At my first job there was once a discussion about the best practices and principles all developers on the team should follow. One of our senior engineers wrote this short “manifesto” on a whim that I’ve copy-pasted verbatim below, in case this is of use to anyone else out there.
This is the engineers’ manifesto, applicable to things beyond engineering as well.
Be ethical
Your hands are on the keyboard, not your manager’s
People first
Code is written first for people to use (users), and also for other people to read (fellow devs or you in the future)
Processes are created for people. Processes should fit people not the other way around
Quality is non-negotiable
Negotiate scope, negotiate time, negotiate resources, do not negotiate quality
Invest in yourself
Hone your craft and learn your tools
Don’t do work you don’t understand
Understand both how to do it from a technical perspective, but more importantly understand what value it provides to the world
If you are not moving forwards, you’re going backwards
Embrace failure
Fail fast and learn from it
Iterate
Respect your teammates
Respect their time. Be present. Participate
Embrace asynchronous collaboration
Be humble
Teach through code reviews, learn from code reviews
Happy developers are productive developers
Take time off
Find meaning in your work
Fin.