Priyank Verma

December 22, 2018

Why systems fail and what can be done about it?

A recent team meeting at Squad touched the topic of “system robustness”. Clients and business operations want their systems to work, which is a very reasonable expectation. That’s what we engineers are paid for after all. Everybody gave their input over what a robust system means to them. The responses made two points very clear:1.…

Uncategorized

designing, engineering
October 20, 2018

Tackling Lost Updates Problem In Database Using Stricter Transaction Isolation Level

Introduction Databases are made for scale and are a highly concurrent system. Thus it is normal for them to expect multiple concurrent connections. Also, in most situations, we’ll want our database to be the source of truth and always contain consistent data. There are many concurrency related phenomena that can occur in a database when…

Software Engineering

committed, concurrency, database, isolation, mysql, postgres, read, repeatable read, serializable, transaction
September 17, 2018

Practical Design Patterns Part 1: The Command Pattern

Introduction Most software these days support undoing/redoing actions. For example, text editors support undoing what we have written, file managers support undoing file creation/deletion etc. It’s a good UX practice to make software forgiving and allow users to undo their actions. I always wondered how was this implemented? On a critical analysis, it seems as…

Software Engineering

architecutre, command pattern, design pattern, home, home system, practical, priyankvex, smak, smart home, software, Software Engineering
September 2, 2018

A plea for lean software: 6 Lessons I learned to help keep software simple

Preface Recently, I was browsing the codebase of my company and saw that it has three versions of dashboards for an analytics page in it. I am pretty sure that customers don’t need that. This sparked something in my naive brain and I started exploring the internet for related ideas. That’s when I found…

Software Engineering

“FAT, (or, –, 1., 10, 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., A, abstractions, acceptable, accommodate, accurately, add, adding, admiration., age-old, ago., aids, all, allows, also, am, an, analytics, and, any, appropriate, architecture, are, armies, as, at, available, away, baffling., be, because, become, belief, better, bigger, brain, browsing, built, bulky, But, by, can, cannot, cause, causes, changed, changes:, code, codebase, communication, company, compared, compiler, complex., complexity, components, conceivable, Conclusion, confidence, consider, consumed, continue, curtail, customers, customized, dashboards, decomposed, decomposition, degree, deletion, deliberately, deprecated, design, designed, designers, designing, detail, detailed, development, disagree, disciplined, discussed, does, doesn’t, Don’t, duplication., each, either, Enhanced, enough, entire, entirety, errors, essential, essentials., etc., even, every, expands, experience, exploring, explosion, extensibility, extensions, extent, faster, feature, features, fill, Finding, first, flexibility, following, for, foremost, form, found, from, functional, functionality, get, getting, goal, grows, hard, hardware, has, have, help, hierarchy, higher, holds, hope, how, huge., I, I’ll, ideas, if, ignored, important, improve, in, incompatibility, Incomprehensibility, increase, increased, individual, influenced, insanely, interfaces, Internet, into, introduction, irrelevant, is, It’s, it., justify, keep, keeping, key, kill, killed, languages, largely, laws, lean, Learned, least, lessons, Let’s, lies, like, live, machines, main, maintainability., Make, Making, me, measured., memory, methodologies, mind, minimizing, modern, modules, Monolithic, more, most, much, must, my, naive, need, needed?, needless, nerve, never, new, No, Not, now, number, of, on, one, order, original, outset., over, page, paper, part, passes, Patterns., people, pinpoint, place., Plea, PM, post, power, predominant., Preface, prerequisite, presented, pressure, pretty, primary, probably, problems, programmers, programming, proper, quantity becomes, rapidly, reacted, reason, Recently, reduce, Reducing, reflect, related, release?, remember, remove, rendered, required, requires, resonated, Resources, responses, responsibility, return, root., run, saw, seem, sell.”, sensitive, should, significant, similar, simple, simpler, single, size, slower, small, software, Solution, some, something, sophistication, sparked, specification, standard, started, state, step, Still, streamline, streamlined, Strongly, structures, suggested, sure, suspicion, system, systems., take, taking, teach, team, teams, than, than quality. Every, that, that’s, the, their, them., there, these, things, this, three, time., to, Today, toll, too., tools, topic, touch, true, two, typed, understood, unrecognized., us, usage?, use, user, versions, very, was, way, we, were, what, when, which, while, with, write, wrong., years
August 6, 2018

Acceptance Tests: The Best Medium of Communication Between Stakeholders (if done right)

