Software-Engineering

Most development teams right now have two types of developer: the ones polishing the axe and the ones ripping through forests with a chainsaw. The person paying for the tree to come down doesn’t care which tool you use.

Most teams either skip documenting architecture decisions entirely or create heavyweight documents everyone ignores. ADRs fix this - but only when they’re lightweight enough to write during the decision, structured enough to answer ‘why did we do that?’ six months later, and stored where people actually look. Here’s a practical approach with a template that sticks.

Software development has more in common with scientific research than engineering. Using the Cynefin framework, this post looks at why building a bridge is a complicated problem, why building software is a complex one, and why that difference explains Waterfall’s failures and Agile’s fit.

A brief summary of Allen Holub’s “Getting Buy-In: Overcoming Larman’s Law” at the YOW! Brisbane conference December 2024.