The document describes the software development lifecycle used by the MongoDB Database Engineering Team. It involves carefully scoping projects, designing features, implementing code, testing, and getting acceptance from product management. Key aspects include establishing consensus during scoping, addressing downstream impacts, writing comprehensive tests, and continuously improving processes over time.

1. How An Idea Becomes a
Feature
The Database Engineering Team's Software Lifecycle

2. What you will learn in this talk
The amount of rigorous thought and work that goes into the MongoDB
development process.
Some development tips and tricks for your company.

3. Who I Am
Previously Currently
@appleofmy_iris on
Instagram

4. Crystal Horn Rathi Gnanasekaran
Previously: Server
Currently: Ops Manager
Drivers
Greg Mckeon
Server
Justin Cohler
Previously: Server
DB Engineering Program Management

5. DB Engineering Program Management
We devise and improve the processes and tools that help Server
engineers deliver the greatest number of the highest priority
requirements at the highest quality in the most predictable time.

6. What this talk is not about
How we prioritize foo vs. bar

7. Grigori Melnik
VP of Product,
Server & Enterprise Tools
Aly Cabral
Product Manager,
Distributed Systems
Asya Kamsky
Lead Product Manager,
Storage and Query
Matt Lord
Senior Product Manager,
Platforms
Server Product Management

8. Once we decide to do foo, how we go:
What this talk is about

9. From this...
"Type conversions"

10. To this...

11. Build Processes Gradually
Meta-Principle of DB Engineering SDLC
Why?
Avoid Cargo-Culting
Think Like Product Managers

12. Downstream communication.
Distribute work and trust but verify.
Coherent interfaces.
Single source of truth.
Principles driving the DB Engineering SDLC

13. The Golden Rule
For everything I say here, there is probably an exception.

14. The Very, Very Short Version

15. Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

16. Setup

17. What is a "Project"?
API Changes
Controversial Implementation
Long Implementation TIme
Cross-Team Collaboration
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

18. Our Example Project: Type Conversions
API Changes
Controversial Implementation
Long Implementation TIme
Cross-Team Collaboration
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

19. Justin Seyster David Storch
Project Lead Team Lead
Nicholas Zolnierz
Engineer
Charlie Swanson
Engineer
Dramatis Personae - The Query Team
Me!
Program Manager

20. Eliot Horowitz Dan Pasette
CTO Senior Vice President,
Core Engineering
Asya Kamsky
Product Manager,
DS & Query
Andy Schwerin
Vice President,
Query & Distributed
Systems
Dramatis Personae - The Stakeholders
Wisdom Omuya
Lead Engineer,
BI Connector

21. Epic (JIRA)
Scope ticket (JIRA)
Blank scope document (Google Docs)
Design ticket (JIRA)
Blank design document (Google Docs)
The first step
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

22. Yes, we have a problem.
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

23. The Epic
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

24. A Project Begins

25. Scoping
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up
Scope: The medium we use for early-stage ideas that we might want to further develop into a more complete
design or a proof of concept. They help Engineering Management and Product Management decide what
projects to design and to consider for work.

26. Scoping
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

27. What is this "LGTM" you speak of?
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

28. Scoping
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

29. Author drives consensus
LGTM list is opt-in
Commenters resolve threads
1-4 hours to draft
Important Scoping Details/Best Practices
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

30. Scope Done,
Onto the Design

31. Scope Done,
Onto the Syntax+Design

32. Syntax
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

33. Design
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

34. Implementation

35. Start coding!
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

36. Target Date
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

37. Goals
• Confirm and communicate
changes to Scope & Design
docs since approval.
• Confirm Product acceptance
of feature.
Agenda
• In the Design:
• Review open comment threads and
address the threads we can.
• If necessary, update the Downstream
Impact section of the Design and send
an email to downstream teams.
• In the Scope:
• Mark as complete all Goals agreed to
be achieved.
Six-Week Project Review
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

38. Downstream testability

39. So what about the test phase?
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

40. Life of a Ticket

41. Make "format" parameter optional for $dateToString
http://bit.ly/format-parameter-optional
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

42. Type Code
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

43. Code Review
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

44. Patch Build
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

45. A bit more on that patch build...
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

46. The aggregation task on RHEL 6.2
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

47. Maximize utility of every line of test code
• Same test, different buildvariants
• Operating systems, storage engines, runtime parameters
• Fuzzers
• Passthroughs
• _auth,
• FSM(?)
• Sanitizers
• ASAN, UBSAN, TSAN coming soon!
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

48. Repeat!

49. We push this commit!
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

50. Wrap-Up

51. We pushed all the commits!
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

52. Back to Product For Acceptance Testing
Setup | Scope | Design | Implementation | Wrap-Up

53. Odds & Ends

54. Dependency tracking

55. Automate the stupid stuff

56. To Summarize...

57. Processes evolve...slowly

58. Questions?