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MWNN Kanban VS Code Extension

 Last year I wrote about the Methodology With No Name , my simple approach to software development using a Kanban board with WIP limits and a reverse WIP limit on the Ready column. I have been doing more development in VS Code with AI coding agents, and I wanted a Kanban board that both people and AI could use. So I created MWNN Kanban. As I worked with AI, I sometimes found myself confused about whether I was supposed to do something or whether the AI was supposed to do it. So cards can be assigned to either a human or AI. If a card is assigned to a human, it is clear that it is something I need to do rather than something I am waiting for the AI to handle. MWNN Kanban stores the board as files in your workspace, with each card in its own Markdown file. This means the board can be committed with your source code and updated by either a person or an AI agent. You can import a plan, hand individual cards to an AI, or run an AI loop that defines and implements work using GitHub Copil...
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Session Control Update

Inspired by this  https://towardsdatascience.com/how-i-continually-improve-my-claude-code/   I added @session-control /analyze and /implement commands to my Session Control VSCode extension that analyzes the chats saved in the .chat folder for things that could be added to your AGENTS.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, CLAUDE.md, SKILLS.md etc. to make future chats run smoother.  https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=darrenjmcleod.session-control
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Command Shelf

I know I'm in the minority on this one but I'm not a fan of CLI's. I don't know if it's because I started out when CLI's were the only option and I've been there done that. But I like GUI's. I like clicking things with my mouse and making things happen without having to type 30 some characters. In vscode I found myself having problems remembering what magic combination of characters would accomplish routine tasks in each project, and each project seems to have subtle differences in those character combinations and so I decided to create an extension that I can put those character combinations into a menu and name it and I can just click on it and stuff happens. Command Shelf
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PurposeCompass

 After achieving a long-term personal milestone, becoming a successful independent software development consultant, I ran into a new question: what comes next? That led me into a period of research and reflection, including a lengthy interactive conversation with ChatGPT. From that process, the PurposeCompass Framework emerged, and ultimately the app PurposeCompass . PurposeCompass helps people think more clearly about direction by exploring the intersection of: their values, what they love, what they are good at, what the world needs, and what they can be paid for. The idea is simple: meaningful work and life direction often sit at the overlap of those five dimensions. This project started as a personal search for clarity, and grew into something I believe can help others navigate their own next chapter.
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Session Control

 I use vscode a lot now because I find it has a better AI integration than Visual Studio . Although the other day I tried to rename an AI chat session and it was obliterated instead of given a new name. This wasn't the first time I had lost an AI chat session and is very distressing, so I thought why aren't these chat sessions backed up along with the source code and Session Control was born. Session Control is a vscode extension that allows you to save your AI sessions in a .chat folder that you can commit along with your code. Session Control
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My Wife's Cognitive Challenge

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 My wife is a professional dog trainer and behaviorist. Being the tech geek that I am I coded and maintain her website  https://dogsden.ca . She recently developed a training system called  Barbara Lloyd's Canine Cognitive Challenges , a framework that focuses on cognitive skill building for dogs rather than traditional command based training. It uses structured problem solving tasks to reveal how a dog processes information, forms strategies, and adapts to new situations. In other words, it trains the thinking system, not just the response pattern. Key outcomes of this cognitive approach include: • Stronger resilience and confidence in puppies and young dogs • Improved focus and decision making in adult dogs • Greater curiosity, autonomy, and emotional stability The program had great success in real world training, so she wanted to turn it into a scalable online course. I dutifully coded one up as a subsite under her https://dogsden.ca site. Got it all working...
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Kanban and the Methodology With No Name

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There is a software development methodology that uses a Kanban board, but it isn’t called Kanban because Kanban isn’t a methodology . It’s just a method, a board with columns and stickies to track work, which this guide says can be used with any methodology and is not a methodology in itself. So I call it the Methodology with No Name(MWNN), like Sergio Leone's character the Man with No Name.  The MWNN is simple. You add a column on the Kanban board that is a prioritized list of work that is ready to start work on next. But the trick is that the column has a reverse WIP limit, where you make sure the number of stickies in the column never falls below the reverse WIP limit number. This way work is never stalled waiting for a sticky to be completely defined and ready to begin being worked on.  That's it. You just do the work in the usual Kanban way respecting WIP limits of all the columns. With the MWNN there is no need for sprints and sprint planning where you try to guess how m...
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