Characterization tests: recording the behavior that exists
Characterization tests preserve selected observed behavior. Their baseline must distinguish required behavior from existing defects and comparison artifacts.
4 min read
Singular State / Perspectives
Perspectives
Practical thinking on what to build, how to make it work, and what it takes to own it.
Cheap code moved the bottleneck, it did not remove it
When generation cost falls toward zero, the constraint relocates to verification, approval, and integration — none of which got cheaper. A queue forms where nobody is measuring.
5 min read
Chunking is a retrieval decision, not a preprocessing detail
Where the boundary falls decides whether a rule and its exception arrive together. The pipeline that cannot delete a withdrawn document is the failure that survives handover.
5 min read
Citrix automation under session and credential constraints
Combining virtual-desktop automation prerequisites with identity, secret lifecycle, and safe recovery.
3 min read
Claim-level evidence for modernization decisions
Making consequential assertions traceable, scoped, dated, and open to correction.
3 min read
COM components across the 32-bit and 64-bit boundary
How COM process boundaries determine architecture compatibility and what activation tests must prove.
4 min read
Comprehension debt and the transfer that cannot happen
Understanding is measured on the receiving side, against named tasks. A team that passes acceptance and cannot explain why a rule change moved an outcome has not received the system.
5 min read
Container portability ends at the application’s external dependencies
Separating image reproducibility from host, storage, identity, and replacement dependencies.
3 min read
The credentials that outlive the engagement
Vendor accounts, service principals, API keys and cloud tenancy persist after the final invoice. Revocation is not one action, and absence from an inventory is not absence.
5 min read
Cutover reversibility under cheap generation
Cheap code lowers the cost of building the replacement. It does not lower the cost of being wrong about the legacy behaviour, and sent messages do not un-send.
4 min read
Database-first migration: changing storage while retaining the client
Database-first migration replaces the data layer while retaining a client. The changed access path must preserve required queries, updates, and business meaning.
4 min read
DBF tables, memo files, and the meaning of a record
Why DBF migration must account for format variants, memo references, deleted records, and application interpretation.
4 min read
Decommissioning a system while keeping its records usable
Retiring execution while preserving record integrity, interpretation, access, and historical answers.
3 min read
Dependency mapping beyond the source code
Source analysis, runtime observation, configuration, and operator knowledge reveal different dependencies. Each relationship needs a direction, purpose, and evidence boundary.
4 min read
Developers were wrong about their own speed, and the measurement problem generalises
Forecast 24 percent faster, felt 20 percent faster, measured 19 percent slower. The finding is about self-reported productivity as an evidence class, and it disqualifies most of what pilots collect.
5 min read
Documentation-only handoff, and the three transitions that replace it
Shadowing, reverse shadowing, and pairing transfer different things in a required order. Delivering documents and confirming receipt are two records, and neither is evidence of use.
5 min read
Endowment effect meets parity-plus acceptance
The behavioural evidence is contested, which is the argument for checking the workflow first. A replacement judged on new capability gets judged on missing capability instead.
5 min read
Staff augmentation, managed services, fixed-bid, outcome-based: where the risk sits
Six engagement models fix four independent variables — who directs the work, how price is set, who owns continuing operation, and what transfers at the end. A label pins one and leaves three open.
5 min read
Escrow does not survive model deprecation
Source escrow assumes the artifact is the source. Where behaviour depends on a hosted model the provider retires, the deposited package no longer reproduces the system.
5 min read
The EU AI Act's risk tiers, and where a prototype sits
Obligations attach to role, risk class, and the act of placing on the market. Real-world testing is carved out of the pre-market exclusion, and the 2026 amendments moved the high-risk dates.
5 min read