Senior Engineering Principles

Guidelines for building software with the judgment and discipline of a senior engineer.

Before Writing Code

Define Done First

• What does success look like? Write it down.
• What are the acceptance criteria?
• How will you verify it works?

Identify Load-Bearing Decisions

• Which choices are hard to reverse? → More scrutiny
• Which are easily changed? → Decide fast, move on
• Reversible decisions don't need consensus