Why Great Software Teams Optimize for Trust, Not Velocity
Velocity Is the Obvious Metric — and the Wrong One In the software industry, speed is often treated as the ultimate sign of success. Teams are praised for shipping quickly, roadmaps are measured in release cycles, and leaders feel constant pressure to accelerate delivery. Velocity has become a proxy for performance. But over time, many […]
Managing the Unknowns: Keeping New Software Projects in Scope
Starting a new software engineering project with a new client is always an exciting moment. There’s energy, ambition, and a shared belief that the solution being built will solve real business problems. At the same time, these early phases are where projects are most vulnerable to risk, because this is when the most assumptions are […]
Why Team Chemistry Matters More Than Raw Talent
Most engineering leaders have lived through some version of this experience: a team assembled with impressive résumés, deep technical expertise, and years of experience, yet the project still struggles. Deadlines slip. Design discussions drag on longer than expected. Decisions feel harder than they should be. Despite having all the right talent on paper, progress slows […]
Designing Software for the Unknown Future
How to build systems that can adapt without over-engineering The False Comfort of Predicting the Future Every software roadmap starts with a well-intentioned assumption: that we have a reasonable idea of what the future will look like. We plan features for the next year, sketch architectures for the next three, and make technical decisions today […]
Refactoring Isn’t Rework — It’s Risk Management
Why “It Still Works” Is a Risky Standard Every organization eventually asks the same question when refactoring comes up: Why are we spending time and money changing something that already works? From a business standpoint, it’s a reasonable concern. Refactoring doesn’t deliver new features, doesn’t change the user experience, and doesn’t immediately generate revenue. On […]
The Hidden Cost of “Almost Done” Software
The Illusion of Progress In software projects, progress often looks deceptively good on paper. Features are “90% complete.” Systems “mostly work.” Releases are shipped with the understanding that a few things will be cleaned up later. This state of being almost done feels efficient. It creates momentum, satisfies deadlines, and gives the impression that teams […]
Why Great Engineering Is Still About People
The Question Everyone Is Asking Artificial intelligence is now embedded in nearly every part of modern engineering. It can generate code, analyze massive datasets, optimize designs, and surface insights faster than ever before. With tools becoming more capable by the day, a reasonable question follows: If AI can do so much, where do people still […]
What Engineering Teaches Us About the Holiday Season
A Familiar Kind of Chaos The holiday season has a way of reminding us that even the best-laid plans rarely unfold exactly as expected. Calendars fill up, travel schedules tighten, weather becomes unpredictable, and expectations run high. It’s a busy, sometimes chaotic time of year but also a familiar one for engineers. In many ways, […]
Designing Software for Long-Term Maintainability: What Decisions Matter Most 3–5 Years Down the Road
Maintainability Is a Business Issue Most software doesn’t fail because it can’t be built. It fails because it can’t be maintained. Three to five years after a system goes live, the original assumptions may have changed. Business priorities evolve, teams turn over, and new requirements emerge that were never part of the initial roadmap. At […]
When No One Owns the Code: The Challenge of Taking Over Client Projects
The Orphaned Project Problem Taking over an existing software project is challenging under any circumstances, but the difficulty increases dramatically when a client has no internal owner for the codebase. With no documentation, minimal historical context, and no single person who understands the architecture, consultants are often stepping into a system that lacks direction and […]