The strongest articles on engineering excellence and technical leadership — ranked by substance, not recency. How this is ranked
Telling People What to Do Is Not Leadership. It’s a Failure of System Design
Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability, rather than relying on …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
Don’t Manage Dependencies, Remove Them
Explains why dependencies are a sign of poor system design and outlines steps to eliminate them by aligning teams, clarifying ownership, and …
Flow of Value vs Flow of Work – Misnomer or Useful Shorthand?
Compares “flow of value” and “flow of work” in Kanban, explaining why only validated outcomes count as value and stressing the need for …
Is Agile Really Just a Mindset?
Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset …
Rethinking Capacity Planning
Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …
Why Topic Branches Drive High-Quality Delivery
Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support …
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
The Definition of Done is a Commitment to Quality
Defines the Definition of Done in Scrum as a clear, shared standard for quality, ensuring increments are releasable, transparent, and …
The articles that speak most directly to technical leadership — ranked by that classification’s score alone.
Telling People What to Do Is Not Leadership. It’s a Failure of System Design
Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability, rather than relying on …
Don’t Manage Dependencies, Remove Them
Explains why dependencies are a sign of poor system design and outlines steps to eliminate them by aligning teams, clarifying ownership, and …
Flow of Value vs Flow of Work – Misnomer or Useful Shorthand?
Compares “flow of value” and “flow of work” in Kanban, explaining why only validated outcomes count as value and stressing the need for …
There Is No Such Thing as a "Junior" Scrum Master
Argues that the Scrum Master role requires proven mastery and real-world experience, not entry-level skills or certifications, and should be …
Great Scrum Masters Need Technical, Business, and Organisational Mastery
Scrum Masters are most effective when they combine leadership skills with technical, business, and organisational mastery to support teams, …
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
Is Agile Really Just a Mindset?
Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset …
Rethinking Capacity Planning
Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …
Why Topic Branches Drive High-Quality Delivery
Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support …
The articles that speak most directly to engineering excellence — ranked by that classification’s score alone.
Stop Building Silos. Start Building Systems
Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform …
Rethinking Capacity Planning
Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …
The Definition of Done is a Commitment to Quality
Defines the Definition of Done in Scrum as a clear, shared standard for quality, ensuring increments are releasable, transparent, and …
Testing in Production Maximises Quality and Value
Explains how audience-based deployment and testing in production enable faster feedback, safer rollouts, and higher software quality by …
Telling People What to Do Is Not Leadership. It’s a Failure of System Design
Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability, rather than relying on …
Is Agile Really Just a Mindset?
Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset …
Why Topic Branches Drive High-Quality Delivery
Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support …
Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and …
Resilience is Part of the Product, Not an Afterthought
Resilience must be designed into products from the start, not added later. Build systems to detect, contain, and recover from failures, …
420 resources, newest first
Visual Studio 2010 Overview Webcasts
Series of webcasts providing high-level overviews of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server features, including ALM, testing, code …
The Sprint is a container for Planning and not necessarily for Delivery
Explains how Scrum Sprints are primarily for planning, not fixed delivery, and discusses aligning delivery schedules, continuous deployment, …
Can you really commit to delivering work?
Explores why Scrum shifted from "commitment" to "forecasting" work delivery, highlighting the risks of overpromising and the benefits of …
Are you doing Scrum? Really?
Explains recent changes to Scrum aimed at reducing rigidity, clarifying core practices, and providing a checklist to help teams assess if …
Process Template Upgrade #3 - Destroy all Work Items and Import new ones
Step-by-step guide to upgrading a process template in TFS by deleting all existing work items, archiving queries and reports, and importing …
Product Owners are not a myth
Explains the Product Owner role in Scrum, common challenges with proxies, and how support teams like Business Analysts can help manage large …
Are Scrum Masters agents for change?
