AB
@alexbunardzic.bsky.social
110 followers 34 following 910 posts
https://alexbunardzic.com/ Looking for the communities of software developers, guitar players, visual artists, audiophile vinyl collectors, hi fi and turntable gear, French baguette makers. Bason tuner by day.
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Alistair has been the source of inspiration and a guiding light in the murky world of software and agile development!
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From devouring his seminal "Writing Effective Use Cases" book (lnkd.in/gtmwGS5V) to experiencing the joys of breaking out of the rigid waterfall jail when embracing his Hexagonal Architecture, and beyond,
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I feel extremely honoured to be quoted by one and only Alistair Cockburn! Alistair is one of the very few top leaders who I've been closely following for decades.
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I talk about this as “planning [designing] is important, but following it precisely even after we get new information (learn), is not the goal.” Or, it’s all about Continual Planning [Designing].
Can someone explain to me how is spec-driven development not waterfall?
It is very easy to use any tool in a harmful way. Only a shoddy workman blames the tools.
I have just received an interesting feedback on my talk at Devoxx Belgium 2025.
Everyone is unique, except me.
Keep twisting and turning, embracing the change, and focus all of our attention and effort on adaptability.
We live in a dynamic world, and any obsession with static, finite product, is a death wish.

Same applies to plans and planning. Every plan is a throwaway plan. The true value lies in our ability to keep planning.
For less experienced people, design is something that is precious, it is won by hard work and as such is to be cherished. But for experienced people, every design is a throwaway design. Experienced designers focus on the process, rather than focusing on the outcome.
It seems hard to intuitively grasp the adage "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable".

Maybe it would be easier to grasp the meaning of that adage if we were to reformulate it to read: "designs are useless, but designing is indispensable".
The most important aspect of a test is its fallibility. Without that, we would have no protection against regression.
Tests are only tests if they are fallible. If we have a test that asserts that 2 + 2 = 4, that's not a fallible test (there is no conceivable scenario under which that test will fail) and is therefore lame and phony - a quasi-test.
A plan is just a list of things that never happen.
Photos from my talk at Devoxx Belgium 2025 in Antwerp.
It's not AI's fault if your tests suck.
If all failing tests pass, you have a solid solution. If all tests pass and you still don't have solid solution, it's not the issue with the code, the issue is with the tests. Learn how to write quality tests. Don't blame AI if you don't know how to write solid tests.
AI cannot write the failing tests. AI is not equipped to do that. Only human experts should write failing tests.
"If light were to illuminate both itself and others, then certainly too darkness will conceal itself and others." Nagarjuna
Some people will definitely be squeezed out of a job if they decide that, nah, those XP practices are not something they'd be interested in. Fair enough, it's their prerogative and their choice. But it's not AI's fault that they choose that path.
Which includes XP, CI/CD, Trunk-Based Development, "Time to 'hello world' in production", walking skeleton, hexagonal architecture, limited work-in-progress, theory of constraints, Test Driven Development, mutation testing, etc., etc.
Just to be clear. AI isn't taking anyone's job in software. It's only that AI is now starting to apply serious pressure on the teams to pick up the slack and get serious about technical excellence.
History repeats itself. Same pattern played out 25 years ago, with the internet bubble burst following the dumb money fiasco.