Developer on Fire
Episode 019 | Gojko Adzic - Software as Magic and Impact Mapping to Avoid the Underpants Gnomes
Gojko Adzic talks with Dave Rael about building software for fun, the boredom of web forms to database, challenging requirements, impact mapping, and understanding a clear path to delivering what is needed
Gojko Adzic is a strategic software delivery consultant who works with ambitious teams to improve the quality of their software products and processes. He specialises in agile and lean quality improvement, in particular agile testing, specification by example and behaviour driven development.\nGojko’s book Specification by Example was awarded the #2 spot on the top 100 agile books for 2012 and won the Jolt Award for the best book of 2012. In 2011, he was voted by peers as the most influential agile testing professional, and his blog won the UK agile award for the best online publication in 2010.\nGojko is the author of Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve your Tests, Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve your User Stories, Impact Mapping, Specification by Example, Bridging the Communication Gap, and Test Driven .NET Development with FitNesse.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Gojko Adzic
- - Building stuff for fun and MindMup
- - Gojko's definition of value
- - The limitations of money for measuring value
- - MindMup and rethinking assumptions, specifically about storing data
- - The things that "light Gojko up" - "it's magic"
- - Gojko's specialized technical high school in Serbia
- - Gojko's story of failure, too much focus on technology and scale
- - Quotable quote - "Even when everybody agrees that something should be done, that doesn't necessarily make it a good idea."
- - Gojko's greatest success story, sharing knowledge via writing and establishing a shared vocabulary
- - Another success story - understanding the problem better than the client - delivering value via visualization even though it wasn't requested
- - Cocreation
- - Proposed solutions: obviously insane and insane without being obviously insane
- - Impact Mapping
- - The wisdom of Southpark: Impact Mapping vs. Underpants Gnomes
- - How Gojko stays current with what he needs to know
- - Gojko's book recommendations
- - The things that have Gojko most excited about his present and future
- - The greatest sources of pain in Gojko's life and work
- - The things about which Gojko like to geek out apart from software
- - Gojko's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Gojko
- - Farewell
Resources:
Gojko's Book: Specification By Example
Gojko's Book: Impact Mapping: Making a big impact with software products and projects
Gojko's Book: Bridging the Communication Gap - Specification by Example and Agile Acceptance Testing
Gojko's Book: Test Driven .NET Development With FitNesse
MindMup
Gojko's Blog
Book: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - Tim Ferriss
Southpark: The Underpants Gnomes
Gojko's book recommendation:
Gojko's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
1. Define the sought value with stakeholder
2. Define something that delivers something on a short timescale
3. Challenge requirements