Engineering Management
On AI-Readying Engineering Organizations
What challenges increasing AI quality and proliferation bring for us as engineering leaders.
#47 · · development, ai
On Web Development II
A comprehensive ebook marking another 10 years of meiert.com, featuring 180 curated articles on web development from 2015 to 2025.
#46 · · books, development, html, css
AI: The Real Problem Engineering Leaders Need to Have a Solution For
The greatest challenge of today is not how our Engineering organizations should use AI, or what our Product organizations could accomplish with AI.
#45 · · development, ai
Speed, Cost, Quality, Choose 2 = Pragmatism, Passion, or Perfectionism
Whenever presented to choose two of speed, cost, or quality, do you tend to have the same preferences? It may be because that choice translates to certain values.
#44 · · quality
Another Look at Productivity and How to Influence It: Ability, Attitude, Tooling
We cannot control all the factors, but it seems particularly instructive to dissect those that contribute to output.
#43 ·
Micro-Scrum
Decide on one thing to ship, then ship (or learn).
#42 ·
Utilization
Why don’t we talk more about queueing theory.
#41 ·
DORA, SPACE, DevEx, DX Core 4
Key metrics of and casual thoughts on four engineering productivity frameworks.
#40 ·
When We Need Systems, Processes, and Conventions
Oh the bore.
#39 · · development
1 + 2 Engineering Team Priorities
Are great teams “just doing the work”?
#38 · · development
Everyone Can Set You Up for Failure, Not Everyone Sets You Up for Success
On a conscious choice that we can make, and that we best make sure others make.
#37 · · philosophy, misc
Results = ƒ(Competence × Time)
On a model that can tell us something about how we work, and how we could work.
#36 ·
Untrained Engineering Managers
Web development has always had a developer training issue, but it also has one on the management and leadership side. On a challenge we’re all familiar with but rarely talk and do something about.
#35 · · development
On Ticket Management
Issue tracking tools like Jira, GitHub Issues, or Bugzilla are essential for managing bugs and tasks (that is, issues). However, not everyone finds ticket management convenient or convincing. A perspective on why tickets matter, and how they can be used well.
#34 · · development
The Assessment Paradox
For any individual or group we may think that it can assess itself best because it knows itself best. Yet this is not reliable. We may then think it’s other individuals or groups interacting with that first individual or group who may be able to assess it. This is not so, either.
#33 · · philosophy
AI Paradox
Have you outrun your headlights yet?
#32 · · development, ai
Death by Experience
It’s possible to hire too much experience, and it costs diversity and culture.
#31 ·
The Great Tech and People Hypocrisy
When we value people so much that we “rif” them even with cash in the bank, maybe we don’t value them as much as we say we do. On a two-faced industry that needs firing standards as much as it needs hiring standards.
#30 ·
Critical Feedback: Four Approaches and One Twist
Feedback is important so that we can learn and improve. Critical feedback is important to expose, validate, and address areas of growth and development. I believe that fundamentally, there are four approaches to critical feedback.
#29 · · misc
On the Gift of OKR for Company Culture
“OKR,” short for aspiration, candor, and accountability.
#28 ·
Why I Like Scrumban
Over the past years, I’ve become a fan of Scrumban, a mix of Scrum and Kanban. But what is Scrumban here, and what is there to like about Scrumban?
#27 ·
Performance and Stay Questions in 1:1s
On a set of questions that are useful to ask every few weeks, for close alignment and connection, as well as well-being.
#26 ·
Incident, Mitigate, Learn
We can’t just pick two.
#25 · · development
On Working on Vacation
Working while on vacation can be a sign of extraordinary commitment and initiative. But—it can also be a sign of disorganization and poor prioritization. A few thoughts.
#24 · · misc
Website Issues: On the Relevance of Audience Size and Impact
Website issues—relating to conformance, security, accessibility, performance, content, others—are usually treated with a particular priority, but that priority may not always be understandable, and may also be off. On the perspective we obtain when we consider and chart audience size and impact.
#23 · · development
Two Underused Arguments for Writing Documentation
Validating our thinking and allowing to scale may not get enough attention.
#22 · · development
Speed Up Your Org: When to Require Approval
Organizations can be slow. One thing that makes them slow is process. One part of process consists of approvals. But approvals aren’t always needed. On default answers, and the severity and probability of failure.
