Trunk.io·2yWhat's something you do for every project you start?
Observing how someone initiates a new project can reveal their experience and skills. This practice is insightful enough to be used during interviews. Consider what types of projects interest you and the tools you instinctively use when starting a new project.
daily.dev Changelog·2ySlack Integration
Integrate your Squad with Slack to receive notifications on Squad activity directly in your Slack channels, allowing for seamless and streamlined communication. Admins can easily connect a Squad to a Slack workspace and channel, making it straightforward to keep your team updated. For more details, visit the provided documentation link.
Tech World With Milan·2yHow Google build great engineering teams?
The interview with Addy Osmani, head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google, dives into effective team building, leadership lessons from Google, and traits of successful engineering teams. Key points include the importance of psychological safety, the value of emotional intelligence, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth. The discussion also touches on productivity frameworks, bad leadership behaviors to avoid, and the significance of clear communication and diversity in teams.
InfoQ·2yThinking Like an Architect
The post delves into the multifaceted role of an architect, emphasizing it as a way of thinking rather than a title. It explores the concept of the 'architect elevator,' highlighting the significance of connecting various organizational levels to ensure effective communication and implementation. The role of an architect is portrayed as an IQ amplifier, guiding others to make better decisions by understanding tradeoffs and impacts. The post also underscores the value of models, metaphors, and the ability to see multiple dimensions to solve complex problems and navigate organizational and technical systems effectively.
The Developing Dev·2yShould You Become an Engineering Manager?
Deciding between an engineering manager (EM) role and an individual contributor (IC) path involves considering career growth, working style, and skill development. Managers often face less control over their career growth due to organizational needs but may find rapid advancement in growing companies. They work mostly through delegation and influence, resulting in fewer hours but more fragmented schedules. Engineers with strong people skills or aspiring to executive roles might find management rewarding. Transitioning to management typically requires proving oneself in a senior IC role first and showing readiness through smaller management tasks.
David Heinemeier Hansson·2yWe once more have no full-time managers at 37signals
37signals has returned to its original structure with no full-time managers. All management tasks are done part-time by individual contributors, including the founders. This approach emphasizes autonomy and minimal managerial overhead, which works for their company size of about 60 people. The structure relies on hiring self-sufficient 'managers of one' and focuses on addressing fundamental performance issues at the top level.
Community Picks·2yThere's no such thing as 'developer ROI'
Engineering productivity can't be quantified in dollar terms as developer work is creative, non-standardized, and highly variable based on individual skills and tasks. Traditional productivity metrics, like ROI or utilization rates used in other departments, aren't suitable for engineering. Instead, engineering should be managed as critical infrastructure with goals tailored to its unique nature. Efforts should focus on enabling creativity and understanding engineering work as interconnected and evolving, rather than trying to measure it through oversimplified metrics.
Medium Engineering·2yA New Era of Medium Engineering
Medium's engineering team is embarking on a new era focused on long-term stability and success. Previous efforts were geared towards rapid improvement, but now the emphasis is on sustaining excellence and building a robust future. Key principles include prioritizing correctness, owning the 'how' in projects, adhering to processes, maintaining focus, and innovating uniquely. This transition aims to foster a world-class engineering culture that supports Medium's growth into a dependable multi-billion dollar company.
Community Picks·2yEngineering Management Basics
Effective engineering management requires a structured approach to transitioning individual contributors into managerial roles. The basics of engineering management provide new managers with a foundational framework, helping to stabilize their teams and guide them through everyday situations. This structured start allows leaders to develop their personal styles over time, ensuring long-term success in their roles.
Microservices.io·2yArchitecting microservices for fast, sustainable flow
Microservice architecture structures an application as multiple loosely design-time coupled and independently deployable services. This approach facilitates faster deployment pipelines, better observability, and simplifies the evolution of the technology stack. However, it demands careful design to ensure loose coupling and stable APIs, and requires cultural changes in testing and deployment practices. Starting with a monolith may be advisable in new domains to identify stable APIs before transitioning to microservices.
The Developing Dev·2yHow To Get Promoted (Without Getting Lucky)
Learn practical strategies to secure a promotion without relying on luck by focusing on measurable impact, leveraging influence, building an internal brand, collaborating effectively, and putting in meaningful work. High-level individual contributors (ICs) use their skills in leadership, writing, and coding to create significant value, while also prioritizing soft skills and efficient work practices.
Tech Lead Digest·2yTypical First Years of Startup Engineering Leadership
Many VC-backed startups share common traits and face similar pitfalls in their early years. Understanding these common issues and strategies to mitigate them can be crucial for engineering leaders. Key areas discussed include the importance of organizational architecture, the roles and guidance needed for team members, and effective strategies for building and running executive teams as the company scales.
