Buffer, as an organization, closes the final week of the yr yearly, and traditionally, as an engineering crew, 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 crew.
Fixathon = every week the place our 29-person engineering crew spent a complete week targeted on fixing bugs.
By the tip of the week, not solely had we fastened 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 crew notices them, and our prospects flag them. We imagine that making these seemingly small enhancements whereas resolving bugs can finally have a big impact on the person expertise, which is an enormous objective for our crew for the time being. However this week wasn’t nearly bug fixes — this was about taking a chance to carry the entire engineering crew collectively to enhance how we work. We spent every week constructing higher habits round releasing adjustments, bettering our communication, and collaborating extra carefully with our Buyer Advocacy crew and one another.
How Fixathon labored
Forward of the Fixathon, we crafted an inventory of duties for our crew 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 start out, we opened up a device referred to as Bugsnag
Every day began with our engineers partaking in Bugsnag, a device designed for monitoring and managing automated error experiences. The first goal throughout this section was to triage these automated error experiences. Our crew reviewed, categorized, and, the place potential, resolved points immediately reported by Bugsnag, and our objective was to carry out an motion on not less than 15 bug experiences earlier than transferring to the subsequent section. This course of was important for understanding the state of our programs and potential issues in them – particularly since we have been responsible of not doing that on an ongoing foundation earlier.
Subsequent, we switched to product bug experiences and resolved them
After the morning spent triaging Bugsnag experiences, our engineers shifted their focus to the product bugs a few of them pre-selected earlier with the assistance from the product crew. These have been points beforehand recognized and logged in Jira. Engineers chosen duties within the areas they have been acquainted with and made certain to work on them safely, reviewing one another code and double-checking every thing was accomplished in a correct method to keep away from any points on this delicate time.
We then stored the Advocacy crew within the loop
An enormous a part of the Fixathon was ensuring our Advocacy crew was conscious of the adjustments we have been making. We posted day by 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 creating extra adjustments on the final day of the yr 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 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
Finally, we realized a ton by doing a Fixathon. We realized higher function in Bugsnag as a crew to scale back the numbers, we obtained 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 complete, lots of them small bugs we didn’t have time for earlier within the yr. Whereas most of them have been so small that it’s laborious to note the change individually, all of them contribute to our imaginative and prescient of a consumer-grade expertise.
A number of notable bugs we squashed included:
- Including a billing web page hyperlink to the account settings dropdown
- Making “steered media” scrollable
- A number 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 record of duties to work by 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 contemplate 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 in consequence!