"AI has removed the developer bottleneck" If developers really were your bottleneck, throwing developers at a problem would actually have worked in the past 20 years

One point I make is that Agile Software Development's reputation is built almost entirely on the experiences of teams who've never even seen software agility. See also: TDD, refactoring, design principles, continuous integration etc.

A feature of ApprovalTests called "combination approvals" can help you bring legacy code under test. Write tens or hundreds of test cases in a few lines. https://qualitycoding.org/wrangle-legacy-code-combination-approvals/

A large-scale study of developer IDE activity found that only 8% of devs who claimed they did Test-Driven Development did anything even close in reality. Were 92% lying? I suspect not. More likely, they just didn't know they weren't doing it, because they didn't know what TDD actually looks like.

Superbowl report at halftime point: - Winner: Bad Bunny, with a fun show - Loser: AI-generated ads

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

Andrea Bocelli holy moly! #olympics

What does refactoring actually look like? Let's continue an example based on a real iOS view controller. Watch this 23-minute screencast. https://qualitycoding.org/refactoring-mvvm-part2/

Darn. I caught a cold …from going into the office. Tomorrow's live-coding may or may not happen. Let's see how I feel (and sound).

🥶 ❄️ ☃️ It has been COLD in the US this week. Saturday, Brimson Minnesota was -43˚F (-42˚C) So, until the end of the week, pretty much everything is -43% at the Bookshelf. Just use coupon code Brrr when you check out. Stay Warm. Only at pragprog.com ­

What can we do when Swift refuses to create an object we need for testing? This example shows a clever workaround so we can microtest scene delegates. https://qualitycoding.org/unit-test-scene-delegates/

How do you measure productivity? Let’s start by talking about the engineering obsession with quantitative metrics. You can easily measure productivity on an assembly line. The faster a car comes off the line at a given quality level, the more productive you are. 1/10

Join me on my Sunday live-coding as I start a new thing I'm calling "Swift + AI with TDD" 9am Pacific, 17:00 UTC http://twitch.tv/qcoding

AppCode is dead. Long live… what, exactly? https://qualitycoding.org/appcode-is-dead/

The inevitability of AI is now under threat from no one wanting to use it.

A funny thing I observe at work: - colleague opens PR, asks for reviews - I switch to their branch and run tests. And some fail! - I report this to my colleague - They ask, "Which tests failed?" If makes some sense if tests are a thing you avoid. But to me, tests are scaffolding to help me work.

Bugs are opportunities. How can you get the most value from the next defect you fix? https://qualitycoding.org/safety-nets-guardrails/

I'm canceling tomorrow's live-coding. Hey, grandkids take priority.

Cleaning out a drawer, I found my old AppCode t-shirt. It's been 3 years since the only JetBrains IDE for Apple development was killed. It still has no substitute. AI tools can do some refactoring, but not: - provably - deterministically - locally - in a single keystroke that expresses my intention

If something is hard to TDD, what does it say about the design? A bad example from Apple leads us to explore design sense, SRP, and Clean Architecture. https://qualitycoding.org/design-sense/

I'm shaking things up in January. 1. Remote training bookings confirmed by Jan 31st are HALF PRICE. Save ££££ if you're planning training in the next few months. 2. All courses now have modules focused on applying code craft practices in AI-assisted wotshisface. Details at codemanship.co.uk

I'll be speaking on ADHD and Software Development at SeattleJS on Wednesday, Jan. 14th Come join us for a great meetup! www.meetup.com/seattlejs/ev...

GenAI can be a helpful tool. …But are you really going to stop reviewing/understanding/critiquing your AI-generated code? Cautionary tale: “Ribbit ribbit! Artificial Intelligence programs used by Heber City police claim officer turned into a frog” www.fox13now.com/news/local-n...

My household, overrun by the grandkids, is more agile/lean than your team. And that's mainly due to my wonderful wife. I observe: - Frequent check-ins: "How are you doing? Is there anything I can do to make your life easier?" - Frequent evaluation: "Is this working? How can it be better?"

