Keynote track Methods: "Quality is a variable"
summary
Argument that quality is a variable: prioritize user-facing correctness (features work, perform, secure) and medium-term productivity over polishing internal code. Cites concrete cases — Monument Valley (several million copies), Citymapper and Slack ship frequent updates, TextMate 2 rewrite that failed to ship lost users, team of ~35 product engineers across 4 studios and 200+ staff. Recommends ship every two weeks, refactor only when it speeds future delivery, treat technical debt like a mortgage (quantify cost and repayment timing), and prefer pragmatic copy‑paste over premature extraction.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:14QUALITY IS A VARIABLE James Higgs @higgis
- 3:31PRODUCT ENGINEERS SERVE THE NEEDS OF USERS THROUGH THE PRODUCT
- 16:46UNRELEASED CODE IS AN INVESTMENT THAT CANNOT PAY OFF
- 18:34SOFTWARE ENGINEERS' OWN ESTIMATION OF QUALITY IS MEANINGLESS
- 19:03THE QUALITY REQUIRED IS THAT WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO SHIP USEFUL FEATURES AT A CADENCE THAT WORKS FOR THE USER
- 21:27REFACTORING IS WHAT WE DO WHEN ADDING A FEATURE IS HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE
- 22:55ALL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES ARE A MEANS TO AN END, NOT A MORAL IMPERATIVE
- 24:42CORE TO THE AGILE PHILOSOPHY IS THE CONCEPT OF ITERATION. ITERATE: TO DO AGAIN
- 31:13SO, NEVER MIND TECHNICAL DEBT LET'S TALK ABOUT TECHNICAL BETS
- 38:5046 The critical question for any practice is: does it help us get better (or more, or faster) feedback on whether the software is useful?
- 39:40IT TAKES REAL DISCIPLINE AND THOUGHT TO MAKE THE RIGHT TRADEOFFS FOR A PRODUCT
- 41:27ASK YOURSELF AND YOUR TEAM: ARE WE OVER PRIORITISING THE FUTURE?
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