Writing and speaking about delivery, feedback loops, and how engineering teams work well
I'm a Staff Software Engineer focused on delivery, platform modernisation, and helping engineering teams work well. I write and speak occasionally - mostly about feedback loops and why "just try harder" isn't a strategy.
This talk explores three practical strategies to reduce bugs and improve software delivery, without blaming people or just trying harder. Presented at LDX3 2025 and Agile on the Beach 2025.
Beyond Just Try Harder was delivered at LDX3 2025 and Agile on the Beach 2025. It explores how teams can tackle bugs more effectively by fixing the system, not blaming the people.
We’ve all been there: bugs escape, estimates slip, releases break - and someone says, just try harder next time. But pressure and process rarely fix the root cause. This talk outlines a more sustainable approach, built on what research and real-world teams actually show works.
“Just try harder” isn’t a strategy. Learn three proven approaches – monitoring bugs, managing legacy systems, and optimizing feedback loops – that empower teams to deliver better software.
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View the slide deck: LDX3 10-minute ligntning
talk
View the slide deck: AOTB 45-minute full
talk
You’ll discover three proven strategies:
Get Feedback in the Time It Takes to Make a Cup of Tea
Our test suite took 30+ minutes. Developers avoided it, bugs slipped through, and delivery slowed down. We cut feedback time to under five minutes by prioritising key tests, optimising pipelines, and parallelising execution, boosting flow, reducing context switching, and reclaiming dev hours.
You Can’t Inspect a Fourth Leg onto a Three-Legged Table
Even with fast feedback, our legacy system made every change feel risky. We used the strangler fig pattern to migrate safely, automate delivery, and reduce batch size. The result? A shift from chaotic fortnightly releases to confident daily deployments.
Find Bugs Before Your Customers Do
Shipping fast isn’t enough - you need to ship safely. For a critical HealthTech platform, we used feature flags, real-time monitoring, and parallel legacy operation to catch bugs before users did. This gave us trust, safety, and true continuous delivery.
Go beyond Just Try Harder
You don’t need heroic effort. You need a system that supports fast feedback, safe changes, and controlled delivery.
Explore the research, techniques, and practices behind the talk.
Reduce overhead, tighten loops, and catch issues early
DORA is a long running research program that seeks to understand the capabilities that drive software delivery and operations performance. DORA helps teams apply those capabilities, leading to better organizational performance.
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Nicole has authored two books on DevOps that have become industry guidebooks on using technology to drive business value, resulting in success.
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The DORA State of AI-Assisted Software Development report dives deep into how AI is impacting technology-driven teams.
→ Read moreShrink batch size, reduce complexity, lower risk
Inspired by the strangler figs in Australia, a strangler fig application gradually draws behavior out of its host legacy application
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a bliki entry for Parallel Change
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A portal on this practice
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Modern Software Engineering is where good developers come to become great. Learn about the most important techniques in software development, from some of the most influential speakers in the software industry. Build better software, faster, and become the best software engineer you can be. Hosted by Dave Farley, Trisha Gee, Steve Smith, Emily Bache, Kevlin Henney, Kent Beck, Sam Newman & Daniel Terhorst-North. Subscribe for tips, tricks, comments on topical matters in the software development industry and MORE to help you become a great programmer.
→ Read moreControl exposure, learn safely, and observe failures early
Feature Flags can be categorized into several buckets; manage each appropriately. Smart implementation can help constrain complexity.
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Execute back-end code but don't show results, in order to assess impact on back-end systems
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Ask new questions about your distributed system without knowing the answer in advance. Find out what observability is and why it changes how you debug production software.
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Testing in production is a superpower. It’s our inability to acknowledge it that’s the trouble.
→ Read moreAll illustrations in this talk were generated using ChatGPT + DALL·E, based on a custom system prompt and detailed slide-by-slide prompts.
The illustrations use cartoon-style green bugs as metaphors for complexity, fragility, and poor system design - with a consistent visual style to reinforce the talk’s themes in a playful but professional way.
View the full prompt and slide descriptions
These articles explore the ideas and real-world experiences that shaped the talk, from reducing bugs with observability and automation to lessons learned from leading change in a growing HealthTech team.
Three system-level strategies to tackle bugs in software delivery - monitoring, streamlined approvals, and automation - without burning out teams.
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What I learned about credibility, pace, and patience when I took on my first engineering leadership role.
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