📚 Reading List
Why We Committed to a Zero-Bug Policy Linear
Ever wondered how some companies manage to deliver incredibly polished software? This piece dives into Linear's fascinating commitment to a zero-bug policy, and it's a game-changer. Linear doesn't just pay lip service to quality; they tackle bugs head-on, with tight deadlines based on severity. High-priority issues? Fixed in 48 hours. Lower priority? Gone in 7 days. Imagine the delight of reporting a glitch and seeing it resolved almost instantly! That's the kind of magic Linear aims for. But how do they pull it off? The article details their approach, including clearing a massive backlog, assigning triage duties, and most importantly, eliminating the dreaded backlog option. It's a refreshing take on software development that prioritizes immediate action and delivers a superior user experience. If you are interested in building high-quality products, this is a must-read.
Behind the Outage: Unpacking the Lessons of Major Incidents
Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when major services like Slack, Cloudflare, or GitHub face an outage? This insightful analysis dives deep into the root causes of several high-profile incidents, offering invaluable lessons for anyone involved in software development and incident management. Explore the unexpected downtime at Cloudflare, Spike's dashboard disruption, Slack's start-of-year slowdown, and GitHub's OAuth token theft. The author doesn't just recount the incidents; they extract crucial takeaways about robust monitoring, rigorous testing, effective emergency protocols, and the significance of careful rollouts. Transform hindsight into foresight and discover how dissecting past incidents can help you identify patterns, pinpoint weaknesses, and ultimately dodge future mishaps in your own projects. A must-read for anyone keen on mastering the art of incident management and building more resilient systems.
12 Activities of Quality Management: Seeing Beyond Testing
Dive into Daria Kotelenets' insightful exploration of quality management, where she challenges the conventional focus on testing. Published in August 2025, this article on Medium offers a fresh perspective on achieving quality not as a direct goal, but as a byproduct of underlying factors like feedback loops and system maintainability. Kotelenets invites you to rethink quality management, shifting the perception from a cost center to a business enabler. Discover twelve key activities that extend beyond traditional QA, emphasizing value-driven delivery and standardization. Learn how minimizing waste and validating assumptions can transform your approach to software development, leading to innovative products delivered faster, better, and cheaper. A must-read for anyone looking to elevate their understanding of quality in the tech world. Get ready to challenge your assumptions and explore how focusing on the right elements can naturally lead to superior quality. This article promises a journey beyond testing, offering actionable insights for tech startups and seasoned professionals alike.
How to Work on the Right Tech Debt by Luca Rossi
Feeling overwhelmed by technical debt? Luca Rossi dives deep into a data-driven framework to help you prioritize and tackle the right issues, boosting long-term productivity. Drawing inspiration from forensic psychology and Adam Tornhill's work (Your Code as a Crime Scene and CodeScene), this article explores how code health, frequency of change, and knowledge distribution impact your codebase. Discover practical strategies to identify problematic code, understand developer behavior, and design effective plans for improvement. Learn how to maximize your team's potential by focusing on code quality. A must-read for any engineer looking to optimize their workflow!
Being Glue
Ever feel like you're spending more time in meetings than coding, yet the team relies on you to keep things running smoothly? You might just be the 'glue' holding everything together! This talk dives into the often-unseen, yet crucial, work that makes teams successful. From onboarding junior engineers to spotting inconsistencies in design documents, 'glue work' is technical leadership in action. But beware! Without careful management, this vital role can be career-limiting. Learn how to deliberately allocate glue work, frame it effectively, and ensure that everyone thrives on a career path they actually desire.