I have a card on my family Scrum board (This is not that post. Later for that one.) that repeats each week. It says this:

“Pick the Yard.”

This is my weekly chore to scoop Butters (the Coding Bulldog) poo.

I hate this chore for reasons I am unable to articulate, but hate it I do. Therefore I often make excuses like, “I couldn’t go outside today,” or ”It’s too wet,” or “I forgot until it was dark.”

On a recent day I was unable to make another excuse. I picked a full 3 gallon bucket of Butters poo from the yard. Yeech.

It was a lot harder than picking only one week’s worth. It took a long time and was heavy and smelled collectively worse than if I were to pick the yard on a more regular basis.

It was during the dumping of the big massive poo bucket that I realized this is not unlike failing to automate the build. Or to implement automated tests as our software is created.

See where I am coming from here?

It is simply a lot easier to keep your house clean than to clean it all up after a period of ignoring housekeeping. We all know this, of course, but still fail to practice what we preach.

Here is my resolution: Clean up on a more regular basis, like with each commit to SCC.

David Starr