NMA iT Service

Fast tests on every push. under 2 minutes. Slow tests nightly: e2e + performance. Auto-deploy to staging. No click-ops. one-click rollback. sixty seconds. Feature flags: merge small, deploy, and toggle on later. Deploy the daily minimum. Fix the pipeline.

shift-left testing → test requirements and designs before a single line of code

ai-powered test generation → 70% of happy-path tests auto-generated, but you still review edge cases

exploratory testing → humans find what ai misses

contract testing → services agree on formats before talking in production

test in production → feature flags + canary deployments + observability

flaky test management → quarantine flaky tests, don't let them block deployments

ai-assisted coding → boilerplate by ai, critical paths by you

type safety → typescript, rust, pyright. non-negotiable.

automated refactoring → ide does it. you review the diff.

small code reviews → 20 lines max. merge in 4 hours.

docs next to code → kill the separate wiki.

test at right level → unit → integration → contract → e2e sparingly.

What matters most?

Bridging user experience and technical decisions. not one over the other.

How top teams actually do it now.

No 100-page boards. no months of meetings.

AI transcripts, auto summaries, instant acceptance, straight to dev.

free tools. k6. locust.

50 virtual users. 5 minutes. one endpoint.

70% of happy-path tests? AI writes them.

But edge cases? AI misses those. Always review.

rule-based → known inputs. ai → fuzzy inputs.

combine: ai classifies email intent. rules route to folder.

Not 'if this then that.'

Plan-> Execute-> Check-> Retry.

automate: regression, smoke.

manual: exploratory, usability.

one QA person. still works.

Catching a requirements bug at design stage costs 10x less than fixing it in production.

Small teams: start with a 15-minute requirements review before coding.

What is shift-left? Moving testing earlier. Left = design. Right = production. Catch bugs when they're cheap.

The cost reality:

Requirements/Design - $1

Coding - $10

Testing - $100

Production - $1,000+

Why small teams need this: 10x cheaper, faster releases, less firefighting, better quality.

How to start (15 min, no tools): Read requirements out loud. Ask: "What's missing? What's unclear?" Get answers before coding.

Simple practices: Requirements review, pair programming, tiny test automation, static analysis, code review.

Free tools: ESLint, SonarQube, Jest, Postman.

Real example: A 15-min review saved 3 weeks of rework.

What it is: Your second brain. Save what you learn, solutions you find, commands you forget.

Why it matters:

🔁 Stop solving the same problem twice ⚡ Onboard faster (past notes = instant context) 🧠 Actually learn and remember 📈 Level up faster

What to save: Code snippets, error solutions, CLI commands, architecture decisions, book summaries, meeting notes.

Tools (free tiers): Obsidian (local, free forever), Notion, Logseq, Anytype

Simple start: Create a folder. Add one note: "How I fixed that error." Add another note tomorrow.

The biggest mistake: Saving everything. Write in your own words. Extract one useful thing per resource.

What is observability? Logs tell you what happened. Metrics tell you when. Traces tell you where. Together: "why is my app sad?"

Why small teams should care:

🐛 Find bugs faster (hours → minutes) 📉 Spot problems before customers do 📈 Know what "normal" looks like 🔧 Fix things with confidence

Three pillars:

📝 Logs – your app's diary 📏 Metrics – your app's vital signs 🔍 Traces – your app's GPS

Free tools: Grafana Cloud, Prometheus, Loki, SigNoz, Uptime Kuma, Better Stack

Start small: Uptime monitoring first. Add metrics. Add logs later.

What it looks like:

Laptop open 7am–11pm

No real breaks

Slack notifications make you flinch

Work thoughts follow you everywhere

Fixes that work:

🔒 Shutdown ritual – Say "done" out loud. Change clothes. Walk outside.

🪑 Separate spaces – Different chair. Different light. Brain needs signals.

📱 No Slack on phone – Remove it. Check on your terms.

🍽️ Lunch away from keyboard – 20 minutes. No screen.

⏰ Define off hours – Auto-reply after 7pm.

🚫 Meeting-free block daily – 2-3 hours deep work.

Signs you're in trouble: Working weekends, forgot what fun is, constant pain, snapping at people, no vacation memory.

One small change for tomorrow. Pick one boundary.

What is serverless? You write code. Cloud runs it. No servers to manage. Pay only when code runs.

Pros: 💰 Pay only for what you use ⚡ No server management 🚀 Auto-scales instantly 📦 Focus on features, not infra

Cons: 🐢 Cold starts (1-3 sec delay) 🔗 Vendor lock-in 🐛 Harder to debug 💰 Can get expensive at scale

Good for: ✅ APIs, background jobs, webhooks, scheduled tasks, infrequent apps

Bad for: ❌ Real-time chat, high-traffic APIs, long-running tasks, instant responses

Try it: AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Cloudflare Workers (all have free tiers)

Top 5 mistakes:

🚪 Weak/no auth – Use short-lived tokens. Rotate keys.

📦 Over-sharing data – Only return what's needed. No extra fields.

🚦 No rate limiting – Add it. 100 requests/minute per user.

🗺️ Exposed internal endpoints – Keep internal APIs private.

🧪 No input validation – Validate everything. Reject bad data.

Quick audit checklist:

✅ Do my API keys expire? ✅ Am I returning more data than needed? ✅ Is rate limiting on? ✅ Are internal endpoints private? ✅ Do I validate incoming data?

The problem: Start excited, build 70%, hit a boring part, quit. Repeat.

The fix:

🎯 Pick a real problem (what annoys you?) ✂️ Smallest version possible (be brutal) 🔨 Build in public (keeps you honest) 🚀 Launch something ugly (done > perfect) ✨ One round of polish

Build for yourself first. If it helps you, it'll help someone else.