https://www.michaelagreiler.com/Software engineering writinghttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/scope-deep-dive/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/scope-deep-dive/Explore the reasoning, review stages, and proportional escalation behind SCOPE, a candidate model for maintaining oversight as agentic development accelerates.Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-is-under-strain/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-is-under-strain/AI can generate changes faster than people can understand them. Explore why traditional code review struggles as review volume, complexity, and oversight demands grow.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/scope/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/scope/An introduction to SCOPE, a staged oversight model for agentic development that adapts review effort to risk and preserves meaningful human responsibility.Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-from-team-to-individual/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-from-team-to-individual/What happens when peer review becomes self-review? Explore how agentic development can weaken independent judgment, shared understanding, and team knowledge.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/codereview-surrender-exploitation/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/codereview-surrender-exploitation/Explore code review surrender and exploitation: two failure modes amplified by agentic programming, and what they mean for meaningful human oversight.Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/research-discussions-about-ai/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/research-discussions-about-ai/Reflections from a gathering of around 40 software engineering researchers on how AI is changing development, and the questions that deserve closer study.Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/if-we-cant-slow-ai-we-must-accelerate-responsibility/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/if-we-cant-slow-ai-we-must-accelerate-responsibility/AI is changing software engineering in fundamental ways. A reflection on uncertainty, professional responsibility, and the choices we can make as the field evolves.Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/year-review-2024/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/year-review-2024/A personal reflection on a challenging 2024, supporting family through difficult times, finding resilience, and appreciating small but meaningful moments.Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/design-developer-experience-survey/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/design-developer-experience-survey/Learn how to design a developer experience survey to measure developer experience in this step-by-step guide, including concrete survey questions.Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/year-in-review-2023/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/year-in-review-2023/A personal look back at 2023, reflecting on a year of productive beginnings, difficult lows, and the highs that punctuated a turbulent twelve months.Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/measuring-the-impact-of-developer-experience/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/measuring-the-impact-of-developer-experience/Research on how developer experience affects productivity, code quality, retention, and innovation, with evidence to help engineering leaders make the case for improvement.Fri, 17 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/two-years-in-review-2021/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/two-years-in-review-2021/Reflections on launching an on-site code review workshop business, raising two young children, and adapting to the upheaval of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/security-code-review-checklist/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/security-code-review-checklist/A checklist to help reviewers identify security vulnerabilities and privacy issues, bringing a systematic security focus to everyday code reviews.Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-reminder/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-reminder/Explore how Microsoft’s Nudge code review reminder works, and how intelligent reminders can help teams complete reviews sooner without adding unnecessary noise.Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/rejections-as-code-review-quality-metric/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/rejections-as-code-review-quality-metric/Do more rejected pull requests mean better code reviews? Examine why rejection counts can misrepresent review quality and encourage the wrong behavior.Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/successfully-developer-blog/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/successfully-developer-blog/Lessons from 18 months of developer blogging while moving from research and engineering at Microsoft to an independent consulting and training business.Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/stacked-pull-requests/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/stacked-pull-requests/Learn how stacked pull requests split large changes into smaller, coherent reviews, helping reviewers understand the code and give useful feedback sooner.Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/gitlab-event/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/gitlab-event/An announcement of a GitLab virtual event on effective collaboration and code reviews, including a discussion of the upcoming code review book.Tue, 01 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/resolving-conflict-nonviolent-communication/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/resolving-conflict-nonviolent-communication/Learn how nonviolent communication can help resolve code review conflicts by separating observations from judgments and making needs and requests clear.Tue, 14 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/expect-quality-software/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/expect-quality-software/How much software quality should we demand, especially in critical systems? A reflection on complexity, engineering responsibility, and expectations of reliability.Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/pandemic-remote-work/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/pandemic-remote-work/Working remotely during a pandemic comes with unusual pressures. Reflections and practical advice on supporting people through a sudden shift to working from home.Wed, 18 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/respectful-constructive-code-review-feedback/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/respectful-constructive-code-review-feedback/Give code review feedback that people can act on. Explore 10 practical tips for communicating concerns with respect, empathy, and clarity.Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/test-suite-comprehension-for-modular-dynamic-systems/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/test-suite-comprehension-for-modular-dynamic-systems/Explore the challenges of understanding large test suites for modular, dynamic systems, where changing configurations and subsystem interactions complicate testing.Sat, 22 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/creating-coding-standard/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/creating-coding-standard/Agreeing on coding conventions can be difficult. Learn how teams can choose shared standards and best practices that improve consistency and maintainability.Tue, 18 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/developing-conflict-competence/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/developing-conflict-competence/Reflections on workplace conflict, gatekeeping, and power dynamics, inspired by an interview with Suz Hinton about her decision to leave Microsoft.Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-quadrant/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-quadrant/Use the Code Review Quadrant to understand your team’s review habits and choose measurements that support faster, more effective feedback.Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/teach-during-code-reviews/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/teach-during-code-reviews/When does teaching during code review become a distraction? Learn how to avoid a common feedback pitfall while supporting learning and collaboration.Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/accept-code-review-feedback/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/accept-code-review-feedback/Criticism during code reviews is difficult to listen to with an open mind. Learn how to better handle code review feedback that challenges your beliefs.Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/build-analytics-platform/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/build-analytics-platform/Learn how to build an engineering analytics platform that brings development data together and helps your team investigate testing costs and software quality.Tue, 10 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/analyzing-engineering-data-2/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/analyzing-engineering-data-2/Discover how software engineering data can reveal code quality risks, improve development practices, and support better decisions beyond sales and marketing.Tue, 27 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-checklist-2/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-checklist-2/Focus your code reviews on 10 essential topics, from implementation and testing to security, readability, and performance, with this practical checklist.Tue, 13 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-at-google/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-at-google/Explore how Google keeps code reviews lightweight and fast, with practices that support a clean codebase, shared knowledge, and consistent engineering standards.Mon, 29 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-6/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-6/Selected reads on the human side of software development, Microsoft’s move to agile methods, and addressing bias in artificial intelligence projects.Mon, 22 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/we-are-10x-engineers-2/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/we-are-10x-engineers-2/Strong engineering teams draw on different skills, strengths, and backgrounds. Explore why diversity matters more than the myth of the individual 10x engineer.Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/technical-debt-illusion/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/technical-debt-illusion/Does the technical debt metaphor help teams get time for refactoring? Examine its limits and how we communicate the need to improve software systems.Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-4/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-4/Selected reads on mono-repositories, a GitHub feature, and the Boeing story, alongside an introduction to the Software Engineering Unlocked podcast.Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-3-2/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-3-2/Explore software design debates around co-location, CSS-in-JS, separation of concerns, and DRY in this collection of software engineering reads.Mon, 01 Jul 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-2/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/software-engineering-reads-2/Selected reads on the relationship between software cost and quality, and ideas for improving how we hire software engineers.Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/great-code-review-feedback/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/great-code-review-feedback/Learn what makes code review feedback useful, backed by research at Microsoft, and how to focus comments on issues that help developers improve their code.Wed, 19 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/productivity-documentation-data-driven-decision-making-mwr-1/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/productivity-documentation-data-driven-decision-making-mwr-1/A collection of software engineering reads on developer productivity, technical documentation, data-driven decisions, and lessons from the Boeing crashes.Fri, 14 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/developer-productivity/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/developer-productivity/Explore what helps software developers feel happier and work more productively, and why productivity involves more than output, promotions, or external rewards.Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-best-practices/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-best-practices/Discover 30 code review best practices for authors and reviewers, drawn from research at Microsoft to improve feedback, collaboration, and review speed.Thu, 02 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-pitfalls-slow-down/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-pitfalls-slow-down/In this article, I explain the main code review pitfalls you should be aware of to ensure a productive and effective code review experience.Sat, 06 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-at-microsoft-how-to-code-review-at-a-large-software-company/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-reviews-at-microsoft-how-to-code-review-at-a-large-software-company/Discover how Microsoft engineers review code, choose reviewers, discuss feedback, and use tools to support software quality across a large organization.Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-blog-post-series/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-blog-post-series/In this code review blog post series, I share my experience and the lessons from analyzing thousands of code reviews and working with hundreds of engineers.Sun, 17 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/marketplace-for-regional-products/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/marketplace-for-regional-products/A look at zweimalfreude, an early entrepreneurial project to connect people with regional products, and the ideas behind building a local online marketplace.Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/keynote-about-data-driven-decision-making/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/keynote-about-data-driven-decision-making/A keynote on the benefits and pitfalls of data-driven software engineering, exploring how measurements can inform decisions and influence development practices.Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/keynote-code-reviews/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/keynote-code-reviews/A keynote abstract on code reviews at Microsoft: their role in software quality, the effort they require, and the challenges of making them effective.Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/best-practices-avoiding-test-smells/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/best-practices-avoiding-test-smells/Learn how to design test fixtures that balance reuse, readability, and execution speed, and avoid common smells as your test suite grows.Sat, 19 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/100-public-data-sets-for-data-science/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/100-public-data-sets-for-data-science/Find more than 100 public data sets to explore ideas, build data-driven products, and put your data science skills into practice.Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/checklist-tasks-program-chair/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/checklist-tasks-program-chair/A practical checklist for research conference program chairs, covering the responsibilities and tasks that are easy to overlook when organizing a program.Mon, 03 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-practices/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/code-review-practices/Lessons from Microsoft on making code reviews more productive, improving their value, and overcoming the challenges that cost developers time and effort.Tue, 27 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/time-is-ticking-deadline-for-scam-2016-approaching/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/time-is-ticking-deadline-for-scam-2016-approaching/An announcement of the SCAM 2016 submission deadline, introducing the conference’s focus on source code analysis, manipulation, and research discussion.Wed, 18 May 2016 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/can-we-change-with-what-we-can-measure/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/can-we-change-with-what-we-can-measure/Can software engineering metrics drive meaningful change? Reflections from a keynote on measurement, developer behavior, and data-driven improvement at Microsoft.Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/the-ability-to-say-no/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/the-ability-to-say-no/Why saying no matters in agile product ownership, and how clear expectations help teams keep expanding feature requests and user stories under control.Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/analyzing-test-fixture-smells-with-testhound/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/analyzing-test-fixture-smells-with-testhound/Explore how TestHound detects test fixture smells and helps developers understand setup code, reduce maintenance costs, and improve automated tests.Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/testing-practices-plugin-systems-paper/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/testing-practices-plugin-systems-paper/Findings from interviews with 25 practitioners on testing Eclipse plug-ins and applications, including the challenges of interactions, versions, and configurations.Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.michaelagreiler.com/eclipse-test-suite-exploration-tool/https://www.michaelagreiler.com/eclipse-test-suite-exploration-tool/An introduction to a tool for exploring Eclipse test suites and understanding the configurations and interactions involved in testing extensible plug-in systems.Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:00 GMT