When proposing to split stories into smaller stories with value, the typical reaction I get is that “many stories are not splittable”. However, more often than not, stories can be split further. — User stories Before starting, we need to address the concept of a user story (as originally considered by XP). A user story is not a task, a spec, or a requirement. It’s not something dictated internally. It’s not a solution as it doesn’t prescribe anything; it’s up to the team to decide…

Estimation is waste and non-sense but many teams still abide by it. Let’s deconstruct this myth. In the process, we’ll also tackle the problem with sprints. — The #NoEstimates discussion, along with my experience of having left estimates a long time ago, led me to write this article. I will argue that estimates are mostly a waste of resources. Finally, I’ll present the alternative which ends up rendering sprints unneeded as well.

After I got fed up with overengineering and big design upfront, I started to think of repeatable means to prevent them. I noticed a winning strategy: setting a goal and thinking backward. — If you have a dream or a life goal you don't just sit and wait till it happens, right? You set a goal and picture yourself in it; you devise ways to get there; you keep the goal in mind, as a beacon of light; you follow a strategy and…

I’ll present a simple and practical approach to error management, based on my experience. — This is the result of my analysis of the most common problems I found in enterprise applications. We’ll walk through some patterns and anti-patterns about creating, throwing, and handling exceptions. Don’t centralize Avoid exception hierarchies Inheritance is often abused in the object-oriented paradigm. This also happens on exception modeling. However, there’s no obvious advantage in…

I’ll present my approach to avoiding code hotspots and explain what user-centered design and the screaming architecture have in common. — We can still hear the echoes of Steve Ballmer’s “developers, developers, developers” chant. This could be just a funny video but even today, software development is too centered on developers. We should shout “users, users, users!” instead. What can we do about it? The user-centered design process advocates for close…