As software consultants, we bring more than Solidus expertise to the organizations we work with. We’re also specialists in iterative software development, which we believe is necessary for success in the eCommerce industry. We do our best to help shape the organizations we work with to make them better at delivering software.

In a sense, we’re undercover Extreme Programming consultants. We use our unique position as outsiders to the organization to facilitate healthy changes that push them towards iterative planning and incremental delivery. Different organizations are more or less receptive to this, but even when we collaborate with a more rigid organization, we do what we can to help make them more effective.

Through this kind of integration, we’ve seen the wide variety of processes, technologies, and approaches just within the Solidus space. Some practices are largely consistent, but others vary wildly. It’s interesting that even within such a specific technology niche, there’s still so much variance. What one team calls a best practice, another calls an anti-pattern.

Drawing from that experience, I’ve launched a podcast, Dead Code. The podcast will explore the mess that is the software industry in an attempt to figure out how we can fix it. Where is the value in TDD? Is Agile really dead, or just disfigured? I’m going to sit down with people across the industry to discuss design patterns, planning processes, systems architecture, domain modelling, team composition, and everything to do with software development.

There are no silver bullets, but there are good ideas. I’m determined to find them and figure out how to apply them. Better things are possible, but we won’t get there by perpetuating the status quo. If you thinks this sounds interesting, search “Dead Code” in your favourite podcast player or head to deadcode.website to subscribe.

Now go delete some Dead Code.