Microservices.io·2yArchitecting monoliths for fast, sustainable flow
Fast, sustainable flow is the continuous delivery of valuable changes while keeping the technology stack current, requiring team-sized elements, loose coupling, testability, deployability, observability, and evolvability. While monolithic architectures can be simpler than microservices, they often struggle with evolvability and deployment pipeline bottlenecks, but careful design can overcome some limitations. The upcoming workshop covers architectural design, trade-offs, and strategies to enhance fast, sustainable flow.
Medium·2yDraw your own maps
The post discusses the importance of creating clarity and structure in the workplace, especially for designers. It highlights the necessity for individuals to independently identify and solve problems for career growth. The author outlines three tools to aid in this process: asking questions, creating design briefs, and facilitating workshops. By leveraging these methods, employees can define success and align their teams towards common goals.
Community Picks·2yWhy competent workers become incompetent managers
Managers significantly impact employee engagement, often negatively. Studies reveal that many competent workers turn into incompetent managers due to overconfidence, lack of necessary managerial skills, and flawed promotion systems. The Peter Principle explains that employees are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. Solutions include broadening promotion aims, evaluating leadership potential, and creating separate career tracks for technical and managerial roles to ensure better alignment and effectiveness.
gitconnected·2yThe Engineering Manager’s Areas of Responsibility
Engineering Managers have a multifaceted role involving technical oversight, team coaching, and collaboration with cross-functional teams. Success in this position requires balancing responsibilities across product delivery, engineering quality, and team satisfaction. They are accountable for the engineering practice and the development of their direct reports, while also being responsible for the success of the broader team through effective collaboration.
Microservices.io·2yEvolving an architecture: a problem solving-driven approach
Explore how to evolve a software architecture using a problem-solving driven approach. Learn from real-world scenarios, such as handling more services than teams after layoffs, and discover frameworks that enable effective architectural decisions.
Hacker News·2yAsk for Advice, Not Permission
Asking for advice rather than permission fosters better collaboration and trust within teams. Seeking permission can unintentionally burden others with responsibility and cultivate resentment. In contrast, asking for advice shows respect, keeps the decision on you, and invites honest feedback. This approach also helps create advocates who feel invested in the outcome.
Hacker News·2ySlow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast: Navy SEALs’ Efficiency Secret
The saying 'slow is smooth, smooth is fast' underscores the importance of precision over speed. Commonly used by Navy SEALs, this principle champions taking deliberate and accurate actions to minimize mistakes and enhance overall efficiency. This approach proved pivotal during high-stakes missions like Operation Neptune Spear, and the concept can be effectively applied beyond military contexts in business practices and project management to avoid costly errors and improve productivity.
Substack·2yGood managers are hard to find and once you have them, they should be appreciated
Good managers are crucial for a thriving organizational culture and employee retention. They have a significant impact on assigning responsibilities, coaching, and mentoring. The post highlights the qualities of good managers, such as leadership, team playing, providing constructive feedback, and fostering growth. Managers face many challenges, including multitasking, stakeholder communication, and ensuring team success. Appreciation for good managers is essential for maintaining a high-performing organization.
Spacelift·2yHow to Build a Platform Engineering Team [Focus & Roles]
Platform engineering is essential for managing the complex infrastructure of modern cloud-native architectures and microservices. Building a successful platform engineering team involves focusing on areas like Infrastructure as Code, continuous integration and delivery, and security. Key roles include platform engineers, site reliability engineers, cloud architects, and security engineers. Effective hiring strategies, including focused job descriptions and an efficient interview process, are crucial. Onboarding, goal setting, and continuous training help retain top talent and ensure team success.
Substack·2yHow to propose an impactful improvement to the codebase and own the implementation
Standing out as an engineer involves proactively finding and implementing impactful improvements to the codebase. This demonstrates proactive behavior, leadership, and the ability to handle ambiguous situations—qualities that are highly regarded by managers for promotions. By solving recurring issues, collaborating across departments, and understanding business challenges, engineers can significantly contribute to their team's and organization's success. Taking ownership of such initiatives not only helps in learning and growing but also enhances one's reputation and career prospects.
Community Picks·2yIs DevOps Just a Conspiracy?
DevOps is a collaborative practice aimed at producing better software faster by encouraging cooperation between developers, operations, QA, and other teams. For CTOs, adopting DevOps represents a strategic organizational shift that breaks down traditional silos and mandates cross-team collaboration to enhance software delivery efficiency and quality.
Microservices.io·2yWork smarter, not longer: Embrace fast flow
Long working hours reduce productivity and creativity due to fatigue and stress. Embracing fast flow, which includes continuous delivery of small changes and adopting DevOps and Team Topologies, can boost performance. Organizations can benefit by reorganizing into cross-functional, autonomous teams to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency.
