Inspect and Adapt
Construx
World-class software development requires far more than language/platform expertise and steady sprints. Join us as we describe time-tested, industry-proven software best practices at the team, organization, and leadership levels, sharing examples from recent engagements with software teams of all sizes.Construx is led by industry leader Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete and More Effective Agile. Software experts first and software trainers and consultants second, our team has seen what works and doesn’t work in hundreds of software organizations.Host Mark Griffin spent the first half of his career as an electrical engineer doing silicon hardware design and leading software automation teams. He moved into the sales side of software because he wanted to spread the value of what his company was building. It was supposed to be a one-year assignment that turned into the second half of his career. His balance of deeply technical skills and right-brain artistry also makes him a masterful home brewer!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 10, 2026 • 59min
Estimating the Unknown
"How do you estimate something you’ve never done before?" Construx gets that question a lot. This podcast identifies how to approach estimating when you have a lot of unknown items. Join Construx's Earl Beede and Steve Tockey as they look at techniques for making the unknown less unknown, bounding the uncertainty, and planning through the unknown. Hosted by Mark Griffin
Feb 10, 2026 • 58min
#64 Design by Contract
Design by Contract is used by advanced developers to lower defects and reduce complexity, making development faster. Construx staff experience for over two decades in a variety of languages ranging from Assembler to Java is consistent with these benefits. Join Steve Tockey, Earl Beede, and Mark Griffin as they discuss why Design by Contract is so beneficial, with particular emphasis on how it reduces code defects, makes remaining defects easier to find and fix, and reduces complexity.
4 snips
Jan 6, 2026 • 55min
#63 Acceptance Criteria
Join Earl Beattie, a Senior Fellow at Construx with expertise in software requirements, and Steve Tockey, a Principal Consultant, as they delve into the nuances of acceptance criteria. They debate the differences between user stories and precise requirements and highlight the significance of acceptance criteria in ensuring project clarity. Earl discusses using ISO 25010 for quality attributes, while Steve emphasizes economic impacts of non-functional requirements. Their insightful conversation reveals how to craft effective criteria for better project outcomes.
Dec 2, 2025 • 49min
#62 Risk Management
Project risk management was a critical part of well-run software development projects late in the last century. With the coming of agile development practices, however, risk management disappeared. Or did it? Steve Tockey and Earl Beede Inspect & Adapt the role of project risk management on modern development projects. They identify when it is still needed, where it is still happening, and how it can improve your project outcomes. Hosted by Mark Griffin.
Oct 15, 2025 • 55min
#61 Scaling Patterns
Scaling software development is hard. Several patterns have emerged that moderately successful organizations use when scaling. The patterns focus on how to package the work, where and when to make decisions, and how to get teams to collaborate. Join Mark Griffin, Earl Beede, and Steve Tockey as they explore scaling patterns.
Sep 10, 2025 • 56min
#60 The F Word in Software
All development organizations use software's F word: Feature. But what they actually mean by the word is often unclear, since the software industry has two—somewhat incompatible—definitions of feature. Join host Mark Griffin as he asks Construx's Steve Tockey and Earl Beede to explain those two different uses of the word feature on development projects.
Jun 3, 2025 • 58min
#59 Total Project Quality
Total Project Quality, Construx's course on how to insert quality throughout a work effort, hasn't always gotten the traction it deserves. Why not? In this podcast, we examine the subject of quality and our (perhaps poorly-named) Total Project Quality seminar. Join Construx's Steve Tockey, Earl Beede, and Mark Griffin as they Inspect & Adapt the Total Project Quality course, the topic of quality in general, and the practical things you can do to improve quality and efficiency on your projects.
May 6, 2025 • 55min
#58 Team Organization
Earl Beede, a Senior Fellow at Construx and a software development expert, joins the discussion to shed light on team dynamics in software development. The conversation covers the vital distinctions between cohesive agile teams and simply collaborative groups. Strategies for optimizing team organization include time chunking and cross-training to promote efficiency. Earl emphasizes the importance of effective leadership and decision-making in empowering teams, while also stressing the need for trust and communication to enhance overall productivity.
5 snips
Apr 8, 2025 • 53min
#57 Risk-Based Testing
How should you spend your always-limited testing resources? Is one part of the product more important to test than another? Construx's Steve Tockey and Earl Beede join host Mark Griffin in looking at one approach to answering those questions: risk-based testing. Steve and Earl look at how to do risk-based testing along with its pros and cons.
Mar 4, 2025 • 54min
#56 Product Visions to Product Roadmaps
In an earlier webinar, Construx's Earl Beede took on many organizations that create product visions with phrases like, be the world's best ‘x’ or dazzle our customers. Not bad ideas but pretty much worthless in helping you make day-to-day decisions on what work is the most important for your business. This is a follow-up, with Earl and Mark Griffin delving a bit deeper into some of the questions that came up during the webinar.You can find the webinar here: https://youtu.be/yVA-k6aWE0k
