Engineering Excellence Standards

🚨 “It worked on my machine!” … until it didn’t. Every engineer has lived this nightmare. That’s why real quality starts long before a release. 💡 Are you serious about “quality”? As an engineering lead, I’ve learned that quality is not a checklist - it is a mindset you bring to every stage of development. Here’s what great developers focus on: 1️⃣ Requirement clarity - Know what you are building and why. 2️⃣ Strong design principles - Good software and code design go a long way. 3️⃣ Test thinking early - Map positive and negative cases before writing code. 4️⃣ Code for the future - Scalable, readable, maintainable. 5️⃣ Unit tests - Your first safety net for critical logic. 6️⃣ Integration tests - Catch those sneaky edge cases. These have saved my team from major outages. 7️⃣ Manual testing - Nothing beats a human eye. 8️⃣ Team testing - A fresh perspective always finds what you missed. And yet… 🔁 Murphy’s Law still applies: Anything that can break, will break. That’s why quality is not a phase at the end - it is a culture from day one. As engineering leaders, our job is to build teams that own quality - where every developer feels responsible for shipping code that lasts. Just last week, my team chose a long-term solution over a quick fix, and the payoff will outlive any sprint deadline. How do you bake quality into your development process? Comment below 👇 #EngineeringLeadership #CodeQuality #SoftwareEngineering #DevEx #QualityCulture

Shipping fast is great, but building a sustainable future requires Engineering Excellence ✨ In a world obsessed with rapid feature delivery, it's easy to overlook the critical importance of Engineering Excellence. * Cutting corners leads to technical debt, increased maintenance costs, and decreased morale. * Prioritizing quality leads to increased productivity, enhanced agility, and improved customer satisfaction. Engineering Excellence isn't just about writing code; it's about: * Robust, maintainable, and testable code. * Efficient development processes. * Scalable and resilient systems. * A culture of continuous improvement. Shifting our focus from solely shipping features to building a foundation of Engineering Excellence will be instrumental in creating a sustainable future. Let me know your thoughts in comments 👇 #codeWithAravind #EngineeringExcellence #SoftwareDevelopment #Agile #Quality #Sustainability

Had a great time with Will Button on the Adventures in DevOps podcast. Talked all things eng excellence and I shared a bit of the origin story of Cortex, 2am oncall pages included. Here's my latest 🔥 hot take that I dropped on this podcast (and some other useful takeaways for engineering leaders): Hot take: If your VP of Sales told you they manage their multi-million dollar pipeline in Confluence and spreadsheets, you’d (rightfully) think they were nuts. Yet, that’s exactly how many engineering orgs are flying when it comes to their complex service ecosystems and the standards that should govern them. We wouldn't accept it in Sales, so why in Engineering – the function that literally builds the systems for everyone else? If you're serious about treating software as a competitive advantage, engineering needs to have its own system of record (an IDP) to methodically drive that excellence. For engineering leaders, here are a few other takeaways from our chat: 🔁 IDPs are for Engineering Excellence, not just developer experience: Stop thinking of IDPs as just a "nice-to-have" for developers. Frame it around the business outcomes you're driving – reliability, security, velocity. Your SRE, Security, and Platform teams need a way to operationalize their initiatives and ensure standards aren't just suggestions in a wiki. 🐣 Stuck on the "chicken or the egg problem"? Yes, your data probably sucks. Perfect. Start There: The classic "our data isn't clean enough for an IDP" is a chicken-egg problem. How do you even know how bad it is, or where to start, without a system to illuminate the "unknown unknowns"? An IDP is your first step to getting a real grip. 🏟️ Solve Existing Pains, don't boil the ocean: Want to actually drive IDP adoption for rollout? Don't try to build Rome in a day. Pick a current, painful, manual process (like production readiness reviews) and use the IDP to make it measurably better. Get that win, then expand. We dove into how an IDP is like a CRM for engineering, why platform teams need to think like product managers, and much more. Would love to hear your thoughts – are you still wrestling with spreadsheets and tribal knowledge to drive critical engineering initiatives? Link to the podcast in the comments! #EngineeringExcellence #IDP #PlatformEngineering #CTO #DevOps #InternalDeveloperPortal #TechLeadership

