Dragan Stepanović
@dstepanovic.bsky.social
Trying hard not to think about small batches, bottlenecks, and systems. In the meantime: XP, ToC, Lean, Systems Thinking.
Moved here from that other place for good.
Moved here from that other place for good.
Smaller changes that we get with refactoring (original meaning of the term) and incremental/emergent design, also help with moving faster as a group, because it's way easier to agree on a smaller step forward than a bigger step forward.
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November 6, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Smaller changes that we get with refactoring (original meaning of the term) and incremental/emergent design, also help with moving faster as a group, because it's way easier to agree on a smaller step forward than a bigger step forward.
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There's a huge difference between
optimizing for making bigger changes faster
and
optimizing for making smaller changes more frequently.
Lean towards the latter, even though most of the industry is trying very hard to find ways to do the former.
optimizing for making bigger changes faster
and
optimizing for making smaller changes more frequently.
Lean towards the latter, even though most of the industry is trying very hard to find ways to do the former.
November 5, 2025 at 10:05 AM
There's a huge difference between
optimizing for making bigger changes faster
and
optimizing for making smaller changes more frequently.
Lean towards the latter, even though most of the industry is trying very hard to find ways to do the former.
optimizing for making bigger changes faster
and
optimizing for making smaller changes more frequently.
Lean towards the latter, even though most of the industry is trying very hard to find ways to do the former.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Mamdani: "We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."
November 5, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Mamdani: "We can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him."
Nobody ever got promoted for solving an exponential problem in its lag (still slow growth) phase.
November 1, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Nobody ever got promoted for solving an exponential problem in its lag (still slow growth) phase.
The problem with any economies of scale is that the immediate cost savings they provide obscure the costs of a lack of local resiliency, which are observed only later.
And it's far from guaranteed that the latter won't be higher than the former.
And it's far from guaranteed that the latter won't be higher than the former.
October 30, 2025 at 11:48 AM
The problem with any economies of scale is that the immediate cost savings they provide obscure the costs of a lack of local resiliency, which are observed only later.
And it's far from guaranteed that the latter won't be higher than the former.
And it's far from guaranteed that the latter won't be higher than the former.
It's amusing to observe the sheer amount of "Not Invented Here Syndrome" present in "BigTech" companies by the extent of different language used for already ubiquitous terms and ideas in the industry.
October 30, 2025 at 10:14 AM
It's amusing to observe the sheer amount of "Not Invented Here Syndrome" present in "BigTech" companies by the extent of different language used for already ubiquitous terms and ideas in the industry.
If you can't change design cheaply because refactoring skills are lacking, you're less likely to end up with a suitable design for a given problem that emerges from insights you get as a byproduct of refactoring.
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October 25, 2025 at 4:30 PM
If you can't change design cheaply because refactoring skills are lacking, you're less likely to end up with a suitable design for a given problem that emerges from insights you get as a byproduct of refactoring.
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Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Reminder: the Call for Sessions for next year's Agile Manchester conference in May is currently open: agilemanchester.net/call-for-ses...
/ @agilemanc.bsky.social #agilemanc
/ @agilemanc.bsky.social #agilemanc
Call for Sessions
Our Agile Manchester 2026 Call for Sessions is open
agilemanchester.net
October 1, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Reminder: the Call for Sessions for next year's Agile Manchester conference in May is currently open: agilemanchester.net/call-for-ses...
/ @agilemanc.bsky.social #agilemanc
/ @agilemanc.bsky.social #agilemanc
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
September 27, 2025 at 1:44 PM
One important questions to ask is: "What amount of domain insights are you missing out on by handing off creating the changes to the machine?".
Can you quantify that? :) Way more difficult, if not impossible, compared to "saved X hours creating this feature using AI".
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Can you quantify that? :) Way more difficult, if not impossible, compared to "saved X hours creating this feature using AI".
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September 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
One important questions to ask is: "What amount of domain insights are you missing out on by handing off creating the changes to the machine?".
Can you quantify that? :) Way more difficult, if not impossible, compared to "saved X hours creating this feature using AI".
