Engineering Principles & Values

"We iterate. We learn. We grow. And our principles adapt with us." - George Goodyer

In 2018, George Goodyer coined these words while writing a blog about the engineering principles at Skyscanner. In 2019, he followed that up with another blog describing about how in a year their principles had grown and changed as they themselves grew and changed. As a team they live by these words. As we set out to write our first draft of engineering principles for Buoy Software, we too will iterate, learn and grow. These principles will be far from an exhaustive list of all of the things we hold near and dear to our hearts as a team. However, when all else fades, these principles will be what’s at our core. Will these be the same principles 10 years from now? 5 years? next year? Maybe not, but we too will iterate, learn and grow.

Autonomy, Independence and Responsibility

We believe that engineers should hit the ground running starting on day one.

We believe that engineers should be involved in everything from brainstorming a feature, to maintaining it once it has been shipped.

We believe that engineers should enjoy working across the stack, diving into all the details necessary to spec, code, test and ship a new feature.

Simplicity over complexity

We believe that engineers should keep the focus on how to solve the problem at hand, letting tomorrow’s problem be tomorrow’s focus.

We believe that engineers can avoid building an overly complex product and code base by building iteratively and shipping often.

Adaptability and Creativity

We believe that engineers should embrace the “impossible” as a chance to grow and be challenged.

We believe that engineering is an inherently creative discipline and our knowledge of technology informs how projects take shape.

Extreme Transparency

We believe that intentional open communication leads to cross-pollination and ideation.

We believe that engineers should strive to follow Buoy Software’s communication guide.

Continuous improvement of self and team

We believe that complacency is the enemy of software engineering.

We believe that engineers should be consistently taking steps to improve and hone their craft.

We believe that engineers should be helping improve each other by sharing articles, blogs, books, etc.