Tag: best-practices

All the articles with the tag "best-practices".

• Launching Effective One-on-One Meetings

  Published:Nov 6, 2023 |  at 06:41 AM

  When I took over one-on-ones for a team of 8 engineers at Amazon, I needed a framework to make these meetings valuable. This template evolved over 20+ sessions to help create effective one-on-ones.

• Tech Interview Tips and Strategies

  Published:Jul 5, 2023 |  at 12:53 PM

  I've been helping a friend prepare for technical interviews by running mock interviews and offering feedback. Here are my best tips and strategies for acing your tech interviews, from behavioral questions to coding challenges.

• Backfill Considerations and Lessons Learned

  Published:Dec 6, 2022 |  at 06:22 PM

  When you need to backfill data, it's easy to cause problems. I've learned this lesson the hard way. This guide walks you through planning and executing backfills safely, from small fixes to massive data migrations.

• Providing Effective Feedback to Engineers

  Published:Feb 12, 2022 |  at 08:41 AM

  Giving feedback to engineers is one of the most important skills for tech leads and managers. My framework for providing constructive feedback that helps people grow without damaging relationships.

• Getting Unstuck

  Published:Oct 13, 2021 |  at 01:00 PM

  We all get stuck. The trick is knowing when and how to ask for help. My framework for troubleshooting problems and, when that fails, how to ask for help in a way that gets you the answers you need.

• Don't Bake a Cake

  Published:Mar 16, 2019 |  at 01:35 PM

  Don't bake a cake became my shorthand for a common problem in software teams. What I learned about communicating status updates effectively and why transparency, even when things go wrong, builds trust.

• More Code Review Best Practices

  Published:Jun 5, 2018 |  at 03:50 PM

  Three years after my first code review best practices post, I've learned even more about what makes reviews effective. Here are additional strategies for making your code reviews more valuable and less painful.

• Dangerous Python Functions, Part 3

  Published:Jan 30, 2017 |  at 01:33 PM

  In the final part of my dangerous Python functions series, I cover more security risks including assert statements, XML parsing vulnerabilities, and unsafe input handling. Plus, I've turned the whole series into a deck of cards!

• Refactoring Analogies

  Published:Sep 12, 2016 |  at 06:54 AM

  Refactoring can be hard to explain to stakeholders who don't code. Using analogies from home improvement and organization, I share how I communicate the value of refactoring to non-technical audiences.

• Strategies for Writing Useful Tests

  Published:May 11, 2016 |  at 06:54 AM

  I used to hate writing tests—they felt like a waste of time, took forever to run, and broke constantly. Now I actually enjoy it. Here are the strategies that transformed my approach to testing from dread to delight.