Engineering notes, written from the work
Diagnostic procedures from live engagements, governance patterns used in production, and implementation lessons from defects we have found and fixed.
Diagnostic procedures and implementation patterns
Written for people who have to make a decision about a real system. Each one names where it came from, so you can weigh it accordingly.
- Diagnostic procedure
Diagnosing a crawl-rate collapse from server logs
A crawl rate rarely falls for the reason it appears to. Six measurements, in order, that separate a server problem from a directive problem from a content problem, before anyone changes anything.
Search EngineeringRead - Diagnostic procedure
Upgrading PHP without breaking the application
Six steps in the order that finds the failures early: enumerate the runtimes actually serving traffic, classify the change, scan for what the target branch removed, rehearse on a copy of the real application, cut over per pool, then verify what is serving the request.
Platform EngineeringRead - Diagnostic procedure
Preparing a legacy PHP codebase for a supported branch
A PHP version update is a package change; the code that calls removed functions does not care. Five steps for measuring a legacy codebase before the runtime moves: the dialect inventory, the removals that fail loudly and the changes that fail silently, the plugin metadata that cannot answer the question, and how to verify without a test suite.
Platform EngineeringRead - Implementation pattern
Making content governance executable
A written claims policy does not survive contact with a deadline. Here is the pattern that made it a build failure instead: a typed register, a single rendering path, and a verifier that refuses to ship an unapproved figure.
Publishing governanceRead - Implementation lesson
Why layout verification has to happen at real widths
A bug that only appears above 1200px is invisible to a preview pane 781px wide. It took a specific class of tooling to find, and the lesson generalises: verify at the dimensions the defect needs.
Platform EngineeringRead
What clients say, and where to verify it
Our client reviews are published on our public Google Business Profile. We reproduce them verbatim, with attribution, so you can read the original feedback and verify it at the source.
We reached out to this company when our website was hacked, and we are incredibly grateful for their prompt assistance in securing our project. They also provide regular, timely updates and invaluable support with other aspects of our platform.
Excellent work! They patiently accommodated all my requests and offered fair pricing. Highly recommended.
A diagnostic procedure is more useful applied to your system
If one of these reads like the problem you are looking at, that is usually the point at which a conversation is cheaper than further reading.