harisrid Tech News

There’s value in writing up what good examples look like at lower levels too 🙂

Situation

Alright, what’s the situation.

I’m starting work on a brand new team at Geico, and I need to quickly ramp up on our codebase’s backend. I’m well-familiarized with standard backend development, using languages such as C++ or GoLang to code microservices, but I’m brand new to Python and Flask development. Given my tenure, I had strong confidence that I can upskill ( I’ve done so in the past ), but, I need to quickly land pull requests and ship out features.

Task

I’m also tasked with two line items. Firstly, to identify areas of the codebase I can make contributions towards. And secondly, to ramp up on developing and shipping Web Apps with Python3 and Flask.

And unlike prior roles, I have more competing goals – I have to quickly ramp up on our team’s systems and tooling, ship out POCs supporting a migration, set up my local developer environment, and navigate up-and-coming multi-quarter ambiguous problems.

The multiple competing goals stress tests my ability to identify the path of least execution and minimal resistance. Leading me to take two actions.

Action

Firstly, I write myself stories and tasks to bolster my team’s unit test coverage presence. Because it’s easier to leverage GenAI capabilities, I can quickly churn out most of the code needed for unit testing and submit PRs for their approval. And unlike source code, unit testing code is sufficiently isolated and doesn’t require me to deep understandings; I can avoid thinking about network calls, database connectivities, and external dependencies that could require set up help or permissions from others.

Secondly, I look into making a mini side-project. Working with my team’s entire codebase, in a new framework or paradigm, is difficult; I have to navigate a vast number of files, configurations, and structures. On the other hand, coding a barebones application – akin to helloWorld programs or simple CRUD-esque HTTP servers sprinkled with a few endpoints in a routes.py – takes only a few hours, amortized across a few days, to spin up locally.

Results and Learnings

By taking the aforementioned steps above, I landed results – reviewed and submitted pull requests – in my first few weeks. Had I gone through more more grueling routes, like submitting source code deltas and getting permissions or installations for API testing clients, I would have had to shift my focus away from delivery to operational work.

I also built thorough understandings of my team’s key microservices and the calls we make to support our internal applications. And best of all, I upskilled on a brand new framework – Flask – and programming language – Python3.

I strongly appreciated this experience, because it highlighted my ability to adapt to new situations and learn new skills : qualities highly coveted by our profession.