Technical Field Notes

Engineering Notes & Agile Delivery Guides

Pragmatic, experience-tested guides on pull-request review dynamics, branching strategies, cycle-time telemetry, and squad collaboration rituals.

May 13, 2026 • 7 min read

Why Pull Requests Sit Idle for Days—And How to Restore Delivery Flow

Investigating the systemic causes behind bloated code review queues, why batch size matters more than developer typing speed, and practical rules for sub-4-hour review turnarounds.

Code Review Cycle Time WIP Limits Flow Metrics

Yuchen Wu, Principal Agile Delivery Coach Read Article →

March 21, 2026 • 9 min read

A Pragmatic Engineering Guide to Retiring GitFlow for Trunk-Based Delivery

Why long-lived release branches create merge debt and how engineering teams can transition safely to trunk-based development with feature toggles and contract testing.

Trunk-Based Development CI/CD Branching Strategy Refactoring

Linus Chen, Technical Architecture Consultant Read Article →

January 17, 2026 • 6 min read

Measuring What Actually Matters: Why We Replace Story Points with Flow Telemetry

How velocity metrics and story point estimation create perverse incentives, and how leading software squads use cycle time, WIP limits, and throughput to build predictable delivery cadences.

Agile Metrics Cycle Time Throughput Kanban

Yuchen Wu, Principal Agile Delivery Coach Read Article →

November 4, 2025 • 5 min read

Designing Squad Working Agreements That Engineering Teams Actually Respect

Moving beyond vague aspirational statements to concrete, operational agreements that clarify code quality expectations, on-call etiquette, and uninterrupted focus time.

Team Culture Working Agreements Retrospectives Engineering Rituals

Mei-Ling Chang, Agile Practice Facilitator Read Article →