DEV Community: Sir.Nathan (Jonathan Stassen)

10 Great Topics for Engineering All Hands

Sir.Nathan (Jonathan Stassen) — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:25:23 +0000

Bringing together an engineering team is something we all can agree we should be doing. But how do make sure it’s not a waste of time?

We might ask many questions that will guide us in the direction to find topics for engineering all hands.

What updates are value for the team?
What topics should be presented?
What makes the teams feel involved or appreciated?
What information might the team not get elsewhere?
What would help... Continue Reading

10 Great Topics for Engineering All Hands

Impact of what has been built
This could be backed with numbers like sales, hours saved, etc.
Customer stories how they using what the team has been building. This could even involve bringing in real customers to meet the team and share their real life usage of the product.
User Feedback about what we’ve been built.
Similar to impact, however this might be reviews, tweets, emails, or feedback of what users are saying about the product we’re building.
Vision of why and what we’re building across teams at high level.
What are the business goals that we’re trying to meet?
How are team roadmaps satisfying those business needs?
What sort of things... Continue Reading

Why we should consider 1 Week Sprints.

Sir.Nathan (Jonathan Stassen) — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 17:22:00 +0000

You know how 2 week sprints are the de-facto go-to pattern for many teams? I don’t believe they are the best for teams and we should all consider 1 week sprints instead, and I’ll tell you why I think so.

The Downfalls of 2 Weeks Sprints

Longer meetings to plan for 2 weeks
Need more Context
Hard to estimate how much work can be accomplished
Over commitment is easy
Doesn’t accommodate... Continue Reading

The Upsides of 1 Week Sprints

Tighter feedback loops
Shorter meetings
Allows team to be more precise in their commitments
Forces team to think about... Continue Reading

See what a sample 1 Week Sprint Schedule could look like.

Why do we Estimate Stories?

Sir.Nathan (Jonathan Stassen) — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 07:26:36 +0000

There are two reasons we estimate stories: (1) To understand scope and (2) then to communicate that size of that scope to others.

(1) Understanding Scope of Tasks

In order to be effective at anything we do in life, it’s best to step back and understand what it is exactly that we want to accomplish.

* How hard is it?
* How complex is it?
* Are there unknowns?
* How long might it take?
* How well do we understand it?
* Are there other tasks that need to be done first?

As an individual we ponder these things ourselves. As a team we discuss it together to refine our shared understanding. Asking these questions takes[...] Continue Reading

Setup VSCode With REACT_EDITOR (Or Any Editor)

Sir.Nathan (Jonathan Stassen) — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 18:49:05 +0000

When an error occurs with an app Created with Create React App the error screen is super helpful.

You can even click on the errors in the browser to jump directly to the line of code inside your editor! But you have to setup your editor else you'll see the error below.

Console Error:

Could not open SomeFile.js in the editor.
To set up the editor integration, add something like
REACT_EDITOR=atom to the .env.local file in your project
folder and restart the development server.
Learn more: https://goo.gl/MMTaZt

So how you setup VSCode with REACT_EDITOR?

Step 1) Setup your editor to be open from terminal

For VSCode, open the command pallet ( Command Key + P ) and type ...
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