Engineering Without a Safety Net: Where It Works and Where It Hurts by Faris Aziz

Ever wondered when it's okay to bypass those safety nets in engineering? This talk explores the delicate balance between shipping fast and building reliable software. Faris Aziz, a Staff Software Engineer at Smallpdf with experience across various industries, shares insights from his journey working with different companies and their unique approaches to safety nets, from manual QA to rigorous test coverage. He delves into the real-world costs of cutting corners, highlighting the importance of metrics, observability, and resilience. Join us to learn how to build confidence in your deployments, identify areas where risks are acceptable, and understand the long-term implications of your engineering choices. Discover how to navigate the trade-offs and deliver value sustainably without sacrificing stability.

0:00 | Introduction and Icebreaker: The Rubber Ducky Method
0:51 | Engineering Without a Safety Net: Finding the Balance
2:09 | Speaker's Journey: Safety Nets in Different Companies
7:54 | When Bypassing Safety Nets is Acceptable (and When It's Not)
8:47 | Speaker Introduction: Faris Aziz, Staff Software Engineer
10:12 | Defining Safety Nets: Testing, Metrics, Observability, Resilience
12:30 | Manual Testing and QA Terminology
13:35 | The Importance of Metrics and Trend Analysis
15:54 | Resilience Patterns: Beyond Basic Retries
17:30 | Building Complete Confidence: Combining Testing, Metrics, and Resilience
18:00 | Introducing DORA Metrics: Focusing on Outcomes
19:36 | The High Cost of Flying Blind: Downtime and Failures
20:36 | The Language of Confidence: Identifying Smells of Low Confidence
22:00 | Where to Cut Corners (and Where Not To)
22:29 | Deployment Strategies for Reducing Blast Radius
23:00 | Feature Flags: Duplicate Code for Guaranteed Rollbacks
24:16 | Finding the Right Balance: Context and Business Needs
25:17 | Q&A: Feature Flags, Front-End Observability, Balancing Cost and Safety
33:09 | Giving Away JetBrains Licenses and Closing Remarks

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Event: BKK.JS #23
https://grtn.org/e/bkkjs23

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https://grtn.org/v/bkkjs23/safety