Automation

• Aim for automating all your job. A good way is to start writing a script that only prints out the steps required to do a task. You can replace these steps one by one and do the rest manually until they're all automated.
  • Not everything should be automated right away.
  • Fake it, until you automate it!
• Automation is used for Precision, Stability and Speed. It reduce or eliminate human error and brings stability to a system. Automation is great when it replaces a stable, well-working manual process.
• Automation is putting process into code:
  1. Document the steps. Following a step-by-step guide is automation: you are the CPU. A great starting point is adding a checklist to PRs.
  2. Create automation equivalents. Add command-line snippets to replace steps.
  3. Create automation. Create a script that runs everything.
• Drive standards through automation and building internal tools/scripts rather than through extensive documentation.
  • Standards can help to reduce this friction but take time. Before jumping into standards processes, consider other ways to encourage consistency.
  • If you jump into standards, make them open, modular, interoperable, customizable and, extensible.
• Makefiles are a great way to document and consolidate different projects of a team. Each project should have a make that runs it, and perhaps a make deploy to deploy it. Language and tool independent!