http://lunivore.com/liz-keogh

Don't let your process hide your ignorance
------------------------------

Most software projects involve doing something new about which we're ignorant, which brings uncertainty. Our brains aren't comfortable with that, so we have to make conscious effort to stop pretending to be certain when we're not! When we're not concentrating, we frequently abuse our processes, hoping that things like fine-grained stories, estimation and clear acceptance criteria will bring us certainty - but often all they do is hide the uncertainty and ignorance that's already there. In this talk we learn some techniques for keeping uncertainty visible and highlighting areas of ignorance, and we find out how deliberately discovering and targeting the things we don't know can save on time and stress.