Even when it's not an industrial-strength "real-life" project situation, discussions of testing strategy are quickly transformed into discussions of interpersonal conflict and individual emotional turmoil. And that's why you need an adviser like me: help navigating the hard parts. ;)

We needed to move one mattress on top of another, temporarily. Me: I got it. Wife: You're going to need my help. Me: No. I will use the power of Beelzebub. Wife: Welp, I guess that's the end of Christmas, then? But this is what I meant. I played this amazing track. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nurs...

With help from Focus, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Yeeeeeeeeeear!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lez_...

Wait time variance goes up as the size of PR increases. The bigger the PR, the more uncertain when it's going to be merged. What does that mean? If you want higher predictability, you need smaller batches. Period.

The open access version of Cultures of Programming is now available online. Just in time for the holiday break! Read it here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/c... If you prefer a real book, use PETRICK26 for a 20% discount (valid until January 31) at: www.cambridge.org/9781009492348

Exciting news! We've confirmed @emilybache.bsky.social as a trainer for the training day at our event in June! Have you made any plans for 2026 yet? Registration is now open for SoCraTes UK 2026! Register: socratesuk.org/tickets.html

ApprovalTests in Swift makes it easy to write powerful parameterized tests. Verify a sequence of inputs, but transform the values through the function you want. https://qualitycoding.org/parameterized-tests-approvaltests-swift/

Is Spec-Driven Development the end of Agile software development? www.sicpers.info/2025/12/is-s...

Indiana’s Senate has voted AGAINST the GOP gerrymander that’d have locked in a 9-0 map. This keeps the 7-2 map in place, saving two Democratic seats heading into 2026. The vote failed big, 19/31. The MAJORITY of the GOP senators opposed it!

You have a Swift optional value. How can you write an XCTest assertion to verify it, while getting the most from any assertion failures? The answer is: "It depends." https://qualitycoding.org/unit-test-optionals-swift/

Sorry, I have to cancel today's "TDD with SwiftUI" live stream. Family obligations (good ones). Follow me on Twitch (qcoding) so you get my next go-live notification so you can join in next time as I continue exploring augmented coding using TDD.

I tell this story periodically, but it seems like it's time again: General Motors ran an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, that was one of the worst in the country. Accident rates and defects were astronomical. Absenteeism was through the roof. 1/12

Amen

Swift enumerations: How to write XCTest assertions to verify them? How do we test their associated values? Can we avoid overspecified tests? https://qualitycoding.org/unit-test-enumerations-swift/

It's been going on for decades. www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...

"Disagree and commit" is disingenuous. This is a better idea. #Teams https://werd.io/disagree-and-lets-see/

An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.

Remember that the “Red” (failing test) part of #TDD is the perfect time to make sure the failure message is useful, instead of the less than helpful “expected actual to not be null”. #UnitTesting

The art and skills for delivering software in much more smaller incremental steps were lost with the global adoption of Pull Requests.

We get the best results from "AI" coding assistants when we: * Take small steps * Test, review and refactor continuously * Use version control to keep our code shippable * Integrate continuously * Cleanly separate concerns If only there was somewhere we could learn these skills!

Do you need code comments at all? Here are some rules of thumb for comments, with methodical refactoring steps you can take to improve your code. https://qualitycoding.org/code-comments/

Spoiler: TDD isn't one skill, it's many. I can help you build up the set of micro-skills you need to succeed with TDD… and I know many other folks who can, as well.

Instead of Pull Request code reviews, consider reviewing the code on every green light. Small diffs enables greater attention to detail, a much lower cost of fixing problems (or backing out), and there's no code review bottleneck when you want to ship. codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/11/22/w...

Want fast, reliable tests for SwiftUI views? ViewInspector is the key. https://qualitycoding.org/viewinspector-swiftui-testing/

Looking for a technical book for a friend? Or for yourself? …Maybe even my book iOS Unit Testing by Example? Now's your chance to snag a deal at pragprog.com! Check out with discount code "save50" Do it while you can, offer ends December 1