Fifty (or more) shades of grey – software engineering style
Observe fast, think fast, act fast, change fast, learn fast
Two years back, I attended a conference revolving around the concept of Agile. One of the speakers talked about mindsets, and he proudly classified Homo Sapiens into two broad categories. He claimed that people either adopt an agile or a fixed approach to problems.
That’s a pretty fixed (and boring) approach to classification #justsaying.
Only Black or White.
Now let me bring Grey into the picture.
It breaks the dichotomy and also makes life a little more colourful. Like this shirt here.
Image Credit: Topman
Grey is flexible. Flexible is grey.
So is software engineering. In fact, it comes in fifty (or more) shades of grey.
And many other aspects of life, of course. But I’m fixed on sharing my views in this field that I’m super passionate about. It also happens to pay for my steaks as well as my soon-to-be-born child.
The Flexible Mindset
So why is software engineering grey? That’s really because there’s no black or white way of solving problems that surface in this dynamic arena.
During my first week at ShopBack, we were caught in a huge technical debt. To put it simply, the old architecture that’s able to support 1,000 residents just didn’t have enough room to house 1 million residents. We needed a major reconstruction. Due to the sheer amount of re-engineering work required, the rest of the upcoming projects were all put on hold.
We’ve to pay off the debt by resolving over 1,000 lines of source code.
Which of the following task management methodology do you think we should apply in this situation?
Scrum
Kanban
Don’t get the technical terms? Don’t worry, The solution was none of the above.
It’s way simpler than that.
We just created an Excel spreadsheet with over 1,000 rows, filled in the files of source code, added and filled up two columns — ‘Status’ and ‘Assignee’ — and it was good to roll.
We managed to be technical debt-free and completed the revamp a few days ahead of the initial deadline.
Was there a fanciful methodology? No.
Was there a magic trick up our sleeves? No.
Was there any complex concept backing the solution? No.
It’s just plain old division of labour.
It’s just being flexible — thinking out of frameworks, going back to basics, finding the fastest solution. Absolutely no bending backwards to squeeze into any fixtures.
That’s our fifty (or more) shades of grey.
Be Solution Oriented and Be Fast
Here’s another question.
How would you approach a brand new problem?
Spend 5 hours to nail down a solution and put this cycle on repeat: roll out less-than-perfect solution, monitor results, identify key imperfections, tackle them, roll out better-than-less-than-perfect solution.
Spend 5 days to map out all kinds of imagined scenarios and all kinds of imagined solutions before execution.
Actually, there’s no right or wrong answer. That’s a pretty fixed (and boring) approach to classification #justsaying anyway.
It all boils down to preferences. If you were to choose #1 you might be the more adventurous and risk-taking type of person. If you were to choose #2, you might be more meticulous type with less appetite for risk.
For us, we’re the type #1 kind of start-up. We admit that we don’t have the perfect solutions. I mean, of course we don’t. Otherwise we should be a unicorn now. Since that’s the case, we just go for the less-than-perfect solutions, iterate and improve on-the-go.
Like how Unilever discovered the best nozzle after 449 failures.
At the end of the day, in this fast-paced e-commerce space, speed trumps perfection.
Observe fast, think fast, act fast, change fast, learn fast.
So long as we solve bits of problem along the way, that way will be a good way.
Hell, if those fifty or more shades of grey fail, we’ll just go for the rainbow.
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The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, submit your post here.
Image Credit: Pixabay/Public Domain
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