Category Archives: Article

More or less finished articles. Unlike more informal musings I try to keep these up-to-date.

Choosing the Right Nearshoring Location: 9 Essential Criteria

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I’m based in London, UK, but I’ve had teams in South America, USA, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Africa, and India. Some of those locations worked for me and some didn’t.

In 2017 I opened a software development operation in Sofia (Bulgaria) for one of the world’s leading news organisations, headquartered in London (UK). Sofia met our criteria for selecting a nearshore location (and still does). I thought others might be interested in the nine criteria we used to select a nearshoring location. Particularly since I’ve inherited teams in other locations that did not meet these criteria.
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No Strategy, No Future: Why Companies That Drift, Sink

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I was talking to my mate Ed the other day. It was one of those lets talk about anything conversations. We both have extensive consulting experience so perhaps it isn’t too surprising that we ended up talking about organisational strategy. Or the lack of it. A surprisingly high percentage of companies we have encountered lack an defined organisation strategy beyond “keep doing what we’re doing and hope”. Personally, I believe every company, regardless of size or industry, needs a strategy. Here’s why.
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Is Sofia Still a Smart Nearshoring Bet in 2025?

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In 2017 I was asked to create a nearshore development team for one of the world’s leading news organisations, headquartered in London (UK). We explored other locations, including Cluj-Napoca, Porto, Kraków, and Poznan, but in the end chose Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. At the time it was a great choice and I grew a fantastic team there. But time has marched on and lately, when talking to people about nearshoring destinations, I hear comments like, "Isn’t Sofia too expensive? Isn’t it saturated?" So I thought I’d have another look.
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Need More Developers? Six Ways to Expand Your Software Team

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Expanding software development capabilities isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential in today’s fast-paced tech world. Whether you’re tackling a surge in project demand or aiming to build a more resilient and versatile team, knowing your options is half the battle. From direct hiring to AI-driven productivity boosts, the choices are plentiful. But which ones make the most sense for your business? As someone who has navigated this journey from developer to CIO, I’ve seen it all. Here are your main options.
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Agile Quality Management

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Quality Management, in a project context, is concerned with having the right processes to ensure both quality product and a quality project. This article describes Traditional Quality Management, Agile versus Traditional Quality Management, Agile Product Quality, Agile Project Quality, Agile Product Quality, Agile Quality Assurance and Control, and Agile Quality Improvement.
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Agile Project Estimating

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Estimates are an essential part of Agile Project Planning.  Software estimation has always been problematic and people have proposed many different ways to do estimating.  Different methods are on a spectrum from formal to informal and from supposedly objective to seemingly subjective.  Different methods also get individuals estimate or groups.  And some methods estimate size and derive effort while others estimate effort directly.  Estimating in the Agile world has settled a certain approach which might be characterised as expert group estimation of size. this article covers Traditional Project Estimation, Agile versus Traditional Estimating, Estimating User Stories, Estimating Tasks, Contingency, and Agile Ballpark Estimates.
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Agile Project Execution

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Executing is one of the five project management process groups in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from the Project Management Institute (2004).

Project Execution is where you build the project deliverables and hand them over to your customer, i.e. where you build and deliver the software. This is where most of the project effort is invested. Agile Project Planning says what you intend to do, when, and Agile Monitoring & Control helps you stay on track but Agile Project Execution is where you do the business.
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Agile Project Monitoring and Control

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No battle plan survives contact with the enemy

Field Marshal Helmuth Graf von Moltke

Life is what happens to you
while you’re busy making other plans

John Lennon

Agile Project Planning tells us what we expect to do, but, to paraphrase the quotes above, plans often turn to custard. The job of the Agile Project Manager is to guide the team to successful delivery despite the challenges the world throws at the project. This article is about monitoring the project against the plan and intervening when we notice things going off track. In particular it covers Traditional Project Monitoring & Control, Agile versus Traditional Monitoring & Control, Agile Project control, Agile project metrics, Agile Project Reporting, and Agile Project Monitoring.
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Agile Roles and Responsibilities

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Each of the Agile methods includes defined roles.  Some have more, some have, less.  DSDM is the only one of the methods that makes a big deal of making role responsibilities explicit but I think this is important. To work effectively as a team people need to know what their role is and the roles of their peers. I have often had to coach teams on the demarcation between key roles on the team – typically the leadership roles, i.e. project owner, agile project manager (or scrum master) and technical lead.
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