Engineering Standards¶

Welcome to our engineering documentation. This guide exists to help our team build better software by understanding why we make certain technical decisions, not just how.

What This Guide Is About¶

Software engineering isn't just generating code—it's about solving problems in a way that's maintainable, scalable, and aligned with business needs.

This documentation covers:

• Why we structure code in certain ways
• What trade-offs we're making when we choose technologies
• How our decisions today affect our ability to deliver tomorrow

Core Principles¶

1. Solve Real Problems¶

Every line of code should serve a purpose. Before writing code, we ask: - What business problem does this solve? - What happens if we don't build this? - Is there a simpler solution?

Good engineering means knowing when not to build something.

2. Design Before Implementation¶

Software architecture is about making decisions that are hard to change later: - How do different parts of the system communicate? - Where do we store and process data? - What happens when things fail?

We document these decisions because future team members (including our future selves) need to understand the reasoning.

3. Balance Speed and Quality¶

Fast delivery matters, but so does: - Maintainability: Can someone else understand and modify this code? - Reliability: Does it work consistently under real-world conditions? - Testability: Can we verify it works without manual testing every time?

We're not aiming for perfection—we're aiming for "good enough to evolve safely."

How We Work¶

Standards and Frameworks¶

We use standardized approaches (like FCube) because:

1. Consistency reduces cognitive load - Team members can navigate any project without relearning patterns
2. Automation becomes possible - Common tasks can be automated when structure is predictable
3. Onboarding is faster - New team members learn one pattern, not a different approach per project

Standards aren't about limiting creativity—they're about focusing it on problems that actually need creative solutions.

Code Reviews and Collaboration¶

We review each other's code not to criticize, but to: - Share knowledge across the team - Catch issues before they reach production - Ensure someone besides the author understands how it works

Using This Documentation¶

A Note on AI and Code Generation¶

AI tools can generate code quickly, but they can't: - Understand your specific business context - Make architectural decisions that affect long-term maintainability - Know the trade-offs between different technical approaches

Our job as engineers is to use AI as a tool while remaining responsible for the design, architecture, and business alignment of what we build.

Questions or suggestions? This is a living document. If something is unclear or you think we should add a section, talk to the team.