hurts. But the pain is usually a capability gap, not a process gap.
What Happened to Agile?
The frameworks didn't collapse; they became commercialized. Small teams at actual software vendors never needed elaborate process frameworks.
The Gray Beard and the Machine
Martin had been writing software for twenty-seven years when the machine arrived.
Web Components: The Framework-Free Renaissance
Modern browsers support reactive web interfaces without React, Vue, or Angular. Web components and shadow DOM make frameworks optional.
Beyond the Solo Developer Myth
Pair programming has been around since the ENIAC days, yet it remains misunderstood and underutilized.
When Discovery Collides with Process
Technical teams constantly discover better ways of working — through practice, through new tools, through the kind of learning that only happens when.
AI as Your Legacy Code Archaeologist
Decades of business logic hide in customized VB6 applications where every customer installation has unique VBA code.
Frameworks vs Visualization: Process or Insight?
Organizations often reach for elaborate management frameworks when they cannot see what is actually happening.
Management Frameworks and the Proximity to Snake Oil
Many management frameworks operate close to the snake oil line — selling beliefs and process models rather than verifiable outcomes.
Legacy Modernization and the Strangler Fig
Legacy modernization rarely happens in neat phases anymore.
When Software Development Is Craft and When It Is Trade
Software development oscillates between two modes: craft, where skilled practitioners make judgment calls in novel situations, and trade, where.
Iterative Design: What Software Can Learn from Rockets
SpaceX builds rockets the way great software teams build software — through rapid iteration, learning from failure, and relentless focus on the fee...
When "Developer Advocate" Meant Something Else
The term \"Developer Advocate\" has been co-opted comfortably by marketing departments.
Treating Developers With Respect
Respect for software developers is not a perk — it is a prerequisite for building anything worth using.
We Don't Take Advice From Non-Developers
When critical decisions about software development are shaped by those who've never written production code, organizations pay a recurring tax: fai...
Technical Practices That Drive Business Results
Certain software development practices may sound purely technical, yet each one solves a concrete business problem — reducing risk, accelerating de...
Following the Plan Into the Mountain
On December 20, 1995, a highly trained crew flew a perfectly functioning aircraft into a Colombian mountainside. They followed their plan with prec...
Software Development Is Design
Software development shares more with architecture, industrial design, and creative problem-solving than with manufacturing or construction.
It's Just a Simple Rewrite
The leadership team was confident: twenty years of working Delphi code, clear requirements, and a modern Java stack.
Kubernetes for the Rest of Us: Starting Small with k3s
Kubernetes has earned a reputation as complex infrastructure reserved for large-scale operations.
Cypress Beyond Testing: Executable Demos for Your Pipeline
What if every product demo you gave also served as a quality gate in your CI/CD pipeline? Cypress, traditionally positioned as an end-to-end testin...
Software Complexity: What Leaders Need to Know
Software development is fundamentally complex, not merely complicated, yet most organizations manage it using approaches designed for predictable s...
Why We've Tried to Replace Developers Every Decade
Every decade brings new promises: this time, we'll finally make software development simple enough that we won't need so many developers.
Intrinsic Motivation and Software Developers
Intrinsic motivation is the quiet force behind the best software you've ever seen: the tools that feel thoughtfully crafted, the systems that behave.
Bridging the Great Divide
By bringing organizational intelligence and embedded technical advocacy into daily operations, organizations can replace assumptions with evidence ...
The Engine of Predictable Software Delivery
Predictable software delivery is not about magic; it's about discipline, amplified by AI.
Leaders Must Work ON the System, Not Delegate
Methodologies cannot be installed like software. Big-bang rewrites fail — Netscape and Borland learned this the expensive way.
Reclaim Your Organization
Too many organizations lose their best developers not to better offers, but because of methods that treat humans like manufacturing inventory.
The CTO: Between Faith and Physics
Organizations crave predictability—frameworks, timeboxes, and budgets that promise control over software delivery.
How to Govern Without Control
Leaders want both stability and innovation, but these forces pull in opposite directions.
Agile, Meet AI: Your Stand-Up Just Got Automated
For two decades, Agile transformed software development — moving teams from Gantt charts to working code, from waterfall to continuous delivery.
Grateful Boundaries: Consultants and Software Developers
Every successful transformation requires two distinct superpowers: consultants who can see and articulate systemic problems that insiders no longer.
Management Frameworks Don't Fix Software Teams
Management frameworks arrive with canvases, ceremonies, and dashboards—tools that help organizations see their bottlenecks, overload, and rework.
Why the 'Raw Dogging' Team Beats the Factory Method
Management often treats software development as an assembly line—imposing process frameworks like Scrum, SAFe, or OKRs in pursuit of predictability...
What Is Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration (CI) is a practice where team members frequently integrate their work into the main codebase, ensuring that the software pro...
Why Your Team Needs a Senior Developer Advocate
How a Senior Developer Advocate helps teams reduce costs, improve efficiency, and build sustainable internal capability.
Stoos Stampede 2012
July 2012, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 09 Jul 2012, By Stephan Schwab
Agile Roots 2012
June 2012, Salt Lake City, USA 05 Jul 2012, By Stephan Schwab
SF Agile 2012
June 2012, San Francisco, USA 04 Jul 2012, By Stephan Schwab
🎭 This Week's Episodes
Telenovelas show what we can't say in client meetings. The drama is heightened, but the patterns are real.
The First Synthesis
Katja reads the first weekly synthesis from Navigator and realizes it’s more damning than any angry all-hands: the same blockers appear again and a...
El Regreso
Valentina Reyes returns to Mexico after five years at MIT and working in Boston. Her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis brought her home. Don Rodri...
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Recent Articles
- Supply Chain Attacks: The Hidden Risk in Your Codebase (09.03.2026)
- Modernizing Legacy VBA with AI and the Swiss Cheese Model (07.03.2026)
- Why Electricians Have Authority and Developers Don't (03.03.2026)
- Skip the Framework Cycle: A Case for Technical Capability (28.02.2026)
- What Happened to Agile? (24.02.2026)