Blog
Thoughts, ideas, and lessons from the field of engineering culture and software delivery.
The One Question That Changes Every Conversation. Why?
A manager once told me I should stop asking "why." It was considered offensive. I disagreed then, and I still do. Simon Sinek's Start with Why expl...
If You Want to Become an IT Company, You Need to Behave Like One
A few years ago, a colleague and I spent a day walking through a city, trying to answer one simple question: what do we actually do? The answer tur...
You Don't Have to Choose Between Leadership and Code
Most leaders gave up writing code when they stepped into management. AI coding agents make re-engaging with the craft so low-friction that the excu...
Welcome to Culture Engineers
After years of speaking at conferences, writing articles, and advising teams, I finally have a home for all of it. Here's why I built this site and...
Rebuild or Refactor? That is the question!
Sooner or later every team faces the same question: should we rebuild this software from scratch, or refactor our way out of the mess? The answer i...
The Software Crisis Never Ended, It Just Evolved
In 1968, NATO gathered fifty of the brightest minds in computing to name a growing problem: the software crisis. That crisis never ended — it simpl...
English as the New Programming Language
There is a growing belief that English is becoming the new programming language. Not because code is disappearing — but because the conversation fi...
Don't Let AI Optimize the Wrong 30%
Almost every conversation about AI and software development focuses on helping developers write code faster. But coding is often as little as 30% o...
Your New Rubber Duck is an AI
Will AI replace developers? I explored that question with a guest who knows the space inside out. The answer is nuanced — and more hopeful than the...
Growing a DevOps Mindset
We often think that implementing change in an organisation is mostly about technology. Engineers usually make the technical part work. The real dif...
Is DevOps Dead? Or Just Evolving?
"DevOps is dead. Long live platform engineering." I've heard this phrase at conferences and in vendor pitches. It made me think. After years of cha...
Knowledge Driven Culture
In my post on engineering culture I briefly touched on the "Knowledge Driven" pillar. This one is different from the others — it is entirely about ...
Aligned Autonomy in Practice
Full autonomy gives teams freedom but risks fragmentation. Pure alignment gives predictability but kills ownership. The answer — aligned autonomy —...
Building an Engineering Culture
In 2011, Marc Andreessen said "software is eating the world." A decade later, every company has become a software company. But becoming one require...