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
Fail a build if tests fail
Explains how to configure TFS 2008 builds to automatically fail if any tests fail by setting TreatTestFailureAsBuildFailure to true in the …
Data Dude R2 is out!
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR R2 adds new features, improved SQL Server 2008 support, enhancements, and bug fixes for …
Visual Studio Team Test Quick Reference Guide 1.0
A practical guide offering solutions, workarounds, and troubleshooting tips for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Test, based on real-world …
Reformat your CSS on the fly
Learn how to use a .NET HTTP handler to dynamically adjust CSS file paths, ensuring images and resources load correctly across different web …
Does test-driven development speed up development?
Explores whether test-driven development (TDD) accelerates software delivery by reducing complexity, rework, and design flaws, and improving …
Retrieving an identity from Team Foundation Server using only the display name
Explains how to retrieve a user or group identity from Team Foundation Server using only a display name, including handling Active Directory …
Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR has been released!
The new Database Edition GDR for Visual Studio Team System 2008 adds model-based SQL schema design, extensibility, provider support, and …
Advice on using XamRibbon with Composite WPF
Provides guidance and code examples for integrating Infragistics XamRibbon with Composite WPF, including custom region adapters for dynamic …
TFS Sticky Buddy 2.0 development started…
Development of TFS Sticky Buddy 2.0 has begun, focusing on modular WPF architecture and new navigation features. Early CTP version and …
MSBuild and Business Intelligence Packages, Ahhhhhh!
Discusses challenges in automating builds, testing, and deployment for SQL Server BI solutions, focusing on SSIS and SSAS packages and gaps …
Branch madness!
Describes a complex source control issue in TFS involving branch mismanagement, its impact on merging, and step-by-step actions taken to …
Sync extension for Lists/Collections or whatever
Explains how to synchronise two .NET collections by applying differences, with thread safety using locks, ensuring target lists match source …
Creating a WPF Work Item Control
Learn how to build a custom WPF work item control for Visual Studio Team System, enabling WPF UI integration in work item forms using a …
Calling an object method in a data trigger
Explains how to call an object method in a WPF DataTrigger, the limitations with extension methods, and common errors when binding methods …
Heat ITSM
Describes integrating Heat ITSM with Team Foundation Server to sync and manage support calls, automate work item creation, and streamline IT …
Ooooh, RTM Delight
Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, and Team Foundation Server 2008 Beta 1 released, featuring major improvements for developers in …
IHandlerFactory
Explains how to use a custom IHttpHandler and handler factory in ASP.NET to redirect old URLs to a new site, preserving links and SEO with …
TFS Error: MSB4018 The "BuildShadowTask" task failed unexpectedly
Explains the MSB4018 "BuildShadowTask" error in TFS when using Accessors in unit test projects, its cause, and how removing .accessor files …
Creating a SharePoint Solution
Follow the development of a .NET 3.5 SharePoint Time Off Management app using WebParts, Workflow, InfoPath, SQL Server, and test-driven …
Post event: Developer Day Scotland
Highlights from Developer Day Scotland, featuring sessions on ADO.NET Data Services, anti-patterns, continuous integration, and test-driven …
Major deadline
A critical SharePoint migration project faces urgent deadlines after performance issues, requiring rapid deployment of a new MOSS portal to …
Bug in ObservableCollection?
Explains issues using ObservableCollection with generic types in .NET, why errors occur, and discusses workarounds and limitations when …
Creating a better TFS Sticky Buddy (Core)
Explains building a flexible WPF data model in VB.NET for visualising hierarchical relationships using generics, ObservableCollections, and …
TFS Sticky Buddy layout fun
A developer shares challenges and insights from building a TFS Sticky Buddy UI in WinForms and WPF, comparing layout issues and ease of use …
New Event Handlers
Adds two event handlers for TFS: one emails users when assigned a work item, the other notifies users when work is reassigned. Includes …
TFS Event Handler (Prototype) Refresh
Bug fixes and updates for the TFS Event Handler Prototype, now supporting .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. Includes installer refresh and …
Removing ACL's for dead AD accounts
Explains how to identify and remove access control entries (ACLs) for deleted Active Directory accounts using .NET, including challenges and …
My first Extension method
Explains how to create and use extension methods in VB.NET, with an example for enhancing the XboxInfo class to display and track Xbox Live …
Where am I?
Describes a .NET application that tracks users’ locations via IP, updates Active Directory, and uses LINQ for database queries, aiding …
Amusing job requirements
A humorous look at unrealistic job requirements for analyst programmers, highlighting the pitfalls of overloaded skill lists and offering …