#21 ·
Reduce the Pressure on Young and Inexperienced Developers
Lower the expectations on young and inexperienced developers, and raise the expectations on their mentoring and coaching: on running gags, unrealistic expectations, and healthier hiring.
#20 · · development
Not Releasing Late on Fridays, a Matter of Courtesy
Why don’t we, in engineering departments, prefer not to release late on Fridays—or late on others days? Occasionally, developers and stakeholders believe that’s because of a lack of confidence in our code and our systems. The true reason is not that:—
#19 · · development
Thoughts for the Aging Web Developer
There may come a time when you feel “too old” for web development. When you begin to feel that, here are a few thoughts. They might not be all you need but—maybe they are of use.
#18 · · development
Engineering Management ×12
Ideas and principles for managing engineering teams: From “googliness” and “competence, caring, conviction” to systems and processes to communication and delegation to team focus and health to trust and humility.
#17 ·
5 Tips for Your Next Promotion or Salary Raise
How do you approach promotions and salary raises? Are these tied to a cyclical event or do they depend on your initiative? Do you invest in building your case, or do you wing it? Here are a few ideas on what can improve your position and chances.
#16 ·
Professional Agile Leadership (PAL) Reminders and Resources
Notes, refreshers, as well as an alternative overview over Scrum.org resources for PAL certification.
#15 ·
On Leadership
Leadership is important, and it can be learned.
#14 ·
13 Leadership Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
We’ve all seen approaches to team management and leadership that work, and others that don’t. A brief and scrappy list of the mistakes I’ve witnessed (or committed), together with thoughts on how not to make them.
#13 ·
On Enforcing Coding Guidelines
Surprisingly a snippet from The Little Book of Website Quality Control, not the one of HTML/CSS coding guidelines, a few thoughts on enforcing coding standards.
#12 · · development
What We Should Teach Up-and-Coming Developers
Evidently, learning is important, and learning strategies are, too, and how to generally work on ourselves, absolutely, but what else to aim for apart from understanding computer science fundamentals, reading the specs, and—coding?
#11 · · development
Analytics: Only When We Actually Use It
Here’s something so obvious, it isn’t anymore. Which is: We should only use analytics software when we actually use it. Not when we think we could might want to need it. And not when we only glance at it, every now and then.
#10 · · development
Business Practices, Reframed
Ideas for the next performance review.
#9 · · politics
On Guidance
Why we urgently need better guidance, need to give better guidance, and get out of the way if we ourselves, when in position of authority and leadership, can’t give good guidance.
#8 · · politics
Ground Rules for Working With Web Agencies
After we identified inherent problems of working with agencies, let’s look at some of our options. We may still need to hire an agency after all, or make the best out of a project. The leg work we’ve done in the first part will help us keep this brief…
#7 · · development, design
The Problems of Working With Web Agencies
I started my career in a small agency, I later worked for a big agency, and I at other times collaborated with or managed agency staff. I’ve never enjoyed working for nor with agencies. That was not because of the people, but because of some inherent issues…
#6 · · development, design
About Cost in Web Development
Cost is an interesting topic. Oftentimes we think of cost as in “this costs so-and-so much.” Like, the software license costs $2,500. Or three working hours cost $450. I’m not an economist but I like to think of this as something like primary cost. Yet, there’s more…
#5 · · development
Teamwork, Democracy, and Decisions
As great as democracy is to prevent negative outcomes, as unsuitable is it to achieve “best” outcomes.
#4 ·
On Solutions
Solutions require problems. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t need a solution. This is exactly why you should, whenever someone proposes a solution—which includes design and technical changes—ask what problem that solution solves…
#3 · · development
Cost of Solution vs. Cost of Problem
Problems cost money, and problems require solutions that also cost money. This is known in all industries, but in many cases, there is focus on only one side: What does the solution of the problem cost? This ignores the other side, the cost of the problem.
#2 ·
Hire Only Web Designers With a Website
…is a good rule of thumb when you need a web designer or developer. Though it’s not necessarily the most important criterion, the benefits are obvious. Web designers who also own websites are more likely to be close to the medium…
#1 · · design, development