Letters from the grind: A few words on company wide prioritization

From time to time I find myself writing longish e-mails to individuals or groups, offering them my point of view on various topics that are currently on their radar. This one – an attempt to provide some clarity on company wide prioritization and strategic coherence – went out to a Management Team. A few words […]


Letters from the grind: A few words on technical debt

From time to time I find myself writing longish e-mails to individuals or groups, offering them my point of view on various topics that are currently on their radar. This one, on the topic of Technical Debt, went out to a Management Team. A few words on technical debt Technical debt is a common term […]


Remote challenges – Communication

When we attempt to make Agile work with distributed teams we come across a few interesting challenges. Agile product development methods are very people centric. They depend on high quality interactions and mindful collaboration between all invested parties. Collaboration in turn depend heavily on communication. I find it valuable to spend some time talking about […]

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Not Even Wrong – The powerful culture of engineering

August 2015 Turtle on the beach Hotel, Kovalum, India After a week of work in busy Bangalore I decided to head down to Kerala for some relaxation and writing. I checked in at the Turtle on the Beach Hotel in Kovalum, a few miles west of Kanyakumari, the southernmost point of peninsular India. With the […]

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Not Even Wrong – Team Point of Departure

August 2015 The Leela Palace, Bangalore, India The journey is the reward – Daoist proverb Important looking European business men are scattered around the bar. Their pale faces are lit up from their laptops, making them look like evil alien masterminds contemplating the destruction of earth. A troubadour with a lavish taste for reverb and cowboy […]

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Not Even Wrong – The Holistic Model of Work

April 2015 Budapest, Corvine Center Suites So then, this is the model that I hope capture the essence of the message that I would like to invite you to consider. This then, is the entire skeleton of the book I hope to write. As avid readers of this blog might observe, the earliest illustration of […]

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Not Even Wrong – A few words on Agile, Pirates and Egalitarianism

April 2015 Budapest, Corvine Center Suites Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe Sounder advice than that provided by Mr. Ashe might not have been uttered. I’d say it’s good advice in any context, but to me it’s particularly potent when it comes to writing. Writing is […]

Spring in Budapest

Not Even Wrong – On Patience 1

February 2015 Saigon, The Saigon Parkroyal Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way. ― Fulton J. Sheen Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw? Oh curst Effects of necessary […]

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Not Even Wrong – On Simplicity 1

February 2015 Phú Quốc, Long Beach Resort I have learned an important principle: simple things work, often to our dumbfounded surprise, for we tend to distrust the simple and strive for the complex. – Richard Cracroft Simplicity is complexity rescued – Constantin Brancusi simplicity noun sim·plic·i·ty \sim-ˈpli-sə-tē, -ˈplis-tē\ : the quality of being easy to […]


Not Even Wrong – On Compassion

February 2015 Saigon, Silverland Sakyo Hotel Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty – Albert Einstein Compassion noun com·pas·sion \kəm-ˈpa-shən\ A feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble Full Definition of […]


Not Even Wrong – Saigon traffic and CAS 2

Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers, Saigon February 2015 “A system is a network of interdependent components that work together to try to accomplish the aim of the system…The secret is cooperation between components toward the aim of the organization. We cannot afford the destructive effect of competition.” – W. Edwards Deming I’m sitting in the […]

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Not Even Wrong – Simplicity, Patience, Compassion

February 2015 Dubai, Dubai International Airport Hotel “I have just three things to teach: Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, You return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, You accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, You reconcile all […]


Not Even Wrong – The State of Strategy 1

December 2014 Kristianstad @ the in-laws “…In fact, when asked what it takes to secure a prosperous future, more than 80 percent of executives consider agility as important or more important than strategy when it comes to securing a prosperous future”. – The A.T. Kearny 2014 State of Strategy Study On this beautiful crisp christmas day morning I […]

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Not Even Wrong – More on levels of abstraction 4

November 2014 Stockholm @ Pappas Deli In a previous text I talked about involving the delivery team in all levels of abstraction. Today, I thought I’d elaborate a tad on that subject. If, at the point when any idea reaches the team, the level of abstraction is low, the inevitable result will be a few […]