Write Self-Documenting PRs

In remote teams, reviewers can't tap you on the shoulder for context. Your PR description should answer all questions upfront:

• What: What does this PR do?
• Why: Why is this change necessary?
• How: How does it work? (high-level approach)
• Testing: How was this tested?
• Screenshots/videos: For UI changes, include visual proof

Keep PRs Small and Focused

Large PRs take longer to review and are more likely to introduce bugs. Aim for:

• 200-400 lines of changes (not including generated code)
• Single concern: One feature, bug fix, or refactor per PR
• Stackable PRs: Break large features into a series of small, reviewable PRs

Review SLAs

Set clear expectations for review turnaround:

• First pass: Within 4 hours during work hours
• Urgent fixes: Within 1 hour (use "urgent" label sparingly)
• Non-urgent: Within 24 hours

Test Pyramid for Async Workflows

• Unit tests (70%): Fast, isolated, run on every commit
• Integration tests (20%): Test service interactions, run in CI
• E2E tests (10%): Critical user paths only, slow but comprehensive

Test Quality Gates

Enforce quality standards in CI/CD pipelines:

• Block merges if tests fail
• Require minimum 80% code coverage for new code
• Run linters and formatters automatically
• Fail builds on security vulnerabilities (Snyk, Dependabot)

Testing in Different Timezones

• Make tests deterministic (no flaky tests!)
• Provide clear error messages for debugging
• Run tests in CI so everyone sees the same results
• Document how to run tests locally in README

Continuous Deployment

Automate deployments to remove timezone dependencies:

• Auto-deploy to staging: Every merge to main deploys to staging
• One-click production: Deploy to prod with a button press, not manual steps
• Rollback capability: Quick rollback if issues are detected
• Feature flags: Deploy code but toggle features on/off without redeployment

Deploy Windows

In global teams, deployments should be safe at any time:

• Deploy anytime: No "deploy freeze" outside business hours
• Observability: Comprehensive monitoring and alerting
• Gradual rollouts: Canary deployments to catch issues early
• Blameless postmortems: Learn from incidents, don't punish

What to Document

Documentation Maintenance

• Update docs in the same PR that changes behavior
• Add "last updated" dates to docs
• Quarterly doc review to remove stale content
• Make docs searchable and easy to discover

Incident Communication

• Create a dedicated incident channel immediately
• Post regular status updates (every 15-30 minutes)
• Designate an incident commander to coordinate
• Document actions taken in the incident channel
• Post a summary when resolved

Blameless Postmortems

After every incident, conduct a postmortem focused on systems, not people:

• Timeline of events
• Root cause analysis
• What went well / what didn't
• Action items to prevent recurrence