It’s a nice pleasant morning, and you have just entered the office. You greet your friends and grab a cup of coffee. You check your email and there is a new story assigned to you. “As a customer, I get my usage logs backed up” This is where is fun begins. Communicating Requirements A…

Software Engineering

(or, 1., 12, 15., 7., A, able, about, above, acceptance, access, accordance, add, adopt, after, agile, aiming, all, also, always, ambiguity., an, and, Another, any, appear, Application, are, argument, around, as, ask, assigned, associated, assume, at, automated, AWS, back., backed, backup, be, before, begins., best, between, biggest, Both, brings, built, business, business_name_date_backup.log, But, by, call, can, Can’t, cannot, case, change, check, clear, clearer, code, coding, coffee, Collaboration, collaboratively., common, communicate, Communicating, communication, Conclusion, confirmation, consider, conversation, cool!), cost-effective, could’ve, course, create, created, creating, cup, customer, customers, daily, day., days, decide, define, defining, definition, deliver, details, detected, didn’t, different, disagree, disaster., do, doc., document, documented., doesn’t, Don’t, done, drive, drives, each, easy, effective, effectively, effort, eliminate, email, End, ended, engineer, engineers, English, enormous, entered, errors, etc., even, exactly, fairly, fall, feature, few, file, files., find, finite, focus, folks!, follow, for, forth, framework, friends, from, fun, funny., GB, get, Glacier., Go, going, good, got, grab, great, greet, had, hands, happen, hard, has, have, having, help, helps, Hey, Hi!, high-level, Hmm., how, I, I’ll, I’ve, idea., if, Implementation, implemented., important, in, inclination, innocent, inorder, insist., into, is, issues, It’ll, It’s, it., job, just, know, language, last, late, later?, lead, leads, least, leaves, Let’s, like, log, logs, long, look, looking, lose, lost, Make, malady:, manager., managers, manifesto, many, me, mean, meaning., meant, mid-night, midnight, mocking, more, morning, Morty, most, move, much, my, name, named, need, needs., new, nice, night’s, No, Not, now, number, objectively, of, off., office, often.”, Ok., Okay., older, on, Once, one, only, other, our, out, overloaded, paper, party, pass., past, per, perfect, persist, pleasant, point, precise, precision, Premature, problem, product, properly., put, QAs, question, rarely, ready, real, recipe, release?, removed., request, requirement, Requirements, Rick, Robot, room, rule, Running, scale., see, seeing., Seems, seen, should, Simplest, since, single, skills, So, Solution, sounds, stakeholders., standard, statement., states, storage, story, suggest?, suite, suits, support., sure, survive, sync, system, systems., team, teams, tempted, tend, term, test, tested, tests, tests(or, than, that, that’s, the, their, them., then, there, they, things, think, thinking, this, Though, threats, through, thumb, time., timezone?, to, tone, too., tools, touch, towards, trap, true, two, unambiguous, understands., until, up, usage?, used, user, users, UTC., vague, validations, very, want, wants, was, wastage, wave, way, we, well, what, what’s, when, where, which, will, with, wordsmith, work, working, works., worse, worst, worth, would, write, written, yes, you, Your
July 21, 2018

6 Lessons On Work Ethic I Learned In One Year Of Professional Career

Time flies. Recently I had completed one year as a full-time employee at my current employer Squad. A year has passed, and I decided it was time to revisit instances, memories, and experiences and to recollect what I had learned as a professional in this past year. It was also a wake-up call to reassess and…

