Downtime sucks, regardless of whether it’s planned or not. As a user, when you visit a site to complete a task but you can’t because it’s down, you’re frustrated. Whether or not the site put up a cutesy banner a week earlier warning you about the downtime isn’t really relevant. Banner or not, you can’t complete your task.

Engineering @ Pluralsight is a document that outlines how we do engineering at Pluralsight — how we work. It establishes best practices that enable us to deliver the most customer value, create and maintain healthy processes, and perhaps most importantly it shapes a system where engineers and Pluralsighters feel fulfilled and happy at work. Since the first version was created in 2018, Pluralsight has gone through many changes. We recently took the opportunity to reflect on how our practices are serving us and where we could make meaningful adjustments.

When you find yourself in a disagreement it might be helpful to remember this old riddle: 'What's black and white and red all over?' It has lessons to teach us about how we can think, communicate and solve problems together

At Pluralsight we value responsible, autonomous teams and we architect our systems to that end. Here are the practices that we have chosen to make that possible.

At Pluralsight we value creating our product collaboratively. Here are the practices that we have chosen to support that principle.

At Pluralsight we value continuously delivering value to production. Here are the practices that we have chosen to support that principle.

When designing the architecture for an application or system of interrelated applications, it is essential to identify which quality attributes of the system are most important to the users, developers, and owners. Often this is done implicitly based on the experience and preferences of the various people participating in the project. When quality attributes are selected with intention and purpose, they help guide the design of the system. At Pluralsight, the quality attributes we focus on have evolved as the company has evolved.

At Pluralsight, we are very proud of our company culture. It’s truly an amazing place to work. And one of the most amazing parts about our culture is there are only two rules and three core values that help shape it...