Software Delivery Notebook

Episodes

  • Why software projects fail

    Why Big Software Projects Fail
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Why software projects fail
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    Let’s look at a classic software projects paper published in The Journal of Defense Software Engineering in March 2005. It discusses why software projects fail so often. Some of the concepts discussed are old school and the criteria for success aren’t what we’d use today, but it’s a fascinating snapshot of the problems that were faced in the old times.

    Despite its age, we still find some of these problems can surface in modern software delivery. Understanding where we came from can help guide what we do next.

    Watts S. Humphrey asks 12 questions in his paper:

    1. Are all large software projects unmanageable?
    2. Why are large software projects hard to manage?
    3. Why is autocratic management ineffective for software?
    4. Why is management visibility a problem for software?
    5. Why can’t management just ask the developers?
    6. Why do planned projects fail?
    7. Why not just insist on detailed plans?
    8. Why not tell the developers to plan their work?
    9. How can we get developers to make good plans?
    10. How can management trust developers to make plans?
    11. What are the risks of changing?
    12. What has been the experience so far?

  • Dave Farley’s CD report

    Dave Farley’s CD report
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Dave Farley’s CD report
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    Dave Farley knows a thing or two about Continuous Delivery (CD), so his State of Continuous Delivery in 2025 report based on assessments of consultancy customers is a great insight into how CD is being practiced.

    Find out what people are practicing, what they are missing, and why we need to overcome the technical skills cliff that still remains.

    [The top 10%] are strong across the board. They’re really setting the standard. For instance, over 95% of them are doing trunk-based development… and they have truly comprehensive test automation; unit, integration, end-to-end, the works. Plus they have complete deployment pipeline automation… and comprehensive observability and monitoring.

  • Multi-tasking: Executive control in task switching

    Executive Control in Task Switching
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Multi-tasking: Executive control in task switching
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    A big myth of business is that multi-taskers are the go-getters who deliver the most work. The research, though, shows that these multi-taskers deliver work slowly and have problems with quality and accuracy. In fact, the more someone rates their multi-tasking skills, the worse they perform.

    Find out how researchers tested these ideas to discover the true impact of multi-tasking and the trouble with context switching, which has a cost influenced by task difficulty and rule complexity.

    Even when people were switching between simple addition and subtraction, with cues helping them prepare, there was still a measurable cost.

  • AI coding assistants and perceptions of productivity

    AI coding assistants and perceptions of productivity
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    AI coding assistants and perceptions of productivity
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    A very deep exploration, conducted by METR with 16 open-source developers and 246 real issues, has looked at perceptions and reality of productivity when using AI coding assistants. Titled Measuring the impact of early-2025 AI on experienced open-source developer productivity, the report tackles something we’ve known for a while, our perception of productivity is no indicator for reality.

    We had the same issue with multi-tasking, where people thought they were more productive, but the reality was they were less productive. So, how does this translate to software delivery with AI assistance? The TL;DR is a perception of a 20% less time to complete tasks, but a reality of an additional 19%. Less than half of AI suggestions were accepted by the developers.

    A lot of earlier studies looked at artificial problems, things that were self contained, maybe didn’t reflect the messiness or real code, or they relied on metrics that, honestly, AI could game.

  • Unraveling Software Cycle Time: Messy, Not Magic

    Cycle Time: Messy not Magic
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Unraveling Software Cycle Time: Messy, Not Magic
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    This episode looks at the preprint, No Silver Bullets: Why Understanding Software Cycle Time is Messy, Not Magic, from John Flournoy, Carol Lee, Maggie Wu, and Catherine Hicks from Pluralsight.

    The paper looks at how cycle time is influenced by a large number of factors, with none being a silver bullet. The compound affect of many small improvements is the way to improve cycle times. There’s also a deep look at unexplained variation and noise that makes this a hard area to study.

    There are countless tiny factors that can influence how long a single task takes… and what’s particularly striking, or maybe a bit humbling, is that this variability across individuals is even greater than the variability across organizations.

  • Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning

    Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning
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    From the article Work Is Water on The New Stack.

    Modern work environments often overwhelm individuals with an endless stream of tasks, akin to a river flooding its banks. It suggests that attempting to rush work through only exacerbates the problem, leading to more interruptions and a feeling of being constantly submerged.

    Embrace a “flow” mentality inspired by natural waterways and find out how slowing down, continuous small-scale planning, and intentional decision-making is how you get things done.

  • Restorative practice for software teams

    Defining Restorative
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Restorative practice for software teams
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    Looks at the Defining Restorative paper from Ted Wachtel, founder of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP).

    The explores the historical evolution of restorative justice from ancient roots to modern applications and outlines a supporting framework and how it can be used in the context of software teams.

    It builds trust, fosters buy in, and reinforces that social capital.

  • The 2025 State of GitOps report

    State of GitOps 2025
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    The 2025 State of GitOps report
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    The State of GitOps Report is the first in-depth investigation into the adoption, practices, and benefits of GitOps, drawing on data from 660 survey responses and expert interviews. Its goal is to understand what constitutes successful GitOps implementation.

    The report finds that GitOps adoption is increasing, with 93% of organizations planning to continue or increase their use. It explores adoption not just by prevalence (breadth across systems) but also by the number of key practices implemented (depth or maturity). The report identifies a model of 6 core practices considered necessary for successful adoption.

    The data showed a clear correlation: Applying more GitOps practices across more use cases, and over more of your productions systems leads to better results. Depth and breadth matter.

  • Test-Driven Development

    Test-Driven Development
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Test-Driven Development
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    Lets look at the paper Evaluating the impact of Test-Driven Development on Software Quality Enhancement, published in I. J. Mathematical Sciences and Computing.

    Find out the hurdles and outcomes of a TDD approach. Hurdles include lack of experience, time constraints, difficulty creating comprehensive tests cases, and integration issues. Benefits are things like user satisfaction, product quality, defect reduction, and code maintainability.

    It’s not magic. TDD takes effort.

    Source: Md. Sydur Rahman, Aditya Kumar Saha, Uma Chakraborty, Humaira Tabassum Sujana, S. M. Abdullah Shafi, “Evaluating the impact of Test-Driven Development on Software Quality Enhancement”, International Journal of Mathematical Sciences and Computing(IJMSC), Vol.10, No.3, pp. 51-76, 2024. DOI: 10.5815/ijmsc.2024.03.05

  • Brooks – No Silver Bullets

    No Silver Bullets
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Brooks – No Silver Bullets
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    The landmark paper by Fred Brooks, No Silver Bullets, is stuffed full of smart thinking that applies today just as much as it did in the 1980s.

    Find out about accidental and essential complexity and the factors in software that make it hard to share a mental model about the systems we create. Crucially, find out why the promised “silver bullets” of the 80s are not unlike those being hyped today.

    No language of technique removes the essential complexity of the software we create.