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Articles on product strategy, engineering principles, and building software that lasts.
This article outlines a framework for deciding whether to refactor an existing software component or initiate a complete rewrite. It focuses on assessing technical debt, system stability, and architectural constraints. The goal is to optimize engineering effort for maximum product stability and feature delivery.
Gradual reliability erosion is difficult to detect without systematic monitoring. This article details methods for identifying and addressing declining system reliability trends over time. We cover metric analysis, investigation processes, and preventative measures.
Effective CI/CD pipelines are essential for defect detection. Proper configuration includes static analysis, comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests. Gating deployments based on test outcomes prevents bug propagation.
Gradual performance degradation presents a subtle but critical challenge in production systems. This document outlines a structured approach to diagnose and resolve these elusive issues. It emphasizes systematic investigation over reactive measures.
Technical debt management without pausing feature development requires strategic prioritization and incremental work. Identify high-impact debt and allocate consistent engineering capacity. Integrate remediation into ongoing development sprints.
Tracing a request failure in a distributed system requires combining contextual data from multiple services. Engineers must correlate logs, traces, and metrics to identify the specific service and operation where the failure originated. This process enables targeted debugging and resolution.
Retention signals genuine product-market fit. Acquisition can be artificially inflated by marketing spend. Prioritizing retention ensures sustainable, organic growth.
MVP scope reduction focuses on identifying and eliminating non-core features. This ensures rapid deployment and direct validation of primary assumptions. The process evaluates each feature against the central problem the product solves.
Incident handoffs between engineering teams frequently fail. This often results from incomplete context, differing understanding of ownership, and absent communication standards. Such failures impede resolution and increase mean time to recovery.
Deciding between in-house and outsourced development for a new product involves tradeoffs. Consider whether the work is core to your long-term competitive advantage. Assess ownership, cost, and talent acquisition difficulty for each path.
Launching a new product requires objective criteria beyond feature completeness. Readiness involves validating core problem-solution fit, ensuring technical stability for production, and establishing operational support processes. These factors collectively determine a product's viability for release.
Distributed system failures are difficult to diagnose due to interdependencies. Effective investigation requires understanding data flow and pinpointing component degradation. This document outlines a methodical approach.
Better Software is a product engineering company, part of Better. We build software for owners and founders who already understand the problem.
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