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Can you quantify that? :) Way more difficult, if not impossible, compared to "saved X hours creating this feature using AI".
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I often ask myself if a technology, beside lowering the costs for which lowering the costs is beneficial, is also lowering the costs for which lowering the costs is detrimental.
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September 27, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I often ask myself if a technology, beside lowering the costs for which lowering the costs is beneficial, is also lowering the costs for which lowering the costs is detrimental.
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What are the costs and implications of a fragmented mental model of a domain across the team that you get as a result of people working in isolation?
September 23, 2025 at 4:27 PM
What are the costs and implications of a fragmented mental model of a domain across the team that you get as a result of people working in isolation?
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
The only way to protect your future is by taxing the billionaires more.
At the @makethempay.bsky.social rally today.
At the @makethempay.bsky.social rally today.
September 20, 2025 at 6:04 PM
The only way to protect your future is by taxing the billionaires more.
At the @makethempay.bsky.social rally today.
At the @makethempay.bsky.social rally today.
The tyranny of economic growth obsession.
September 16, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The tyranny of economic growth obsession.
As American farmers would say, Trump is making Brazil great again. 🍿
September 14, 2025 at 12:33 PM
As American farmers would say, Trump is making Brazil great again. 🍿
"When you hear an Anarcho-capitalist or Libertarian or Neoliberal speak of freedom, know that they are not talking about your individual freedoms. They are talking about the freedom of capital to exploit and corrupt, and making your government a servant of the capitalists and not you the citizens."
September 12, 2025 at 11:18 AM
"When you hear an Anarcho-capitalist or Libertarian or Neoliberal speak of freedom, know that they are not talking about your individual freedoms. They are talking about the freedom of capital to exploit and corrupt, and making your government a servant of the capitalists and not you the citizens."
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
When I am elected, I will read the code DOGE wrote. I will find out how they stole your data and what they have done with it.
And then I will tell you
And then I will tell you
September 8, 2025 at 3:40 PM
When I am elected, I will read the code DOGE wrote. I will find out how they stole your data and what they have done with it.
And then I will tell you
And then I will tell you
It's amazing how much teams and companies can achieve when they have wrong goals set.
September 3, 2025 at 4:09 PM
It's amazing how much teams and companies can achieve when they have wrong goals set.
If I had a € for every set of command + handler + response classes that should've been just a method in an existing application service...
August 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM
If I had a € for every set of command + handler + response classes that should've been just a method in an existing application service...
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
I literally had a conversation with one of the managers I work with where I asked him point blank: “if I brought you results that changed every time you looked at them, how would you feel about that?”
He said he wouldn’t trust them.
Then I asked him why he was trusting ChatGPT results.
He said he wouldn’t trust them.
Then I asked him why he was trusting ChatGPT results.
August 5, 2025 at 4:55 AM
I literally had a conversation with one of the managers I work with where I asked him point blank: “if I brought you results that changed every time you looked at them, how would you feel about that?”
He said he wouldn’t trust them.
Then I asked him why he was trusting ChatGPT results.
He said he wouldn’t trust them.
Then I asked him why he was trusting ChatGPT results.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Tests tell us our software can work.
Observability tells us our software IS working.
Observability tells us our software IS working.
August 3, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Tests tell us our software can work.
Observability tells us our software IS working.
Observability tells us our software IS working.
It’s been a long time coming, but what XP ultimately taught me was to listen more — and to listen carefully.
To listen to what the code is trying to tell me, and follow the path it wants to evolve toward.
To listen to tests, and how they can help me mold the design.
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To listen to what the code is trying to tell me, and follow the path it wants to evolve toward.
To listen to tests, and how they can help me mold the design.
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August 3, 2025 at 12:33 PM
It’s been a long time coming, but what XP ultimately taught me was to listen more — and to listen carefully.
To listen to what the code is trying to tell me, and follow the path it wants to evolve toward.
To listen to tests, and how they can help me mold the design.
1/3
To listen to what the code is trying to tell me, and follow the path it wants to evolve toward.
To listen to tests, and how they can help me mold the design.
1/3