A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at Product Jam 2026, organized by the wonderful Product Makers Romania community. Eight minutes were enough to explain Gen AI, software architecture, testing, operations, product…
Microservices are a hype. It made programmers more aware of methods to modularise large monolithic systems, because of stricter component boundaries.
This is a talk I delivered in Bucharest for the Agile Software Meetup Group. More and more companies want to transition to agile, because the benefits of faster delivery are essential in today’s software market.
Me and Mozaic Works’ approach to transforming an organization to agile has a lot to do with our core beliefs of small steps and fast feedback. For us an agile transformation is a tailored process for each organization, and the context is always essential.
Starting with the WHY is very important. I want to understand the internal values of the company and then decide together with the management, sponsors and the teams why they want to make this transformation. Without having the active involvement in any transformation, the whole process becomes very difficult or even impossible to put in place.
I don’t want to start from “what process to use” (Scrum, Kanban, DSDM, SAfE, etc), but rather discover the process while working with the people from that organization and understanding their needs. Together we create the process by applying things I know work well and by experimenting some things that might or might not work. As with any type of design, I prefer taking decisions as late as possible, because the more I learn the better the decision is.
Don’t commit unless you know why Chris Matts
I gave this talk about Agile Practices at the Bucharest Agile Software Meetup Group, Agileworks. It’s in Romanian, because that’s what the audience wanted.
One by one I explain how some of the most common agile practices emerged. Also I explain when and why it’s a good idea to apply them. As seen in practice, some practices are just a hype, and they are very difficult to implement in an organization. Due to that you should always take into account the negative impact of introducing a new practice. Also be prepared for the consequences. There is no such thing as a perfect practice, you can always generate negative effects.
Agile started to become a hype because more and more companies are forced to deliver software faster. Because the markets are changing faster, the production and delivery speed is essential in this fast-paced world.
The last topic I am addressing is the apparent need or organizations to scale agile. There are multiple ways of scaling agile (horizontal, vertical, etc). Most of all we must ask ourselves if we really need to scale. Scaling agile too fast may generate counter-effects. Probably the worst effects are the decrease in productivity and minimizing the focus on the product value. Finally we can scale an organization and focus on the agile format, but not on its values.
Talk: Easier to change CODE This is a talk from I T.A.K.E. Unconference 2016, Bucharest. It is a hands-on talk, where I refactor some code live with the help of the audience. Techniques During this…
We discussed about things like: Well crafted code Ways to improve one’s craft How to become a conference speaker and many more… Catch a replay from @scturkey from Java Summit Romania about Software Craftsmanship and…
Deliberate practice is a highly structured activity engaged in with the specific goal of improving performance. It is different from work, play and simple repetition of a task. It requires effort, it has no monetary reward, and it is not inherently enjoyable.
The common view held until recently was that expert-level performance was simply the result of talent and “natural abilities.” But scientists believe that expert-level performance is primarily the result of expert-level practice NOT due to innate talent.
So let’s have a discussion about how we can practice, formats and methods of practice in the Software Development world. I will touch technical type of practice (for programmers, testers, etc), and also organizational type of practice (managers, Scrum Masters, Team Leaders, Product Owners, etc)
Talk: Legacy Code is Fear (Łódź, Poland) Legacy code is fear because we fear the unknown. Learn what you need to learn in order to be less scared about legacy code during this talk. This…
Even Sherlock Holmes was pairing. Are you? Let’s find some good practices in the talk below about Sherlock Holmes and Pairing! During my work I am used to pair with my colleagues on basically anything.…
During the last five years or so I have been travelling Europe and meeting a lot of people in local communities of practice. My main purpose is to teach the local groups and to learn…
Legacy code is fear because we fear the unknown. Learn what you need to learn in order to be less scared about legacy code during this talk. You are a programmer. Someone from the company…
Coding Games This is a video about Coding Games from xALEc where I am part of a conversation about how one could teach programmers to be better by using games and pair-programming.