Coverage, Mutants, and Ensuring Test Quality "How will you ensure the quality of the code you deliver?". Luckily automated tests are increasingly becoming the standard part of answer to this question. But how do you ensure the quality of your te...

In this week's issue @tpeczek.bsky.social shares thoughts on ensuring the quality of your tests:

🎯 The flavours of coverage
⚠️ The flaws hiding in coverage
🧬 Mutation testing as an alternative

Read the full issue and focus your quality practice on its true goal.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

Resiliency Through Chaos When people first hear about chaos engineering, they tend to think about specific infrastructure tools and randomness. In this article, I want to take a different approach and demonstrate a structured...

In this week's Pathfinder Engineer newsletter, @tpeczek.bsky.social explores how structured chaos engineering can transform your entire organisation, not just your infrastructure.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #TechLeadership #SystemsThinking #Resilience #ChaosEngineering

From Code to Catalyst: A Staff+ Engineer’s Manual From Code to Catalyst: A Staff+ Engineer’s Manual

Staff+ Engineers: Do you experience the "Productivity Paradox"?
You are no longer just code; you are a catalyst! Your invisible work is valuable, and it is time to discover how to make it visible and lead your team like a conductor.
#StaffEngineer #TechLeadership

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

Tackling the Hard Problem in Software Engineering - Documentation As engineers, we usually encounter two types of documentation: outdated or non-existent. Even worse, we are usually unable to produce any other types of documentation. In this article, I propose a cha...

In this week's issue, @tpeczek.bsky.social explores why the traditional mindset around documentation leads to either outdated or no documentation and how this mindset can be shifted.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineer #TechLeadership #SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringExcellence

mature doesn't mean easy: the hidden work in "obvious" platform moves A few times in my career, leadership looked at a well-known technology and decided it should be possible to do it in months.

In @gutek.pl latest blog post, we talk about mature tech ≠ easy. Read: pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/mature-doe...

How About Better Code Reviews Code reviews are a common subject of discussion and publication, with an increasing number of people saying that they are harmful. These opinions are not without merit, so let's discuss why they tend to be bad and how they can be better.

There is an increasing number of people saying that they code reviews harmful. Why? Because we've turned them into quality bottlenecks instead of learning engines.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineer #TechLeadership #EngineeringCulture

the art of saying no This will be short, but personal, or at least personal in a way that I'm getting myself into the same hole all over again and again and rarely actually changing anything.

Ever notice how “just one more task” becomes ten—and suddenly every priority is a P1?

In @gutek.pl's latest post, he talks about the overload loop and how WIP limits helped me reclaim focus.

Catch “The Art of Saying No” here 👉 pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/the-art-of...

#EngineeringCulture

Data-Driven Staff+ Engineer - Using Metrics to Drive Architecture Surprisingly little data is used to make architectural decisions. In this article, I want to share with you a simple approach that I often use to ensure that metrics drive the architecture wherever po...

In this week's issue, @tpeczek.bsky.social shares his approach for making the architectural decisions more data-driven. Because gut feeling shouldn't be everything and "It felt right" your only answer.

#StaffEngineer #SoftwareArchitecture #DataDriven

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

Playing Good Catcher Thanks to the OODA Loop Staff+ engineers fulfil multiple roles and archetypes within an organisation, often simultaneously. In this issue, I'm exploring one of these roles: the 'Catcher', and a tool that can help you fulfil ...

In this week's issue, @tpeczek.bsky.social explores how the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) can be your help when you need to bring projects, processes, or entire departments back on track.

#StaffEngineer #TechLeadership

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

Your Team Isn't Slow, It's Constrained Why telling your team to 'stop writing code' is the secret to going faster.

Team feeling slow? It's not them, it's a bottleneck! 🚧
Learn how the Theory of Constraints helps Staff+ Engineers unblock workflows and boost team speed.

Read more: pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/your-team-...

#StaffEngineer #EngineeringLeadership #ToC

Chaos, Discipline, and Agile Last week, I discussed choosing a workflow approach for a project with a business stakeholder. I was leaning towards the Agile methodology, but the stakeholder countered by saying that she fears we wi...

Ever had a stakeholder say your Agile approach feels "chaotic"? You're not alone. And here's the uncomfortable truth: we engineers might be the reason why.

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineer #PrincipalEngineer #Agile #TechLeadership

Engineering Workflow Choices: When Agile Fits—and When It Doesn’t A practical guide to aligning engineering methods with task complexity for better outcomes

Is Agile always the best choice? 🤔 Not really.

Our new article shows when to use Agile and when to try something else. Make your team's work easier! 💻👍
pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/engineerin...

#Agile #Software #Programming #Tech

from interrogation to exploration using the Left/Right Column to balance advocacy & inquiry

Ever notice how “Don’t you think…?” feels like a trap? 👀

Use the Left/Right Column to turn loaded questions into real curiosity, with a mini script you can steal for your next stand-up.

Grab it here and tell me which question you’ll rewrite first: pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/from-inter...

Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - Architectural Survival Kit As part of the “Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World” series, we have explored several key concepts, including the multitenancy spectrum, the tenant lifecycle, control planes, and costs/pricing. A recurr...

