Code Reviews are Dead. Here's Why.

Ryan Norris

on Friday, August 23rd, 2019 at 7:07pm

The code review is a long-established "first line of defense" so that engineering teams don't unleash hell upon the world. Years ago, the code review literally was a developer printing out their code, handing it to a senior engineer, and having it marked up with red pen like it was a college essay. The code review has come a long way - it has been established part of development workflows everywhere largely because of the pull request feature at GitHub. Code reviews were part of the job description for senior developers and development managers everywhere - a pedagogical function that promoted stewardship over a code base. But that was then. It's time to pour one out for the code review.

Overthinking User Experience? Alexa's Jeopardy Just Did

Ryan Norris

on Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019 at 10:26pm

My wife and I were loyal, sheepish players of Alexa's Jeopardy game. Every weeknight like the moths to flame that we are, we would flock to our Amazon device (well, an Alexa-enabled Sonos actually) and commanded Alexa "Play Jeopardy!"

Do You Need a Scrum Master? Why They May Be Holding Your Team Back

Ryan Norris

on Monday, July 22nd, 2019 at 4:00pm

The Scrum Master - a mainstay in Agile culture, particularly Scrum. Heralded by consulting firms, conferred certificates by training academies - here's why you don't need a Scrum Master and why if you have one, they are hurting your agile efforts.

Here's Why Software Development Cannot Be Industrialized

Ryan Norris

on Sunday, July 21st, 2019 at 5:00pm

Waterfall. Scrum. Spiral. RAD. XP. Software methodologies are plentiful, all in an effort to make it so that timelines and budgets are predictable. They are an attempt to create repetition and commonality within software development. But they are a lie.

The Last Estimation Tool You Will Ever Need

Ryan Norris

on Monday, July 29th, 2019 at 9:00pm

Software project estimation may be an exercise in guesswork, but it is imperative for almost any company in the business of developing software on a fee for hire basis or teams looking to plan budgets to develop a software project estimate that from the ground up has reasonable assumptions, scientific wild-ass guesses, and an accounting for things that could go wrong. Let me save you some time and share with you how I've estimated for projects in the past.

SEO is Important. But are SEO's important?

Ryan Norris

on Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 at 8:26pm

I spent two years between WebMD and Vitals taking on a monster for the business - optimizing for organic traffic. Once I sorted through a lot of the misunderstandings in the organization, the paranoia, and the downright hopelessness - I presented the business with one option to fix their issues with organic acquisition: make Vitals a better experience for users.

Your Agile Team Should Stop Using Story Points. Here's Why.

Ryan Norris

on Tuesday, May 28th, 2019 at 8:54pm

In a place far away and long ago, teams used to be asked "when will this be done?" which at some point go confused with "how much time will this take to finish?" Business stakeholders and software engineers - forever separated by semantics and the inability to communicate were united by consultants who came up with an abstraction: story points. Ever since, we have been in hell.

Here's How Often a CTO Should Code

Ryan Norris

on Wednesday, July 31st, 2019 at 9:50pm

The Chief Technology Officer. The maker of things. The knower of stuff. The solver of problems. The guy who probably has to fix their parents computer each Thanksgiving. But how often should they be coding?