Engineering practice from systems in production
Articles on the parts of building software that are rarely documented well: how failures arise and how to prevent them, the design decisions behind a system and their trade-offs, and what it costs to operate once real users depend on it.
- Written by the people who built it
- Every claim from a system in production
- The trade-off, not just the choice
Building Jversity: a multi-tenant educational LMS platform
Failure modes and how to prevent them
Where systems tend to break, how the fault is found, and the structural change that prevents it.
Design decisions and their trade-offs
Choices with a real trade-off: the options, the criteria that separate them, and a recommendation.
Payments architecture for multi-tenant platforms
Tenant-owned gateway accounts keep the platform out of the flow of funds, at the price of a provider-neutral core and disciplined reconciliation.
Payments5 min read
Read itSelecting a video provider for live classes
Select per class format and cost per participant-hour, and settle participant roles before designing the interface.
Video3 min read
Read itDesigning AI features with cost controls and human oversight
Model the cost before writing the prompt, and keep a person accountable for every decision about a person.
AI3 min read
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Operating in production
Cost, standards and practices that matter once software is live and people depend on it.
Cost structure of a multi-tenant education platform
Bundle what scales with storage and meter what scales with participant time; the arithmetic decides whether a subscription can work.
Operations3 min read
Read itAccessibility checklist for public web pages (WCAG 2.2 AA)
Automated scanners cover only part of WCAG 2.2 AA; the rest needs a manual review and rules enforced on every page.
Accessibility3 min read
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