A few companies back, my manager and I inherited a group of teams after layoffs. Confidence was already low. People didn’t believe in the systems we maintained. Stakeholders lost trust in what we did. Results were inconsistent, and even routine work needed more verification than it should have. We tried to steady things, but it was hard to know what […]
Over the years, I’ve interviewed many candidates. One crucial skill that often gets overlooked is operational reflexes during oncalls. Surprisingly, few companies test for this, yet it’s a capability that greatly distinguishes engineers. There is a gap in interviewing. Some of the candidates excel in code interviews and system design but not on the operational side of things. They can […]
Engineering health is a term that deserves far more attention than it receives. Sustainable software development is not only about the features we ship or the speed at which we deliver. Every organisation, even the healthiest ones, makes subpar decisions over time. Some are technical decisions that turn into technical debt. Others are operational decisions that solidify into weak processes […]