Growth and Self-Development

(or, 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 8, A, abilities, able, about, act, actually, adding, advice, after, again., all, also, amount, an, and, are, around, arrogant, articles, as, ask, at, back., basic, be, believe, Book, books, break, But, by, call, called, can, Career, changing, chunk, code, collaborate, Collaboration, colossal, company, completed, component, confident, continuous, continuously, corners., course, craft, create, creation., current, cutting, daily, deadlines, Debugger, decided, decorated, deliberate, deliberately, deltas, developer, developers., direction, disciplines, do, doesn’t, doing, domain, due, duty, efforts, employee, employer, engineer, engineering, engineers, enough, Ethic, every, experiences, experts, facade, fail, far, favorite, feature, feels, field, fifty, find, flies., folks!, for, frenetic, from, full-time, game, get, giants”., gleamy, going, had, happen, has, have, healthcare, how, Howard’s, humble, Humility, I, IDE, ideas, if, important, improve, in, India., industry, innovative, instances, is, It’s, it., jobs, just, keep, know, last, laugh, learn, Learned, learning, least, legacy, less, lessons, like, list, magic, major, Make, makes, me, means, meet, memories, mentor, mentored, mentoring, mistakes., months, most, motto, move, must, my, named, need, never, of, on, one, ones, other, others., our, outdated, own, passed, past, pattern, players, playing, points, polished., portion, Practice, pride, produce, product, Professional, professionalism, programming, proven, provides, question, range, read, reassess, Recently, recollect, redirect, requests, responsibility, revisit, right, risks., sales, see, sharp., ship, should, shoulder, sizeable, software, solutions, special, sport, sprint, Squad. A, stack, stand, startups, story, stuck, sure, take, talks., techniques, Tennis, terminologies, that, that’s, the, their, these, they, things, this, time., to, tools, tournaments, tremendous, true, two, understand, understanding, up, upon, us, value, vital, wake-up, want, was, watch, way, we, wealth, what, Whatever, when, which, whirlpool., will, with, work, working, write, writing, wrong., year, years, you, Your
June 3, 2018

Creating Outbound Call Warm Transfer Using Twilio In Python and Django

Have you ever been connected to a call where it was transferred to a third person for further assistance? Well, that’s call transferring. Warm transfer of calls, in contrast to cold transfer, doesn’t disconnect the call in between and thus gives the customers a more seamless experience. Recently at work, I was building a system…

Software Engineering

agent, call, calling, cloud, creating, CreatingOutbound Call Warm Transfer Using Twilio In Python and Django, django, hot, inside, outbound, Python, sales, telephony, transfer, trasnfer, twilio, voice, warm
May 21, 2018

Tracking Metrics to Surface and Solve Problems: Metric Tracking Practices I’ve Learned So Far

It is a nice pleasant evening, you are sipping coffee and reviewing your code one final time, just so that you can gather enough confidence to hit the deploy button. But a fact of life as a software engineer is that things can go wrong. Small changes may result in unexpected outcomes, including outages, errors…

Software Engineering

(or, 1., 2., 3., 4., A, A/B, able, activity, adding, affect, all, also, an, and, any, APIs, Application, approach, are, areas, arise., as, at, automated, available, be, been, before, built, business, But, button., by, can, catch, changes:, checklist, checks, citizen, clients, code, coffee, collected, come, communication, Conclusion, confidence, configurability, continually, coverage, creating, customers, data, defines, deploy, deployment, design, designing, DevOps, directly, disciplined, do, Don’t, ease, either, Enable, engineer, engineers, enough, equipments., errors, etc., even, evening, everything., Examples, extensibility, eye, fact, feature, final, fire., first-class, folks!, following, for, from, functioning, gather, Go, handbook, have, having, health, Here, high, hit, I, I’ve, idea., impacting, impacts, importance, imported, improve, in, include, include CPU, including, industry, infrastructure, into, intuitions., involve, IOPS, is, It’s, it., items, just, keep, key, latency, latent, level, levels., leverage, life, limited, may, me, measure., measured., memory, method, metrics, multiple, must, need, needed?, negatively, nice, Not, number, numbers, occur, of, on, one, ones, only, organization., our, outages, outcomes., over, parts, pipeline, places., pleasant, points, problem, problem-solving, problems, process, processed, product, product-related, Progress, queries, quickly., random, rather, realize, really, receiving, relies, rely, remote, resolve, response, result, results, reviewing, right, runs, sales, see, sent, sipping, small, So, software, solve, spent, spikes, successful, surface, systems., task, Telemetry, test, than, that, that’s, the, these, they, things, Thus, time., to, toggling, too., total, track, tracked, tracking, transactions, unexpected, usage?, useful, validations, we, well, what, when, which, will, with, write, wrong., you, Your
May 5, 2018

Organization Archetypes And The Concept Of Market-Oriented “Solver Teams”

Organizations which designs systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structure of the organization. In other words, how we organize our teams has a powerful effect on the software we produce, as well as our resulting architectural and production outcomes. Thus, in order to get a fast flow of work from…