🛠️ Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - Architectural Survival Kit

The SaaS solution journey is like navigating a jungle, @tpeczek.bsky.social has prepared a architectural survival kit to aid you on that path.

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #SaaS

Pathfinder’s Tech Snacks – Issue #10 Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google drop major AI updates—plus a local CI/CD pro tip.

Welcome to the 10th edition of Tech Snacks.
This week, we’re diving into major announcements from Microsoft Build and Google I/O, exploring Anthropic’s latest AI model, and checking out a handy tool for local CI/CD testing with GitHub Actions.

open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

404: Community Not Found Stack Overflow is fading—can Discord, Reddit, or LLMs take its place?

Stack Overflow is fading and devs are left wondering: where do we ask questions now? Discord? Reddit? GitHub? LLMs?

🧵 Let’s explore what’s next for developer communities 👇

pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/404-commun...

how the four-r loop turns good engineers into fearless communicators TDD for humans interaction

New post:
“Record ▸ Reflect ▸ Revise ▸ Role-play”

I unpack a four-step loop that closes the gap between what we think and what we say. Includes real examples (estimation, code review, raise request) + a template you can run weekly.

pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/how-the-fo... ✨

Pathfinder’s Tech Snacks – Issue #9 Your curated dose of tech insights, tools, and trends – fresh from the frontier.

This week, we’re diving into OpenAI’s biggest acquisition yet, exploring the future of the web without third-party cookies, and checking out performance boosts in Java and PostgreSQL. Plus, open-source cursor alternative 😎

pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/pathfinder...

Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - Pricing and Cost Management The next topic I’ve decided to tackle as part of our journey through the SaaS world is pricing and cost management.

🚀 Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - Pricing and Cost Management 🚀

"As a technical leader, you are responsible for the profitability of your solution - your job literally depends on it."

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #SaaS #CloudCosts #FinOps

Pathfinder's Tech Snacks - Issue #8 This issue covers managing underperformers, modern Docker practices, GTA bugs, and more.

Hello, pathfinders! 🌟
This issue covers managing underperformers, breaking the habit of unfinished work in Agile sprints, modern Docker practices, building intelligent agents, a peculiar bug in GTA San Andreas on Windows 11!
Dive in and enjoy!
open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

How to slice a feature Strategies for breaking down complex features into manageable tasks

Ever struggled with breaking down complex features into manageable parts? Check out my latest post on effective strategies for slicing features! 🛠️✨

pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/how-to-sli...

Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - The Control Planes So far in our journey through the SaaS world, we’ve explored the multitenancy spectrum and the life of a tenant. Today we are going to broaden our view of the SaaS environment and explore control plan...

🚀 Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - The Control Planes 🚀

This week, as part our journey through the SaaS world, @tpeczek.bsky.social dives into the control planes.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #SaaS

Discover how to avoid misunderstandings and improve your communication skills today. I'd love to hear your experiences too!

Luckily, there's a simple, practical tool—called The Ladder of Inference—that helps us see how our brains shortcut from reality to misinterpretation…and shows us how to get back down to solid ground.

why we jump to the wrong conclusions (and how to avoid it) learning to use the ladder of inference in our personal and professional lives

“Why did I assume that?!” 🤷‍♂️ We've all been there—jumping right past the facts straight to assumptions and misunderstandings.

🔗 pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/why-we-jum...

#Growth #Communication #SelfImprovement

Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - The Life of a Tenant Previously in the “Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World” we’ve been exploring the multitenancy spectrum. This article continues the exploration and looks at possible events in your tenant lifecycle.

🚀 Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - The Life of a Tenant 🚀

Previously, @tpeczek.bsky.social explored the multitenancy spectrum. This week he continues the exploration and takes a look at the tenant lifecycle.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #SaaS

Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World - The Multitenancy Spectrum If you’re working in an organisation that delivers software using a SaaS business model, one of the words that dominates (not only) architectural discussions is “multitenancy”.

🚀 Staff+ Engineer in the SaaS World 🚀

If you've been involved in any (not only) architectural discussions about software delivered in a SaaS business model, you've definitely heard the word "multitenancy".

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#StaffEngineering #SoftwareArchitecture #SaaS

🚀 Balancing Deployment and Release: Strategies and Solutions 🚀
Struggling with software release complexities? 🤔 Whether it's desktop apps, mobile apps, or firmware, understanding the difference between deployment and release is crucial.

🔗Read more: open.substack.com/pub/pathfind... 🔗

The Art of Purposeful Release Strategy Defining a release strategy is a common challenge for staff+ engineers.

🚀 The Art of Purposeful Release Strategy 🚀

In this week's issue of the Pathfinder Engineer newsletter, @tpeczek.bsky.social explores the approach to defining a purposeful release strategy.

🔗 open.substack.com/pub/pathfind...

#PathfinderEngineer #StaffEngineer #ReleaseManagement

In the newest issue Piotr Stapp emphasizes process over clickbait for cloud savings. Key takeaways: ownership, regular reviews, and cost monitoring are key!

pathfinderengineer.substack.com/p/the-biggest-lie-in-fin...

#CloudOptimization #IT