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Good Engineering Practices

Technical standards, development methodologies, and quality assurance practices that guide our engineering work.

Owner
Engineering Team <engineering@quantumpoly.ai>
Last Reviewed
Next Review Due

Introduction

Good Engineering Practices (GEP) define the technical standards and methodologies that guide our development work at QuantumPoly. These practices ensure quality, maintainability, security, and reliability across our systems.

This document is intended for technical teams and stakeholders who want to understand our engineering approach.

Development Principles

Code Quality

We maintain high standards for code quality through systematic practices and continuous review.

Core practices:

  • Code reviews required for all changes
  • Automated testing at multiple levels (unit, integration, end-to-end)
  • Static analysis and linting integrated into development workflow
  • Clear, self-documenting code with appropriate comments
  • Consistent style guides across languages and frameworks

Version Control

We use Git-based version control with structured workflows.

Key practices:

  • Feature branches for new development
  • Protected main branches requiring reviews
  • Meaningful commit messages following conventional formats
  • Regular synchronization to avoid large merge conflicts
  • Comprehensive change documentation

Testing Strategy

Testing is integrated throughout the development lifecycle, not treated as an afterthought.

Testing levels:

  • Unit tests: Validate individual components in isolation
  • Integration tests: Verify interactions between components
  • End-to-end tests: Validate complete user workflows
  • Performance tests: Ensure systems meet performance requirements
  • Security tests: Identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses

Coverage targets:

  • Critical paths: 100% coverage
  • Core business logic: 90%+ coverage
  • UI components: 80%+ coverage

Architecture and Design

System Design

We follow established architectural patterns and prioritize:

  • Modularity: Systems composed of well-defined, loosely coupled components
  • Scalability: Ability to handle growing demands
  • Resilience: Graceful degradation and recovery from failures
  • Observability: Comprehensive monitoring and logging

Documentation

Technical documentation is maintained alongside code.

Documentation types:

  • Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) for significant design choices
  • API documentation with clear examples
  • Setup and deployment guides
  • Inline code documentation for complex logic
  • Runbooks for operational procedures

Security Practices

Secure Development

Security is considered from the earliest stages of development.

Key practices:

  • Threat modeling for new features
  • Regular security reviews and audits
  • Dependency scanning for known vulnerabilities
  • Secrets management (no credentials in code)
  • Principle of least privilege for system access

Data Protection

We implement appropriate controls to protect sensitive data.

Controls:

  • Encryption at rest and in transit
  • Access controls and authentication
  • Data minimization and retention policies
  • Regular backup and recovery testing
  • Audit logging for sensitive operations

Deployment and Operations

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Automated pipelines ensure consistent, reliable deployments.

Pipeline stages:

  1. Automated testing on every commit
  2. Security and quality scans
  3. Staging environment deployment and validation
  4. Production deployment with monitoring
  5. Automated rollback capabilities

Monitoring and Observability

We maintain comprehensive visibility into system behavior.

Monitoring areas:

  • Application performance metrics
  • Error rates and types
  • Resource utilization
  • User experience metrics
  • Security events

Incident Response

We maintain procedures for identifying and resolving issues quickly.

Response process:

  1. Detection and alerting
  2. Initial assessment and triage
  3. Investigation and diagnosis
  4. Mitigation and resolution
  5. Post-incident review and learning

Dependencies and Supply Chain

Dependency Management

We carefully manage external dependencies to minimize risk.

Practices:

  • Regular updates for security patches
  • Vetting of new dependencies
  • License compliance verification
  • Monitoring for deprecation and end-of-life
  • Documented reasoning for major dependencies

Supply Chain Security

We take measures to ensure the integrity of our software supply chain.

Measures:

  • Verified package sources
  • Dependency pinning and lock files
  • Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation
  • Build reproducibility where feasible

Performance and Efficiency

Performance Standards

We establish and monitor performance benchmarks.

Key metrics:

  • Response time targets
  • Throughput requirements
  • Resource efficiency
  • User-perceived performance

Optimization Approach

Performance optimization is data-driven and focused on user impact.

Process:

  1. Establish baseline measurements
  2. Identify bottlenecks through profiling
  3. Implement targeted optimizations
  4. Verify improvements
  5. Monitor for regressions

Accessibility

We build systems that are accessible to users with diverse needs and abilities.

Commitments:

  • WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance as baseline
  • Keyboard navigation support
  • Screen reader compatibility
  • Color contrast and visual design considerations
  • Testing with assistive technologies

Continuous Improvement

Learning and Adaptation

We continuously refine our practices based on experience and industry developments.

Mechanisms:

  • Regular retrospectives
  • Knowledge sharing sessions
  • Post-incident reviews
  • Industry research and benchmarking
  • Experimentation with new tools and approaches

Metrics and Measurement

We measure what matters and use data to guide improvements.

Key metrics:

  • Deployment frequency
  • Change failure rate
  • Mean time to recovery
  • Code quality indicators
  • Team velocity and satisfaction

Questions and Collaboration

For questions about our engineering practices or collaboration opportunities, please contact our Engineering Team at engineering@quantumpoly.ai.

Document Evolution

This document is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect our evolving practices and learning. Version history and change rationale are maintained in our documentation repository.