Muses

The Value Premise

TDD, Programming, Modern-Synthesis / / 7 minutes of reading

Today it’s microtest TDD’s Value Premise: TDD ships more value faster when that value depends on changing our branching logic safely & quickly. Let’s dig in. Before we start: geekery continues to seem largely irrelevant to me. 1 in 900 Black Americans have died of Covid. They’re still shooting unarmed men & boys in the street. Black lives matter. Please help however you can. Friends, stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind. I am frequently presented with declarations that […]

The Value Premise See Full Post

The Correlation Premise

TDD, Modern-Synthesis, Change Harvesting / / 5 minutes of reading

Today, let’s take on microtest TDD’s Correlation Premise: Internal software quality (ISQ) and productivity are directly correlated. They go up together, and they go down together. Writing about geekery these days seems idle or frivolous at times. I’ve decided to just accept it as a way to relax here and there. But don’t mistake me. Black lives matter. Stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind. The correlation premise lies in direct opposition to the widespread but grossly over-simple analysis

The Correlation Premise See Full Post

The Judgment Premise

Change Harvesting, TDD, Modern-Synthesis / / 4 minutes of reading

Today, let’s talk about microtest TDD’s Judgment Premise: "We are absolutely and permanently reliant on individual humans using their individual judgment in TDD." Folks, in these times, I gain respite in thinking & writing about geekery, and I hope you do, too. But there are more important stories, and this is just a break. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay angry. Stay kind. Black lives matter. Voting rights do, too. The judgment premise emphasizes the human in test-driven development. There are

The Judgment Premise See Full Post

The Steering Premise

TDD, Modern-Synthesis / / 5 minutes of reading

Microtest TDD’s Steering Premise is quite simple, which may be why it sometimes meets furious opposition. It says "Tests and testability are first-class citizens in design." Let’s talk that over a little. As is my wont, I remind you, TDD, and even geekery, aren’t really the most pressing story around us today. It’s comfort food, a chance to catch my breath. Black lives matter. Stay safe, stay strong, stay angry, stay kind. We can change this, we’re the only thing

The Steering Premise See Full Post

The Pieces Premise

Modern-Synthesis, TDD / / 6 minutes of reading

The Pieces Premise says, "To get the whole thing to do what you want, start by getting each piece of it to do what you want. It’s one of the basic underpinning of microtest TDD. It’s a hard time out there for those working on social change. I want you to know how much what you’re doing means to me. Geekery is respite for me. But I see you, and I see how hard you’re trying. Stay safe, stay strong,

The Pieces Premise See Full Post

Collaboration, Complication, Continuity

Modern-Synthesis, Change Harvesting / / 6 minutes of reading

I was recently asked, by two different groups, two seemingly different questions, but I gave them both the same answer: Collaboration, Complication, and Continuity. Let’s mull that situation over. Folks, this is a hard time for a person with my views about society. There is so much going wrong, in so many directions. I turn to geekery, as I often do, to be a kind of comfort food, for me, and maybe for you. Stay safe, tho. And stay strong.

Collaboration, Complication, Continuity See Full Post

Old Coach at the End of the Bar

Coaching, Change Harvesting / / 4 minutes of reading

I am supposed to be shooting the next Real Programmer episode today, but I had a really good wrap-up meeting that was important, and I’m waiting for one more piece I need to send a first invoice to a new client, and I want to talk about coaching. In another part of the forest, some folks are discussing the frustrations of what is, by whatever name we call it, coaching. And the long and the short of it is "they

Old Coach at the End of the Bar See Full Post

Change Harvesters Iterate Change

Change Harvesting, Modern-Synthesis / / 7 minutes of reading

Human, local, oriented, taken, and iterative, these are the change-harvester’s bywords. In iterative change, we not only accept the reality of gradual stepwise refinement — changing what we’ve already changed before — we actually anticipate it and take advantage of it. Before we begin: Folks, I know many are celebrating last week’s results . I see them as one small pass towards the change I seek. Take a short break, then it’s back to work? Black lives matter. Voting rights

Change Harvesters Iterate Change See Full Post

Change Harvesters Take Change

Modern-Synthesis, Change Harvesting / / 6 minutes of reading

We’re talking about change-harvesting: human, local, oriented, taken, and iterative change. Let’s consider this adjective "taken" today, and see where we go with it. I keep saying: these muses are respite for me, and maybe for you, from more important stories. Partisan thugs seek to turn our nation into a freak show of state violence, white supremacy, vast inequality, & the oppression of women. Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay angry. Stay kind. In change-harvesting, we use this word "taken" in

Change Harvesters Take Change See Full Post

Change Harvesters Orient Their Changes

Modern-Synthesis, Change Harvesting / / 6 minutes of reading

In our change-harvesting take, we have human, local, oriented, taken, and iterative as our attributes of successful change strategy. Let’s take up oriented: How do we reconcile our emphasis on locality against the far-away target that is our goal? Before we begin, I want to reiterate my support for those folks out in the world who are working so hard for peaceful change in the US. Black lives matter to me, and I greatly appreciate your effort and risk. Stay

Change Harvesters Orient Their Changes See Full Post

Scroll to Top