July 2021 Summaries

Clémentine Urquizar is the Engineering Manager at MeiliSearch, an open-source search API built for developers creating front-end or customer-facing search on any application or website. The company aims to be easier to deploy, configure and maintain than Elasticsearch with a strong focus on developer experience. With a team of 15 tech people divided into four teams, MeiliSearch has grown from an in-person office environment to a fully remote workforce since the first lockdown. Their software development process is organized around four-week sprints with releases at the end of each sprint. External contributions are welcomed and managed through specific tools like Bors for Rust projects.

The text discusses the top 14 best practices for software development based on interviews with over 100 CTOs. These include pull requests and code reviews, using linters, testing (unit and functional), code coverage tools, single responsibility principle, Polaris methodology, naming conventions, continuous integration & continuous development, mono repositories, feature switches, launching tests on each commit, clear specifications with developer involvement, MoSCow methodology for prioritization, and the CREG: Code Review Emoji Guide. The author emphasizes that these practices can vary depending on the company's needs and size.

Axolo has released a complete integration for code comments on Github, allowing every comment to start a dedicated Slack thread. The first version of Axolo documentation is now available at axolo.co/docs, providing comprehensive information about features and settings. Axolo was verified in the Slack marketplace and its onboarding process has been updated. Additionally, users can now find the branch name of each pull request directly in the channel topic.

Axolo is a tool designed to improve the code review process within teams using GitHub and Slack. It addresses common issues such as poor handling of pull request notifications, lack of a centralized notification center, and manual management of settings for pull requests. Axolo's features include dedicated ephemeral channels for each pull request in Slack, deployment & Github action alerts, the ability to handle settings for pull requests directly within Slack, saving Slack conversation threads as documentation, and providing an overview of a team's current code review status. The tool aims to streamline the code review process and enhance collaboration among engineering teams.

Axolo has released a product update that includes improved home view functionality, the ability to request reviews and handle pull request labels directly from Slack. Additionally, users can now query their open pull requests upon refresh in their Home view. The company has also launched its own Slack community called Better Software Engineering, aimed at fostering discussions on software development processes and best practices. They plan to organize meetups with top VPs of Engineering soon. Users are encouraged to provide feedback and feature requests.