Overview
Many small engineering organizations, while trying to build products as quickly as possible, find themselves realizing the consequences of incurring technical debt. Different teams may choose incompatible technologies, using what is familiar to enable fast initial development. This becomes hard to maintain and introduces expensive context switching between projects.
As the number of teams grow, there comes a point when strategic investments in platform and tooling need to be made. Having a consistent technical stack across products and services is easier to support and allows for better collaboration. But engineers are opinionated, bikeshedding is real, and it can be hard to reach consensus when teams have leveraged competing technologies.
Pulling from examples of the successes and failures of the Web Platform team at Uber, this discussion will explore ways to build frameworks and libraries that increase productivity and maintain developer happiness by creating a seductive platform.
Objective
To explain when and how to create a standard set of libraries, tools and frameworks that ensure a happy and productive engineering organization.
Target Audience
Engineers and Engineering Managers
Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
- When it makes sense to build platform and choosing what to standardize
- How to create platform while building features
- Ways to avoid bikeshedding while seeking input on technology choices
- The importance of defining the principles and culture of an engineering org
- How to get teams to buy into technology choices
