Metrics can be a tricky thing. They help a team understand how they are being measured, which means they can be gamed to look great — hiding issues under the surface. My general guidelines are that metrics should be: Easily understood by the entire team. Visible to the entire team. On the chopping block at […]

I recently ramped into a large project that has been in active development for over a year. With a deep project history, a complicated domain, and intricate project architecture, there was a lot to catch up on. Below are three things that helped minimize the time needed to find my feet. 1. Skip the Firehose; […]

Conflict seems to be an inevitable part of human interaction. How we handle it can make a real difference in our stress levels, career opportunities, project outcomes, and the quality of our relationships. We ask all our employees to build strong conflict resolution skills, and books like Crucial Conversations and Difficult Conversations are required reading […]

During the course of a sprint, it’s often easy to get lost in the weeds, especially when implementing a new feature. Seeing the feature in the context of the project goals is not usually top of mind. The sprint demo is a great time to remind everyone how new features fit into the larger picture. […]

Like many companies, Atomic is currently operating remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While software design and development are certainly possible in a fully-remote context, there are a few meetings and tasks that can be more difficult when you can’t be in the same room as your teammates. The sprint retrospective is one of them. […]

Switching teams is a constant expectation at Atomic. My previous project was a standard Atomic team: three full-time developers plus a part-time delivery lead. This eventually turned into me being solo on the project while I was wrapping it up. From there, I transitioned onto a much larger team, along the lines of twenty or […]

As a software developer, you will almost certainly have more available time than the key decision makers on your project. Before you find yourself totally blocked, it’s important to make good use of the time you do get with them. Here are five ways to make the most of that time. 1. Ask in Writing […]