The following list was compiled in 2012 for a talk on Operations Principles for Developers (Ops4Devs). They are loosely inspired by the list of rules from Zombieland as well as from my experiences and those shared by others. Looking over the list four years later, I believe that they are still (very) applicable for all of IT.
- Exercise your environment
- Test
- Beware of Assumptions
- Monitors
- Be a smart reporter
- Thread dumps are not proper error logs
- Just Enough Programming
- Get kickass partners
- Automate
- Eat well
- Get enough sleep
- Ask the Five Questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why)
- Manage Change
- Have repeatable processes
- Log
- Eliminate Pain
- Don’t be a hero
- KISS
- Eat your dogfood
- Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
- Dev be not proud.
- When in doubt, know your layout
- Don’t reinvent the wheel
- Be curious
- Document
- Follow the Principle of Least Astonishment
- Prod should mirror Pre-Prod (and vice-versa)
- Understandable error messages
- The buddy system
- Find a fix; don’t fix blame
- Know your data flows
- Enjoy the little things
- Swiss Army Knife
- Clean tests
- Stability
- Be Flexible
- More is not usually the solution
- If you don’t have time to do it right, you better have time to do it over.
- Assume your code will outlive you
- Do not use a hammer
- Report the right data to the right person
- Don’t Panic
- All programmers are optimists
- Check your code first
- Maintenance Driven Development
- Test again
- Don’t ask leading questions
- Shave with Occam
- Version Control
- Always have a backup
- Check Permissions
- You’re not in a Barnyard: Avoid the Stinky
- Load, Fire, Aim
- Try the Easy Fix First
- Have fun
The Big Three
(almost everything falls under these)
3 comments
NT
April 25, 2016 at 10:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hello,
What on earth does 8) and 19) mean. One assumes that is must have a meaning but at the moment I cannot see one…especially the dogfood one….sounds rather disgusting.
NT
Matt Williams
April 25, 2016 at 1:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Eating your own dogfood refers to using your own software and/or product/service. The phrase is believed to come from Microsoft — see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food for more details.
As for #8, it’s actually taken originally from a set of rules in the Zombieland movie. The idea is that you want to have as good a team as possible. Also there’s the idea that you don’t want to always be the smartest person on your team — it’s hard to learn and grow if you’re the smartest one……
NT
April 25, 2016 at 1:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks, I am now informed. The dogfood – even if from Microsoft – still sounds really bad.
Not an expression I want to use.