Carving out time for large-scale engineering chores
The latest edition of DirectorPlus features Kent Wills, Director of Engineering, Yelp around how to prioritize the engineering laundry list.
No one has time for migrations. But ignoring them? That’s a recipe for disaster.
The thing is, development teams are pressed to deliver more with less right now. It's becoming harder to prioritize tasks like OS and language migrations, major dependency updates, and everything else that keeps software running smoothly.
I recently spoke with Kent Wills, Director of Engineering at Yelp, for DirectorPlus about how they tackle these unavoidable engineering chores. At Yelp, they’re prioritizing changes by setting yearly timelines, creating paved roads, and finding engineers who actually enjoy optimizing software (yes, they exist!).
The fact is global engineering improvements need leadership from the top down to get prioritized — especially at a large org. These efforts are critical for keeping the lights on, retaining agility, and avoiding vulnerabilities.
Check out the full post, now live on LeadDev today! It’s packed with actionable advice for staying on top of the backlog.
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Lastly, if you'd like to be featured in DirectorPlus, reach out to me! We’re planning interviews for 2025.
Featured image credit: Tim Johnson on Unsplash.
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