Buffer, as an organization, closes the final week of the 12 months yearly, and traditionally, as an engineering workforce, we’d do a code freeze for the week earlier than we’re closed so nothing broke heading into the vacations. (Fairly good of us.)
This 12 months, we did one thing completely different, and it nonetheless labored out. We used the final week of the 12 months as a “fixathon” for our complete engineering workforce.
Fixathon = every week the place our 29-person engineering workforce spent an entire week centered on fixing bugs.
By the top of the week, not solely had we mounted 44 bugs, we additionally didn’t break something within the course of. 😎
Right here’s extra about our course of for establishing the Fixathon and the outcomes.
Why we spent every week on bug fixes
Like all product, there are bugs in Buffer. We come throughout them, our Advocacy workforce notices them, and our clients flag them. We consider that making these seemingly small enhancements whereas resolving bugs can in the end have a huge effect on the consumer expertise, which is an enormous aim for our workforce in the meanwhile. However this week wasn’t nearly bug fixes — this was about taking a chance to deliver the entire engineering workforce collectively to enhance how we work. We spent every week constructing higher habits round releasing adjustments, enhancing our communication, and collaborating extra intently with our Buyer Advocacy workforce and one another.
How Fixathon labored
Forward of the Fixathon, we crafted an inventory of duties for our workforce to work on fairly fastidiously to make sure the chance of outages was as small as doable. From there, we wrote up a set of tips for all of our engineers to leap proper in as soon as the Fixathon began.
To start out, we opened up a instrument referred to as Bugsnag
Every day began with our engineers participating in Bugsnag, a instrument designed for monitoring and managing automated error stories. The first goal throughout this part was to triage these automated error stories. Our workforce reviewed, categorized, and, the place doable, resolved points straight reported by Bugsnag, and our aim was to carry out an motion on no less than 15 bug stories earlier than transferring to the subsequent part. This course of was important for understanding the state of our programs and doable issues in them – particularly since we have been responsible of not doing that on an ongoing foundation earlier.
Subsequent, we switched to product bug stories and resolved them
After the morning spent triaging Bugsnag stories, our engineers shifted their focus to the product bugs a few of them pre-selected earlier with the assistance from the product workforce. These have been points beforehand recognized and logged in Jira. Engineers chosen duties within the areas they have been acquainted with and made positive to work on them safely, reviewing one another code and double-checking every thing was accomplished in a correct technique to keep away from any points on this delicate time.
We then saved the Advocacy workforce within the loop
An enormous a part of the Fixathon was ensuring our Advocacy workforce was conscious of the adjustments we have been making. We posted every day messages into an updates channel with a roundup of the day before today’s fixes.
We spent the final day of Fixathon on high quality assurance (QA)
As an alternative of creating extra adjustments on the final day of the 12 months earlier than closing for the vacation season, we spent a day ensuring we have been leaving issues in a very good state with some QA. We have been going by means of our product and ensuring every thing works as anticipated, spent a while collectively within the calls to catch up, and simply have a jolly ol’ time.
The outcomes of our first Fixathon
In the end, we realized a ton by doing a Fixathon. We realized the way to higher function in Bugsnag as a workforce to cut back the numbers, we bought higher at collaborating with one another and Advocacy, and we gained visibility into many points that in any other case would go unnoticed. We’re hoping this course of stays with us, and we are going to clear new Bugsnag points on an ongoing foundation, making it simpler for us to handle our bugs and spot them earlier than our clients can do it!
The opposite a part of Fixathon was fixing precise bugs! We resolved 44 duties whole, lots of them small bugs we didn’t have time for earlier within the 12 months. Whereas most of them have been so small that it’s exhausting to note the change individually, all of them contribute to our imaginative and prescient of a consumer-grade expertise.
Just a few notable bugs we squashed included:
- Including a billing web page hyperlink to the account settings dropdown
- Making “prompt media” scrollable
- Plenty of styling adjustments to make our margins and look constant all through the product
As part of the Fixathon, we’re additionally near releasing the “first remark” performance for LinkedIn, which we have already got for Instagram. (Be a part of our beta program to get first entry.)
We crafted the listing of duties to work by means of fairly fastidiously to make sure the chance of outages was as small as doable. And what’s most vital – we delivered; there have been no Fixathon-related incidents up to now weeks!
We contemplate Fixathon a fairly profitable initiative, and although it’s the primary time it has occurred, we hope it’s not the final one! We squashed bugs, spent a while collectively, and realized cool issues. And what’s most vital – we improved our product consequently!
