https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss 2026-10-13 15:15:00 -0400 Your team is at 100% capacity, every sprint is full, and leadership still asks why delivery is so slow. This talk explains the paradox with three books: • <em>Slack</em> by Tom DeMarco: the human view. Without spare capacity, organisations become efficient on paper and fragile in practice. • <em>Thinking in Systems</em> by Donella Meadows: the structural view. Feedback loops and incentives, not individual effort, decide the outcome. • <em>The Principles of Product Development Flow</em> by Donald Reinertsen: the economic view. Queues grow exponentially with utilisation, and the cost of delay is real money. Together they form one framework, followed by practical actions for teams (visualise WIP, set WIP limits, reduce batch size, build in slack) and for individuals. Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Your team is at 100% capacity, every sprint is full, and leadership still asks why delivery is so slow. This talk explains the paradox with three books: • <em>Slack</em> by Tom DeMarco: the human view. Without spare capacity, organisations become efficient on paper and fragile in practice. • <em>Thinking in Systems</em> by Donella Meadows: the structural view. Feedback loops and incentives, not individual effort, decide the outcome. • <em>The Principles of Product Development Flow</em> by Donald Reinertsen: the economic view. Queues grow exponentially with utilisation, and the cost of delay is real money. Together they form one framework, followed by practical actions for teams (visualise WIP, set WIP limits, reduce batch size, build in slack) and for individuals. Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/slack-and-utilisation-why-busy-teams-ship-slowly https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/slack-and-utilisation-why-busy-teams-ship-slowly Remote work removes the hallway conversation and the whiteboard, and with them much of the context we rely on to understand each other. This talk covers how communication works (Schulz von Thun's four-ears model, Eric Berne's life positions) and what helps in distributed teams. The main part is a <strong>toolbox of six techniques</strong> for clear arguments and better decisions, each with an example: 1. Situation, Complication, Resolution 2. Decision records 3. 5× why 4. Visualisation 5. DIBB: Data, Insights, Beliefs & Bets 6. Writing simply for busy readers Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Remote work removes the hallway conversation and the whiteboard, and with them much of the context we rely on to understand each other. This talk covers how communication works (Schulz von Thun's four-ears model, Eric Berne's life positions) and what helps in distributed teams. The main part is a <strong>toolbox of six techniques</strong> for clear arguments and better decisions, each with an example: 1. Situation, Complication, Resolution 2. Decision records 3. 5× why 4. Visualisation 5. DIBB: Data, Insights, Beliefs & Bets 6. Writing simply for busy readers Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/communicating-and-convincing-in-a-remote-environment https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/communicating-and-convincing-in-a-remote-environment Different roles in software engineering need different skills, and books are one of the best places to learn them from people who have done it before. This talk walks through the software development lifecycle and recommends one book for each stage, from product strategy and requirements to architecture, design, testing, CI/CD and production. The second half covers what decides whether the lifecycle works at all: <strong>communication, leadership, teams, strategy, management and culture</strong>. A personal selection of 18 books, from <em>Clean Code</em> in 2008 to today's bookshelf. Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Different roles in software engineering need different skills, and books are one of the best places to learn them from people who have done it before. This talk walks through the software development lifecycle and recommends one book for each stage, from product strategy and requirements to architecture, design, testing, CI/CD and production. The second half covers what decides whether the lifecycle works at all: <strong>communication, leadership, teams, strategy, management and culture</strong>. A personal selection of 18 books, from <em>Clean Code</em> in 2008 to today's bookshelf. Daniel Schmeiß · https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielschmeiss/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/books-for-everyone https://speakerdeck.com/danielschmeiss/books-for-everyone