🔍💡 A graduate student’s question yesterday struck a chord: "How do you distinguish between genuine competence and the mere appearance of it❓️" A nuanced challenge🧐 because confidence, whether grounded in expertise or mere illusion, is inherently persuasive. ▶️ Some highly competent individuals are also masters of showmanship, making it difficult to tell skill from spectacle. Yet, many who lack real ability overestimate themselves (Dunning-Kruger effect), while true experts recognize the complexity of what they don’t know. Early Career: Choosing the Right Leaders and Organizations ✅ Seek leaders who ask sharp, insightful questions. The strongest executives say "Let's find out" rather than feigning certainty. ✅ Prioritize organizations that reward intellectual honesty. Environments where learning is valued over bravado foster long-term success. ❌ Be wary of leaders who dismiss feedback or overpromise. Competence comes with curiosity; empty confidence is brittle when tested. ❌ Watch for leaders who deflect accountability. Those who take credit for success but blame their teams in failure signal insecurity, not expertise. Later Career: Navigating Leadership and Avoiding Self-Delusion ✅ Challenge your own biases. Even seasoned professionals can fall into overconfidence traps. The best leaders stress-test their assumptions. ✅ Mentor those who balance ambition with self-awareness. The most effective executives build depth before dominance. ❌ Avoid organizations where visibility outweighs execution. Those who look competent but lack substance thrive in environments where rhetoric wins over results. ❌ Recognize leaders who delegate responsibility but not accountability. Effective leaders own decisions, while insecure ones hide behind their teams when mistakes surface. At Any Stage: Confidence vs. Competence Real expertise is curious, measured, and backed by substance. The illusion of superiority? Loud, rigid, and fragile when challenged. While I currently report to a leader who embodies both competence and confidence, I’ve encountered many who rise through performance theater alone. Distinguishing real expertise from its illusion is one of the most valuable executive skills. So, how do you tell the difference?

The Importance of Prioritizing Quality Over Quick Demos in Project Management As a project manager, the desire to showcase progress to stakeholders is understandable. However, forcing developers to patch things together for a demo, when the product isn't ready, can have long-term consequences that outweigh any immediate wins. Here’s why: Quality Takes a Hit: Rushed patches and last-minute fixes can create technical debt that hinders the project's future progress. This compromises the stability and quality of the product in the long run. Missed Opportunity for Meaningful Feedback: Demos should be an opportunity to gather constructive feedback from stakeholders. A rushed demo often leads to superficial discussions and does not allow for an authentic reflection of the project’s true potential. Demotivating for Developers: Developers thrive when they are allowed to work thoughtfully and at a sustainable pace. Constantly pressuring them to deliver incomplete features for demos can lead to burnout, frustration, and a drop in morale. Lost Trust: Stakeholders may be impressed with the "demo," but if the final product doesn't meet expectations due to shortcuts taken, trust can erode quickly. It’s important to balance visibility with responsibility. Successful demos should showcase solid work and allow for genuine feedback, not a patchwork of incomplete solutions. Let’s focus on creating meaningful progress that we can be proud to present! One of the best project manager i have worked with is: Juliet Ochanya Ujah and she will make sure the quality is not compromised. #ProjectManagement #QualityOverSpeed #TechLeadership #SoftwareDevelopment #Agile #SustainableWork

Are your top engineers innovating—or stuck maintaining demo environments? I recently spoke to someone who had eight (EIGHT!) full-time engineers dedicated solely to managing their demo environments. While their demos were high-quality, it raised a critical question: Is manually maintaining demos really the best use of your engineering talent? Here’s what companies need to consider: - Manual demo upkeep consumes valuable resources Every hour your engineers spend refreshing demo data, managing integrations, or creating custom scenarios is an hour they’re not focused on product innovation or solving customer challenges. - Automation lets engineers focus on innovation Demo automation tools today handle tasks like data management, product integrations, and updating environments seamlessly—without heavy engineering involvement. This frees your best people to focus on what they do best: building great products. - You can have great demos without sacrificing innovation The right balance is achievable—high-quality, realistic demo environments, automated and maintained without draining engineering resources. Bottom line: Demos should support product growth—not slow it down. Invest in automation, and let your engineers innovate.

My early engineering days were consumed by chasing the "next big framework." I was convinced that mastering bleeding-edge tech was the path to success. Fast forward to today as a Staff Engineer at Meta, and my perspective has completely shifted. Now I ask: How many companies have successfully implemented this technology? What were their key learnings? Can it truly scale to millions or billions of users? The mark of engineering maturity isn't knowing every new tool—it's selecting the right one for the specific problem at hand. True engineering excellence comes from wisdom, not just technical knowledge. What perspective shift have you experienced in your technical career?

Early in my career, I thought being a great engineer meant writing the best possible solution. I was wrong. True engineering excellence is about: - Understanding user needs - Simplifying complex problems - Delivering something useful soon that works also later - Thinking beyond the immediate technical challenge The most successful engineers are those who can bridge the gap between technical capability and real-world impact. They don't write merely write code. They solve problems.

What's the easiest way to build high-quality and well-maintained features? Add software engineers to the conversation on day one. My favorite projects I've worked on had one thing in common. They weren't thrown over the wall. I was there from the beginning. - I attended exploratory meetings - I read user research after it was gathered - I viewed early design concepts and wireframes - I helped scope the feature This resulted in: - Increased context into the why behind the feature - More time to research and implement the best solution - Greater appreciation for Design, UX, and Product - Elevated sense of responsibility and dedication to my team If you want engineers to do their best work, treat them like first-class citizens. Embrace their feedback and participation in the entire project lifecycle, not just the end of it. Have you worked on a team project from start to finish? How did that make you feel?