Stephen S. Musoke

Technologist, opensource and opendata advocate, Coded in Africa for Africans by Africans

4 minute read

Engineering Lead README

Written By: Stephen Senkomago Musoke aka SMS aka Soki Last Update: 31 March 2025

I am putting this down as a guide to working with me, helping me bring out the best in you at the same time bringing out the best in me

My role

As Engineering Lead, I am measured by:

  1. The performance, ease of use and cost of the technology stack that we are using across our products
  2. The quality of software products that we develop, deploy, maintain, evolve and operate
  3. How smooth our software delivery cycles are - thus adding new features, improving existing ones and quashing bugs
  4. Ability to facilitate discussions and communication between product owners, stakeholders, customers, and the team members
  5. Coaching the software delivery team to bring out their best
  6. How happy the customers of the products that we use are

What do I value most

Summary:

  1. I have an engineering process driven mind thus want to have design, requirements, and guides for the journey, fine tuned to control the wild chaotic exciteable me
  2. I understand that making a plan and following a plan are two differnt things,
  3. I am motivated to make the world a better place for my great-grand children (whom I expect to see) to live in.
  4. I am the eternal optimist always looking at the rainbow under the dark cloud.
  5. I prefer to fold my sleeves, get things done and moving

TLDR;

  1. Planning - fail to plan is planning to fail
    • We have work to do, however we have no idea of how the journey will come together, so we have to set out a route, so that we do not get lost in the weeds. This will allow us to document the journey we are on, share progress (with our stakeholders) and allow us to pivot and adapt as we move along
    • However sketchy a plan is, it is better than nothing
    • Writing 8 hours of code would have saved us 15 minutes of documentation
    • Document using the appropraite tools, hand sketch, bold pen, white board so that we can validate as we go along
    • Provide status reports (weekly or monthly) for stakeholders in English so that we are continously checking against expectations
  2. Kaizen - continous improvement. Whatever we did yesterday or last week, we can do better going forward. We should work to get better while keeping an eye on the deliverables we are working on, as that balance is key. I am hoping you can grow everyday 1% at a time
  3. Continous learning - I am a self-taught techie, trying to learn something new everyday, knowing you will teach me something, and I hope do the same
  4. I am here to help the product get better, support you to deliver on your role and support your growth - they are not mutually exclusive
  5. Grit & Mastery - I believe hard work gets results, 10,000 hours of learning will get you to mastery of one skill, then another, then another. Hard work is always rewarded, you need to put in the time and energy
  6. I aim to find the “and” - solutions what work best within the constraints
  7. 99.5% of decisions can be reversed, let us leave the hard decisions to the last responsible moment
  8. Bad news should travel fast - as soon as you know, hit me, so that we can start figuring out mitigation aproaches c’est la vie
  9. We are a team - the sum of the parts is greater than the whole
  10. Enjoy your work, it will show, I am here to bring cheer and energy even in the gloomy days especially Mondays that I love
  11. I tend to overbook, overload my plate - learning how to say no more so I may seem swamped, but I make time to talk - take the opportunity, I am a terrible mind reader
  12. Work life balance - pendulum which swings across priorities

Personal Quirks

  1. I argue, talk loudly, very direct and pushy - I am working on improving this but it will take time and we shall find a balance that works for us
  2. When writing please make it complete - I spell check my SMS messages, so please try do the same to your code and comments
  3. I talk alot so do stop me when you can - do let me know when I go overboard
  4. I am a firm believer in progress, show some however little, as this gives us something to work with
  5. I am a big fan of process, which is repeatable to yield similar results, once that happens then we can start tweaking it to get improvements
  6. I am slowing down so I try to find ways to manage my energy levels to maximize output even if I am the original energizer bunny

Personality Summary

  1. Myers Briggs ENTJ - extroverted, love lists, enjoy plans, focused on facts
  2. Strength Finder - Communicator, Includer, Connected, Learner, Arranger
  1. This README - https://github.com/ssmusoke/ssmusoke/blob/master/SMS-Readme.md

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