Technical Excellence: Why does it not stick even now?
summary
Argues that common fixes fail with concrete failures: a 60% coverage rule that is satisfied by tests with no asserts, a 3 months acceptance + 6 months warranty contract that buys free bug fixes but leaves a system unmaintainable, and a project that hits scope on time only to hire another vendor to refactor for a year. Claims processes, contracts and pure business-value prioritization rely on extrinsic incentives and break in complex work. Recommends shared developer-chosen metrics, autonomy, cross-team guilds and visible discipline to grow intrinsic motivation and lasting quality.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Intro
- 2:07Test Coverage Policy: The Idea
- 4:33Examples of Technical Excellence
- 7:56Contract with a Warranty Period
- 10:26Example from Real Life: The Reality
- 11:13Example from Real Life: The Decision
- 12:08Example from Real Life: The Effects
- 13:18Traditional Management Paradigm Extrinsic motivation
- 14:13New Management Paradigm: Intrinsic motivation
- 15:04Nurturing Technical Excellence
- 18:17Managers, Business and Developers
- 19:14Motivation for Managers, Business?
- 19:32Example from Real Life: Legacy How-To
- 20:33How to build trust?
- 21:14What would the Experts choose instead?
- 26:45Nurture Technical Excellence
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