Monthly Archives: February 2010

Failure Is Not An Option, It Is A Requirement.

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Derick Bailey

Of course that statement on it’s own can obviously be shown to be fallacy. When you consider the context of continuous improvement, learning or generally advancing our own capabilities and understanding, though, this statement can be quit liberating. Why? Because … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Continuous Improvement, Education, Kaizen, Lean Systems, Retrospectives | 6 Comments

Branching Strategies: The Cost Of Branching And Merging

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Derick Bailey

Branching and merging are never free operations. Even if you are using a source control system that makes the mechanical process of branching and merging negligible, there are other costs that need to be accounted for than just the button … Continue reading →

Posted in Branch-Per-Feature, Branching Strategies, Productivity, Source Control, Test Automation | 4 Comments

Branching Strategies: When To Branch And Merge

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Derick Bailey

At a very high level, all branching strategies have the same core policies: create the branch when you are confident that the cost of branching and merging is less than the cost of committing to the main source line, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Branch-Per-Feature, Branching Strategies, Git, Source Control, Subversion | Leave a comment

Using ROI As A Constraint, Not An End In Itself

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Derick Bailey

I had a fun conversation over instant messenger yesterday. The original subject matter revolved around a problem that the other person was having and how that problem was consuming a number of minutes per day with repetitive, tedious work. At … Continue reading →

Posted in Coaching, Kaizen, Management, Metrics, Philosophy of Software | 2 Comments

Can PDCA Help Us Improve Our Test-First Development Efforts?

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Derick Bailey

I was thinking about target conditions and the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle earlier today when a code related issue that I was having popped into head and decided to meld with the current string of thoughts. The resulting thought was leading … Continue reading →

Posted in Agile, Community, Kaizen, Lean Systems, Philosophy of Software, Standardized Work | 4 Comments

Branch-Per-Feature: How I Manage Subversion With Git Branches

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Derick Bailey

Anyone that follow me on twitter likely knows that I’m a big fan of Git these days. I’ll spare you the gushing heart felt nausea of how it’s so awesome  and skip right to the point, though: I don’t always … Continue reading →

Posted in Branch-Per-Feature, Git, Source Control, Subversion | 10 Comments

Are We Continuously Improving Or Just Continuously Changing?

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Derick Bailey

Don’t confuse activity – even when it has a visible, measurable effect – with productivity. Without a clear picture of where we are going and why, our best efforts at improvement (though they may be ‘continuous’ efforts) are likely to … Continue reading →

Posted in Coaching, Kaizen, Lean Systems, Management, Productivity | 3 Comments