Uncategorized

“E-Shaped”, “Solver, A, a bunch of, a fast, able, admins, advantage., Advantages, all, also, an, analysis, and, Another, Archetypes, architectural, architecture, are, areas, as, at, attempt, be, because, becoming, being, benefits, bring, Broadly, business, But, call, called, can, capabilities, centralize, combine, communication, complicated, composed, comprehensive, conception, Conclusion, constrained, contribute, copies, cost., coupled, covering, cross-disciplinary, cross-functional, customer, data, deliver, delivery, dependencies, deployment, design, designs, develop, development, DevOps, disciplines, division, done, dramatically, each, effect, Enable, Enables, enabling, engineering, engineers, entire, etc., ever, every, Ex., execution, experiments, expertise, experts, fast, faster, feature, flat, flow, folks!, for, from, functional, Functional-oriented:, generalist, get, great, has, have, having, helps, hierarchical, high, highly, how, idea., impact, improves, in, increasing, independently, inform, innate, instead, interesting, is, it., knowledge, launch, learning, like, machine, major, managers, market, market-oriented, marketing, Matrix-oriented:, matrix and market., member, members, move, much, multi-specialist, multiple, must, nature, needs., Not, number, of, on, only, operational, Operations, opportunities, optimizations, optimize, order, organization., Organizational, Organizations, organize, orientation., other, our, outcomes., overwhelming., own, person, plays, point, points, poorly, powerful, prevent, primarily, problem, problems, produce, production, provides, quality, quickly., Reducing, rely, reporting, respond, responding, responsible, resulting, results, retirement, safely, same, saw, Server, service, services, single, small, smoother, software, solve, solving, speaking, specialist, specialists., speed, Squad, SREs, start, stream, stream: functional, structure, structured, structures, successful, support., systems., tall, team, teams, technologies., tend, testing., than, that, that’s, the, their, them., there, these, they, they’ll, this, three, Thus, tightly, to, tracking, types, user, value, waiting, want, we, well, when, which, who, with, without, words, work, working
April 29, 2018

Devops and The Principle Of Flow

In the technology value stream, work typically flows from Development to Operations, steps consisting of functional areas between our business and our customers. As stated in the lean principles developed by Toyota, we should optimize to get a single-piece fast and smooth flow for our releases. We increase flow by: Making work visible, Reducing batch…

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(or, (WIP), 10, 310, 4., 40, A, above, acceptance, According, achieving, activities, added, affecting, after, agile, all, allow, already, amount, an, and, Another, any, anything, Application, are, areas, as, at, batch, batches., be, become, before, being, better, between, beyond, bigger, board, bouncing, brochures, bugs., Building, business, But, by, by urgent, bypassed, can, cards, case, categories, causes, centers., changes:, channel, codifying, column, coming, common, communication, complete, completed only, completes, component, Conclusion, consisting, control, creating, customer, customers, daily, decrease, defects, defining, delay, demands, deploy, deserves, developed, development, DevOps, difference, do, doesn’t, dominated, done, downstream, dramatically, dynamic, each, easy, eliminating, encounter, enforcing, ensures, entire, envelope, envelopes., essential, every, example, Explaining, external, Extra, far, fast, fast-flow, features, find, first, flow, flows, fold, folded, folks!, following, for, from, fulfill, functional, furthur, get, gets, given, goal, hardships, have, help, how, However, I, Ideally, if, implementing, Improving, in, increase, increasing, insert, internal, intervals, into, invisible., is, It’s, it., just, kanban, Kanban board., keep, key, Knaban, large, lead, lean, Let’s, levels., like, Limit, limiting, limits, mail, mailing, Make, Making, manual, manufacture, manufacturing, material, may, more, multi-tasking, multiple, needed?, new, next, No, Non-standard, Not, now, of, off., on, one, one-piece, only, Operations, optimize, other, our, our work, out, outcomes., over, own, paper, Partially, passed, pay, perform, performing, piece, piled, pioneer, point, possible., post, Practice, Prefer, prevent, preventing, principles, Prior, processes., processing, production, Progress, QA, quality, reaches, reduce, Reducing, releases., reliability., requests, required, requires, resource, result, revolution, right, Running, same, satisfy, seal, sealed., seconds., sequentially, services, set, Shiego, Shingo, should, side, significant, single, single-piece, size, sizes, skyrocketing, small, smooth, So, software, some, something, soon., span, speeding, stakeholders., stamp, starting, stated, step, steps, stream, streams, successfully, such, suppose, switching, system, take, takes, task, teams, technology, ten, testing., than, that, that’s, the, the ideal, them., there, this, those, three, through, time., times, to, toyota, traditional, Trello, trouble?, typically, up, us, use, using, value, visible, visual, waiting, was, waste:, wastes, way, we, well, what, when, where, which, while, why, will, willing, with, without, words, work, worst, Yet