How Quarterly Fixit Weeks Help Software Teams Address Technical Debt and Small Annoyances
By
signa11
An everything bagel for the brain. Substantive, layered, well-seasoned.
Summary
The article describes a software engineering practice called "fixit weeks" where teams pause all regular roadmap work for one week each quarter to focus exclusively on fixing bugs and addressing small annoyances that typically get deprioritized. The author shares their personal experience with this practice, explaining how it allows engineers to tackle technical debt, improve user experience, and boost team morale by addressing issues that have been bothering both developers and users. The article details the process, benefits, and practical implementation of fixit weeks in a ~45 engineer organization.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledOnce a quarter or so, my org with ~45 software engineers stops all regular work for a week. That means no roadmap work, no design work, no meetings or standups.
Instead, we fix the small things that have been annoying us and our users.
I'm staring at the bug leaderboard, genuinely sad that Monday means going back to regular work. Which is weird because I love regular work. But fixit weeks have a special place in my heart.
What's a fixit, you ask?
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