Hi, I’m Andrew.

I’m a software engineer, team builder, consultant, architect, and professional opinion haver. Since 2015, I’ve been at Thoughtworks, where I’ve had the privilege of working with a broad range of clients, scales, industries, and technologies. I’ve seen a fair bit of what works—and a lot more of what doesn’t—and have learnt a lot from both.

I enjoy solving the hard problems, which I’ve found to be social and cultural as often as they are technical. As a consultant, I get plenty of opportunities to do that. I particularly enjoy working on things where I can empathise with the end user, and feel the impact of my work.

Modern software must continuously evolve to meet changing expectations, or it will become obsolete. To keep pace, teams must ship frequently, safely, and with confidence. Engineering practices—test-driven development, continuous delivery, iterative delivery, and proactive management of technical debt—are key to unlocking that capability.

High-performing teams consistently beat groups of high-performing individuals. Fostering an environment where people can bring their best requires psychological safety, autonomy, and trust. Curiosity, humility, empathy, openness, and honesty are traits that I highly value in others and try to model in myself. Ultimately, great software is built by those who truly care about what they’re building, who they’re building it for, and who they’re building it with.

What you’ll find here

My interests are pretty broad, so it could contain anything, but most likely things about software design, engineering practices, collaboration, organisational culture, and how to build better software. It may also contain the occasional rant. If you find something here that helps you, makes you think, makes you laugh or that you otherwise enjoy, I’m glad. If you don’t like what you find, feel free to ignore it. Life’s too short to get upset about random stuff on the internet.

No contact form here

… and I’m not planning to add one. If you want to get in touch, you can find my social links in the footer. If you have an idea that you want me to write about, I’d be happy to hear from you. If you’re trying to sell me something, I probably won’t reply.

Disclaimers

The thoughts and opinions in this blog may contain factual inaccuracies, spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar, typos, plot holes, continuity errors, and traces of gluten. I make no claims to their accuracy or usefulness.

Because this is my personal blog, they’re also my views, and don’t represent the views of my employer, my friends, my family, my pets, people I know, people I don’t know, or anyone else. In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today. Please don’t hold me to them.