When a Pull Request Balloons, Extract
My refund feature's pull request grew past 3,000 lines. Instead of shipping it whole, I've been pulling out the bug fixes and tests into their own PRs.
Posts tagged “practices”
21 posts.
Finding Your Broken Glass: A Flaky Test Prompt for GitHub Actions
Your CI history already knows which tests flake. This prompt pulls the evidence, names the tests, and works out what the re-runs cost.
Who Fills the Sprint? My 45/45/10 Split
Every sprint is a tug-of-war between the roadmap and the work that keeps the lights on. Here is the 45/45/10 split I plan against, and why.
Celebrating New Journaling Habits
A couple of new habits have stuck: weekly planning, and a signal log to track where my consulting outreach lands.
What Is Good Code?
We all nod along to "good code" but rarely define it. Here are the four attributes I look for, and the practices that protect each one.
A Place for Everything: How I Track Work
How I track work, from issue statuses and types to pull request conventions, with sample PR templates you can copy.
Decision Records, Playbooks, and Other Acts of Kindness
You open a project you did not write, hit a wall, and find no one left to ask. The habits that spare the next developer that moment.
Stabilizing Inherited Software: My First-Week Checklist
Inherited a live codebase with no one left who built it? Here's the checklist I run through in week one — before touching a single feature.
Fresh Eyes on a Cucumbered Team
There is a term for being on a team so long you stop noticing its quirks. What fresh eyes can, and cannot responsibly, do about it.
Using Google Sheets to Catalog Expenses for Budgeting Considerations
This is how I catalog my planned expenses when reviewing personal budget scenarios. Google sheet and video demo attached.
On Asking Multiple Questions
Some notes on asking people multiple questions in a single message and how it can go south quickly.
My Standup Format
The async standup format I have used for over a year now, and why it has stuck when other formats did not.
Recent Estimating Work Notes
An estimate is not a set of facts, it is a time-boxed framework for a better discussion. Notes from recent estimating work.
The Importance of Side Project Tiny Tickets
Deep work programming sessions are hard to come by. Find tiny ways to move your side project forward during the cracks of life.
Budget Revisit 2022
I'll share how I collect and organize my numbers, and hopefully, it will inspire you to revisit or improve your budgeting solution.
Don't Waste My Time (Video 2m)
A few thoughts on cutting to the chase in videos for an online audience.
A Screencast about Building Screencasts: How I Built the Guildflow 70-second Introduction Video
How I built the 70-second Guildflow introduction video, and what I have learned about making screencasts in general.
Video: How I Use OmniFocus to Track Tasks (12m)
A 12-minute video on how I finally made OmniFocus work for my weekly task list, not just the long term projects.
My Favorite TextExpander Shortcut Snippets
I added a new one today, for the common need to convert a title-like string into a filename-friendly one.
My New Experiment: Journaling All the Things
After watching Mark Dalrymple rubber duck a bug in a text file, I am trying to journal my own assumptions and questions.
Managing Remote Teams
Notes from a Wildbit meetup on managing remote teams, taken as a remote employee curious how other companies handle it.