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James Armstrong | Engineering Leadership & AI Strategy

Engineering leadership insights, AI strategy, and practical guides for modern software development. Learn about product-aware engineering, team scaling, and building in the age of AI.


  1. Buyer Beware | Part 2: People and Culture Assessment

    This is Part 2 of the Buyer Beware M&A Series. …

    • 6 min read • on m&a, people, culture, team assessment, retention

  2. Buyer Beware | Part 1: Operations Assessment

    This is Part 1 of the Buyer Beware M&A Series. …

    • 5 min read • on m&a, operations, infrastructure, devops, security

  3. Buyer Beware | The Complete M&A Due Diligence Guide for Engineering Leaders

    Introduction …

    • 2 min read • on m&a, due diligence, engineering leadership, acquisition, merger

  4. Four Team Types and When to Use Them

    In my experience, there are four distinct team types that serve different organizational contexts and business needs. Each has specific characteristics that make it effective in certain situations and problematic in others. Understanding when and how to deploy these team types is crucial for maintaining the business value connection that prevents teams from becoming self-validating. …

    • 7 min read • on team composition, strike teams, service teams, shared services, maintenance teams

  5. Team Composition: Matching Structure to Organizational Context

    The most common mistake I see leaders make with team composition is treating it as a static organizational chart problem rather than a dynamic tool that should adapt to context. The question isn’t “what’s the best team structure?” but rather “what team structure serves our current organizational context and business needs?” …

    • 5 min read • on team composition, organizational maturity, business value, leadership strategy

  6. Splitting Hives | A great way to grow engineering organisations while maintaining culture

    ## Nature analogies in Engineering Bees are amazing. Organic. Like dev teams... Go with me for a minute on this.  …

    • 4 min read • on dev management, culture, team growth

  7. Splitting Hives | The Key Way to Grow Engineering Organizations While Maintaining Culture

    Nature Analogies in Engineering Leadership …

    • 4 min read • on dev management, culture, team growth, engineering leadership

  8. What? How? Why? When? | Three key questions to understanding software delivery responsibilities

    Intro When we consider a software development team as a system, we have to understand the dynamics of pressures that are in play in order to understand ultimately how a teams performance will play out. It is true that a well aligned set of folks who are all part of a high functioning team will be able to holistically take care of all the concerns this approach proposes to solve, but this approach proposes to solve responsibilities and team dynamics for the other 99% of us. …

    • 4 min read • on agile, organisation dynamics, responsibilities