224: Strategies for Lean Growth

Following the DRY principle and lean growing for an engineering organization

Thank you for reading Snippets of Text. Snippets from media about tech, programming, parenting, and more. This is a preview of a post available exclusively to paying subscribers. You can get unlimited access to all articles by purchasing a subscription.

Off Topic: DRY Principle in Action

While following good design patterns can improve code, a flawed approach can worsen things. Keep helper classes small and avoid adding them to large ActiveRecord objects. Use messages to add behavior by replacing role-acting objects through boundaries or seams. This is achieved by decreasing the number of dependencies in each object. Objects with fewer dependencies need less information and can be repurposed in new ways. To determine how much information an object needs, examine the setup necessary to test it. If there are many setups, the object requires specific knowledge and cannot be used in different situations. With little structure, the object is context-independent and can be used in unexpected situations. 

Only to repeat a piece of knowledge once in a software system. Making a system DRY is difficult because we cannot assume that every part of identical code is duplicated. Instead of waiting for duplication to show up at any time, it is better to take that as soon as we see the same code again. That duplication should be removed. The third time is when you remove it. I need help to find duplication on a pull request.

Current Work: Strategies for Lean Growth

Before starting any work, it should be documented on a work card for visibility. Motion waste can also occur when work centers don't communicate. Individual task assignments should be kept to a minimum in Agile teams. Task switching decreases the effectiveness of the entire team.

Thanks for taking a look at the free preview of Snippets of Text. Please consider subscribing to the paid version if you find my work helpful. This way, I can spend more time developing new ideas to share with you.