Software Delivery Notebook

Tag: Methods

  • Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning

    Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Work Is Water: Flow, Not Drowning
    Loading
    /

    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.

  • The 2025 State of GitOps report

    State of GitOps 2025
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    The 2025 State of GitOps report
    Loading
    /

    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
    Loading
    /

    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
    Loading
    /

    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.

  • Looking back at NATO ’68

    Looking back at NATO '68
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Looking back at NATO ’68
    Loading
    /

    Looking back at the history of software delivery is like discovering the kind of diamond mine you see in cartoons. Lights reflect from perfectly cut gemstones that simply need to be plucked from the walls.

    Well, way back in 1968, there was a NATO software engineering conference. Surely, there’s nothing to learn about software engineering from such an ancient conference? Well, maybe there is.

    People chasing shiny new things, struggling to measure software delivery without driving the wrong behavior, and estimation are all topics that continue to be relevant even today.

    That sounds remarkably like agile thinking doesn’t it; iterative development and adjusting based on feedback.

  • AI code quality trends

    AI code quality trends
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    AI code quality trends
    Loading
    /

    Digging into the 2025 AI Copilot Code Quality report from GitClear and Alloy, which looked at 211,000,000 lines of code and made projections for 2025.

    Find out how AI is increasing the speed of change, and the knock on effects of optimizing for short-term speed. Or, more poetically: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when AI agents we use for speed.”

    Good developers focus on building systems that are not just functional, but also elegant and efficient. They refactor their code, meaning they constantly look for ways to improve the structure and make it more reusable.

  • Lincoln Labs: Decades ahead of its time

    Lincoln Labs: Ahead of its time
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Lincoln Labs: Decades ahead of its time
    Loading
    /

    It’s time for a history lesson! We start by looking at early software delivery models by looking at MIT’s Lincoln Labs and the SAGE project.

    The process used for SAGE was documented by Herbert Benington in 1956. How did they tackle building the first large computer programming when none of the tools we use existed?

    Find out why Lincoln Labs were telling us how to start with a small working system before evolving it to meet more needs decades before the Agile revolution.

    Get ready for a blast from the past, as today we’re going deep on the SAGE air defence system […] It’s like they were laying the foundation for Agile development, but like, decades before it was even a thing.

  • Developer productivity at Google

    Google Developer Productivity: Code Quality and Beyond
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Developer productivity at Google
    Loading
    /

    A peek inside Google’s research on developer productivity, which looks at causal relationships to find what helps developers get stuff done (and what gets in the way).

    Looks at factors like shifting priorities, documentation, time spent in meetings, distributed and remote working, and technical debt.

    “Maybe it’s not just the presence or absence of documentation that matters, but the quality and purpose of that documentation.”

  • Why use Continuous Delivery?

    Continuous Delivery
    The Software Delivery Notebook
    Why use Continuous Delivery?
    Loading
    /

    We dive into the white paper, The Importance of Continuous Delivery by Steve Fenton, published by Octopus.

    Find out why Continuous Delivery (CD) is the best way to deliver software that we know of right now.

    “Implementing Continuous Delivery isn’t just a flip of a switch, it’s a journey. The key is to start small, focus on those quick wins, and build momentum from there.”