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SOC2 for Builders, Part 5: Incident Response, Backups, and Restore Proof
Backups aren't real until you can prove a restore. A simple way to make restore proof repeatable.
SOC2 for Builders, Part 4: Change Control, CI, and Deploy Evidence
A clean chain of evidence: PR, CI, artifact, deploy. No screenshots needed.
SOC2 for Builders, Part 3: Access Control and Least Privilege by Default
Make access boring: default deny, scoped roles, and short-lived credentials.
SOC2 for Builders, Part 2: Data Classification and Logging Hygiene
Classify data once, enforce it in code, and stop raw payloads from ever reaching logs.
SOC2 for Builders, Part 1: Treat It Like a Product Requirement
SOC2 feels lighter when you define concrete outcomes and bake them into shipping checks.
Migrating to a Monorepo Without Coupling Deploys
The exact moves we used: a boring apps/* layout, path-scoped CI, and separate image tags.
On-call onboarding checklist: what to include (and what to skip)
A tight checklist that gets new responders ready without turning onboarding into a thesis.
Feature flag hygiene for small teams
Feature flags are powerful only if you keep them clean. A lightweight hygiene routine for small teams.
How to run a tabletop incident drill in 60 minutes
A 60‑minute tabletop format that exposes gaps without the theater.
Why runbooks fail and how to fix them
Runbooks fail under pressure for predictable reasons. A practical fix that holds in real incidents.
How to keep your internal knowledge base alive
A few small habits keep your knowledge base current and trusted instead of stale and ignored.
A lightweight incident update template that keeps people calm
A short update format and cadence that protects focus and builds trust.
What makes a safe mitigation during incidents
A short checklist to decide whether a mitigation is safe under pressure.
A lightweight on-call handoff template
A 10‑minute handoff template that transfers risk without turning into a weekly status report.
How to keep onboarding docs current without big doc pushes
Small, frequent updates beat quarterly documentation days.
What to do when tribal knowledge blocks new hires
A short plan to turn recurring questions into owned answers.
The three dashboards to pin before your next deploy
Pick the right three views and detect issues faster without drowning in noise.
How to turn postmortems into onboarding improvements
Every postmortem can create one onboarding upgrade.
Designing verification steps for runbooks
A verification step is the difference between a guess and a fix.
A rollback decision guide for incident leads
A clear, low‑friction way to decide when rollback is the safest move during an incident.
On-call rotations: how to reduce variance for new engineers
Lower variance means fewer escalations and faster learning.
Incident comms cadence: a pragmatic schedule
A clear schedule that keeps stakeholders informed without derailing responders.
How to teach software engineering (not just computer science)
A practical way to bridge the theory-to-production gap: ownership, failure modes, debugging, and change management.
Ownership models for runbooks and operational checklists
Runbooks stay trusted when ownership is explicit and visible.
HITECH breach readiness (in plain English)
If you handle PHI, you need muscle memory: know where data lives, detect unusual access, and run a clean incident workflow.
A 30‑day onboarding pilot that actually ships
Run a 30‑day pilot that ships small fixes into one workflow. A week‑by‑week plan that cuts repeat questions without big doc projects.
Choosing the right focus tags for a training module
Good tags scope training so it stays specific, searchable, and reusable.
Mentor queues: how to triage questions without burnout
A lightweight system for handling questions without exhausting senior engineers.
No leaderboards: measure onboarding without breaking trust
If onboarding feels like performance management, engineers will hide. Use team‑level signals that improve ramp time without judgment.
SOC 2 evidence that doesn’t feel like paperwork
SOC 2 gets easier when evidence falls out of normal workflows: PRs, access reviews, incident drills, and restore tests.
A practical rubric for engineering onboarding
A lightweight rubric to measure readiness without turning onboarding into a test.
The hidden cost of “quick questions”
Escalations feel like a people problem, but they’re usually an ownership and knowledge problem. A simple fix.
How to spot incident readiness gaps before a real outage
Use small signals to find gaps before customers do.
HIPAA for software teams (without slowing shipping)
A practical path to lower PHI risk: minimum necessary, safe logging, de‑identified dev data, and a clean vendor/incident path.
The first 15 minutes of an incident (a checklist)
A practical checklist that reduces chaos, speeds diagnosis, and improves comms before you even touch the code.
Why on-call coaching beats more documentation
Coaching creates behavior change where documents can't.
Laptop security baseline for engineering teams
A practical endpoint checklist (encryption, updates, MFA, secrets) that reduces risk without turning EMs into security police.
How staff engineers get leverage (without being on-call for everything)
It’s not about fewer questions. It’s about fewer repeated questions by turning answers into reusable guidance with owners and links.
Use repeat questions to prioritize what to fix next
Repeat escalations usually mean missing owners, missing links, or missing guardrails. Treat them like a backlog you can ship.
Kill “who owns this?” pings with a living ownership map
A lightweight way to keep ownership, escalation paths, and links current without turning it into a process project.
Stop doing documentation days
Docs rot when they aren’t used. Capture answers from real work instead—owners, links, and first checks.
A lightweight knowledge loop after incidents
How to stop losing context and turn each incident into better runbooks, faster onboarding, and fewer repeats.
“First checks” are the best onboarding doc you’ll ever write
If new hires don’t know what’s safe to check first, they escalate early. A simple first‑checks format that works.
Runbooks that work under pressure
Most runbooks fail at the exact moment they matter. How to write runbooks that survive real incidents.