In the ever-evolving world of software engineering, we are often presented with the challenge of assessing successes and failures. When evaluating our own performance, we frequently attribute our successes to our skills and our failures to bad luck. However, when it comes to evaluating the results of our competitors, the tendency is quite the opposite: we tend to ascribe their failures to a lack of skill and their successes to sheer luck. These cognitive biases significantly …

I’ve seen my fair share of successes and failures in the world of technology. Throughout the years, I’ve come across various approaches to decision-making and problem-solving, each with its own set of principles and methodologies. However, one idea that recently struck a chord with me is the concept of “thinking in bets” as outlined by Annie Duke in her book of the same name.

I’d like to explore how this concept can revolutionize the way we make …

No problems are specific to remote work. Every time someone claims “this is a problem with remote work”, it is wrong. All the problems you have in a remote work environment, you actually have them in an office environment too. ALL of them!

There are two main reasons why people think some problems are specific to remote work environment :

1. They confuse symptoms for problems;
2. They are blind to the fact that the problem is present in the office environment too.

Confusing …

The Problem

We were working on a critical project, with a huge emphasis put on delivering on time. I realized that the critical nature combined with the time bound constraint was causing some stress for the team. The team needed to be focus on the goals we had instead of worried about possible outcomes and other conjectures. I knew that if the stress wasn’t relieved, we wouldn’t be able to succeed.

Actions Takens

My first action was to discuss with the team about the …

Everything starts for good reasons. When you start a new project, getting a cadence, a sense of progress, a way to see the journey done so far and what lies ahead provide benefits. But has you progress, it is time to revisit this cadence.

Choosing a sprint length at the start of each sprint is a waste of energy. Experiment with a couple of lengths, make a decision, and stick with it until there is a significant reason to change. — Mike Cohn

Sprint duration gets fixed …