Explores the role of Scrum Masters in driving organisational change, effective Scrum adoption, and the importance of experience in leading …
Caffeinating Your Development Lifecycle in Bellevue on October 13th
Join an in-person morning event in Bellevue for live Visual Studio demos, Agile discussions, and practical ALM tips to boost your …
Scrum is hard to adopt and disruptive to your organisation
Explains why adopting Scrum is challenging and disruptive, highlighting the need for training, mentoring, and dedication for successful …
Not just happy, but ecstatic
A consultant reflects on a successful Microsoft Dynamics deployment, improved build automation, and positive client feedback, inspiring …
You are doing Scrum but the Scrum Master tells the team what to do!
Explains why Scrum Masters should not direct teams, emphasising self-organisation, shared responsibility, and the importance of team …
Testing with Test Professional 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
Learn how to use Microsoft Test Manager, Visual Studio 2010, and TFS for software testing, test management, bug tracking, and automated test …
Subversion to TFS 2010: The migration engine is unable to resolve a conflict where two changes have the same target item
Explains how to resolve case sensitivity conflicts when migrating from Subversion to TFS 2010, including tools and steps to handle duplicate …
Coffee Talk: Introduction to Scrum - webcast event this Friday!
Learn the basics of Scrum, including its key roles and processes, with practical tips for adoption. Ideal for those new to agile or seeking …
Upgrading your Process Template in Team Foundation Server
Explains methods for upgrading process templates in Team Foundation Server, comparing pros and cons of each approach, and highlighting …
Upgrading from TFS 2008 and WSS v3.0 with SfTSv2 to TFS 2010 and SF 2010 with SfTSv3
Step-by-step guide to upgrading TFS 2008 and WSS v3.0 with SfTSv2 to TFS 2010 and SharePoint 2010, including process template migration and …
Configuring a PowerShell Adapter for the TFS Integration Platform
Explains how to set up and configure a PowerShell adapter in the TFS Integration Platform to automate source control migrations, with custom …
Constructing a framework for the TFS Automation Platform
Outlines the structure and components of a framework for the TFS Automation Platform, detailing its architecture, plugin management, and …
A working Test Track Pro Adapter for the TFS Integration Platform
Describes building a working Test Track Pro Adapter for the TFS Integration Platform, detailing code changes, conflict handling, and …
Test Track Pro and the case of the missing data
Explains issues with Test Track Pro data queries in TFS Integration, highlighting problems with date filters causing missing records and …
What do you do with a Work Item History Not Found Conflict Type Details
Explains how missing or non-consecutive work item revision history during TFS migrations causes conflicts, and details troubleshooting steps …
Creating a WIT Adapter for the TFS Integration Platform for a source with no history
Explains how to build a TFS Integration Platform Work Item Tracking (WIT) adapter for a source system without history, covering versioning, …
Anatomy of an Automation for the Tfs Automation Platform
Explains how to build, install, configure, and run automations for TFS, covering plugin deployment, activation, settings, UI integration, …
How might we implement the Change Iteration Automation for the Tfs Automation Platform
Explains automating the update of WIQL queries during sprint or iteration changes in the TFS Automation Platform, covering UI, …
What about hosting the Tfs Automation Platform
Explores options for hosting the TFS Automation Platform, comparing server-side and client-only setups, and discusses impacts on …
What is the Tfs Automation Platform
A platform for automating Team Foundation Server tasks, enabling scheduled, event-driven, and on-demand workflows, with extensible package …
In-Place upgrade of TFS 2008 to TFS 2010 with move to new domain
Step-by-step guide to upgrading Team Foundation Server 2008 to 2010, including in-place upgrade, build server update, and migrating to a new …
My first Scrum team in the wild
A real-world account of guiding a new Scrum team through their first sprint, covering estimation, story points, sprint planning, and …
Visual Studio ALM MVP of the Year 2011
Recognition for contributions to the Visual Studio ALM community, including sharing Team Foundation Server solutions, blogging, and …
Do you know how to move the Team Foundation Server cache
Learn how to safely move the Team Foundation Server cache to a new drive, update permissions, and configure web.config for better storage …