One of the dangers of writing user stories is that they can get pretty big if there’s no one on the team to point it out. The scope of a user story becomes broader than it should be. In the following article, I’m going to walk you through the reasons why you should aim for... Read more
The post was first published in Today Software Magazine, no. 55 This article aims to answer a set of core questions about software architecture, providing answers that come from modern software architecture thinking. Its inspiration came from: conversations with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock and Simon Brown architecting the eventrix.co product, running “Architectural Katas” countless conversations with architects... Read more
We are committed to champion software excellence and challenge the current practices. Our aim is to constantly improve: business, product, and teams. That’s why, in this last month we carefully selected pieces of advice, practical ideas for you & your team to improve and grow. For you to easier access them, we present you the... Read more
In 2009, Bucharest was on the pair programming tour of the first software journeyman: Corey Haines. We want to support and continue this tradition. We’re opening up our office for anyone who has a connection with software development and wants to travel and learn more. We’ve done this informally in the past, with people we... Read more
Our colleague, Adi Bolboacă, had a session at Agile Talks #17, a community event where we constantly make a contribution. Find out more about from the below presentation, containing topics on: cross-functional teams habits and their importance group decisions estimates scaling The video material is here. If interested in the above topics, set a meeting... Read more
While developing the first MozaicLabs product, eventrix.co, we wanted to use our full experience in agile, lean and software craftsmanship. Here’s a list of things we’ve adopted: A kanban process to have a steady flow of features and to allow improvements A technical strategy Continuous delivery and automated testing from day 1 Impact mapping to create... Read more
Over the past 6 months, I’ve been working with a customer who develops hardware appliances. They were facing a challenge with complaints from users about one of their products, which appeared a few months in. Needless to say, the cause of such bugs requires long and thorough investigation. Context The hardware appliance runs a real-time OS, which... Read more
You and your team are preparing to deploy in production a set of features. Unfortunately, some of these have the status”almost done” and it’s not clear how much longer will take until done. Straight to the point – this shouldn’t happen. To avoid the failure of the deployment, one way is to reconsider how your team... Read more
Doing your job as a software developer is not limited to writing code and attending meetings. It should also include keeping in sync with your company’s technical strategy. It may not be that obvious, but a developer should know what the technical strategy of the product is, why it needs a plan at all and... Read more
This is the last blog post in the series about technical strategy in practice. The first post, I’ve detailed what is technical strategy and why is important. In the second one, I’ve described how a technical strategy should look for a specific product. In this article, I am going to share more about who creates... Read more
Let’s continue the series about technical strategy. In the first blog post, I’ve detailed what technical strategy is and why it is important. In this article, you will find more about what the technical strategy should contain for a particular product. A few things need to be well defined, clearly communicated and constantly repeated. Before... Read more
In my first years of working as a developer, I dreaded a few words like “marketing”, “exciting”, and “strategy”. And for good reasons: most times they were void of meaning. A few years later, as a technical lead, and later as a technical coach, I learned that the lack of meaning in the words “technical... Read more
Whether you’re extending a big project or you’re on your way refining your startup’s MVP, it’s always a challenge to prioritise the features truly worth the investment. How do you create a viable product strategy? Can you keep things relevant, yet simple enough to understand and adapt along the way? At MozaicLabs, we find that Impact... Read more
I’m a developer. We’re not well known for our communication skills; at least I know I had my problems. Most of them came from the fact that my natural tendency is to ignore emotional cues and stay on facts. In many cases, that works fine. Sometimes, though, it creates unnecessary friction and can upset people.... Read more
Throughout my software-development years, giving and receiving feedback has proven to be an important tool. It helped me drive the projects forward and improved my skills as a developer. In this article, you can find out why it’s important to give feedback to your colleagues, and, more importantly, what are the proper means to provide... Read more
You can’t just give someone a creativity injection. You have to create an environment for curiosity and a way to encourage people and get the best out of them. Ken Robinson The ability to create something new, to get new business started, break boundaries with bold ideas or redefine the existing standards are among the... Read more
Guest post by Ralph van Roosmalen Imagine this: You are working as a manager at a company, you work there already for years and things are not going bad but you know there is room for improvement. You heard about Scrum, Agile, the Agile Manifesto… and you decide to learn more about it. You visit a few conferences, attend... Read more
The question of How to keep your team motivated pops up in various discussions with managers. The reasons vary, but with the increasing generation gap (think Millenials are coming), learning this is a process that requires adjustment. Feedback helps us adjust the work behaviour and keeps the motivation level high. Gathering knowledge across a couple of years,... Read more
Challenge the way you work. Stay happy & productive! The journey to mastery is never done. It takes practice, constant improvement and always honing your craft to achieve your fullest potential. After sharing useful methods for the Scrum Master and the Product Owner | Business Analyst | Product Manager roles, let’s explore together the Software Developer | Software Crafter role. This time we’ll focus on technical and... Read more
While a lot of the design principles that we use in software can be found in other design disciplines, there is one very present in UX and graphical design that is very rarely discussed in software circles: consistency. It’s not because we weren’t trying. The system metaphor idea from XP and the conceptual integrity idea... Read more
