Buffer, as an organization, closes the final week of the yr yearly, and traditionally, as an engineering staff, we’d do a code freeze for the week earlier than we’re closed so nothing broke heading into the vacations. (Fairly sensible of us.)
This yr, we did one thing completely different, and it nonetheless labored out. We used the final week of the yr as a “fixathon” for our complete engineering staff.
Fixathon = every week the place our 29-person engineering staff spent a complete week targeted on fixing bugs.
By the tip 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 every product, there are bugs in Buffer. We come throughout them, our Advocacy staff notices them, and our prospects flag them. We imagine that making these seemingly small enhancements whereas resolving bugs can in the end have a big impact on the person expertise, which is an enormous objective for our staff in the intervening time. However this week wasn’t nearly bug fixes — this was about taking a possibility to carry the entire engineering staff collectively to enhance how we work. We spent every week constructing higher habits round releasing modifications, enhancing our communication, and collaborating extra intently with our Buyer Advocacy staff and one another.
How Fixathon labored
Forward of the Fixathon, we crafted a listing of duties for our staff to work on fairly rigorously to make sure the chance of outages was as small as potential. From there, we wrote up a set of pointers for all of our engineers to leap proper in as soon as the Fixathon began.
To begin, we opened up a software known as Bugsnag
Every day began with our engineers participating in Bugsnag, a software designed for monitoring and managing automated error stories. The first goal throughout this part was to triage these automated error stories. Our staff reviewed, categorized, and, the place potential, resolved points immediately reported by Bugsnag, and our objective was to carry out an motion on at the least 15 bug stories earlier than transferring to the subsequent part. This course of was important for understanding the state of our methods and potential issues in them – particularly since we had 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 staff. These had been points beforehand recognized and logged in Jira. Engineers chosen duties within the areas they had been accustomed to and made certain to work on them safely, reviewing one another code and double-checking every part was performed in a correct technique to keep away from any points on this delicate time.
We then stored the Advocacy staff within the loop
A giant a part of the Fixathon was ensuring our Advocacy staff was conscious of the modifications we had been making. We posted every day messages into an updates channel with a roundup of the day past’s fixes.
We spent the final day of Fixathon on high quality assurance (QA)
As an alternative of constructing extra modifications on the final day of the yr earlier than closing for the vacation season, we spent a day ensuring we had been leaving issues in a great state with some QA. We had been going by means of our product and ensuring every part 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 best way to higher function in Bugsnag as a staff 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’ll clear new Bugsnag points on an ongoing foundation, making it simpler for us to handle our bugs and see them earlier than our prospects can do it!
The opposite a part of Fixathon was fixing precise bugs! We resolved 44 duties whole, a lot of them small bugs we didn’t have time for earlier within the yr. Whereas most of them had 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 “instructed media” scrollable
- A number of styling modifications 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 record of duties to work by means of fairly rigorously to make sure the chance of outages was as small as potential. And what’s most necessary – we delivered; there have been no Fixathon-related incidents up to now weeks!
We think about Fixathon a reasonably 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 necessary – we improved our product consequently!
