In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving software landscape, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest trends and buzzwords. Amidst this constant change, it’s important to take a step back and revisit the timeless lessons that have shaped the industry. One such source of invaluable insights is the seminal work “The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win” by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford....

In my last post, I unraveled the hype and misconceptions around Observability, Monitoring, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). Today, I want to dive into the technical side of observability, exploring the important practices and factors that contribute to achieving observability in your systems. Core Components of Observability When it comes to observability, there are three key data types that form the foundation: traces, logs, and metrics. Let’s take a closer look at each of them:...

The Deceptive Simplicity of Observability You might’ve heard people throw around the term “Observability” in tech circles, often accompanied by knowing nods and self-assured smirks. But what exactly does it mean? At its core, Observability is the ability to infer the internal state of a system just by observing its outputs. Sounds simple, right? Well, not so fast. There’s more to it than meets the eye. Observability has its roots in control theory, but in the context of modern software systems, it refers to the practice of making systems more understandable and diagnosable by collecting, analysing, and visualising data from various sources....

Meetings are a staple of modern business culture. But are they actually doing more harm than good? In my experience, meetings are often toxic to productivity and creativity in the workplace. So here are some things to consider before scheduling your next meeting. Meetings are a time and resource-intensive activity. They require people to stop what they’re doing, prepare for the meeting, and travel to the meeting location. This can take away from the time and energy they could spend on actual work....

As we all shift into high gear for 2023 and get cracking on our roadmaps and deliverables, I want to share some fundamental principles I have picked up over the years for putting together kick-ass teams and smashing goals. Some of the following tenets became evident to me out in the wild, while others were taught to me by some truly great engineers and leaders. Embrace constraints: Contrary to popular belief, constraints can be a powerful tool to help you focus and be more creative....