Technical Spikes: Accelerating Execution and Mitigating Risks

Aug 22, 2023 by manish

Value of Technical Spikes

πŸš€ Many times, in interest of moving fast, engineering teams forget the value of technical spikes.

πŸ’‘ Technical design reviews are useful, but going one step further and prototyping the most riskiest piece just enough to de-risk the project actually accelerates the execution.

πŸ‘₯ It is most effective if the senior team member pairs with the engineer who wrote the technical design and executes the spike.

πŸ‘¨β€πŸ« Junior engineer can learn from senior team member, and spike execution happens fast too.

πŸ” In addition to de-risking, a prototype solution surfaces other technical nuances that are otherwise hard to uncover during tech design review.

πŸ’ͺ Technical spike doesn’t have to be perfect, it just need to be good enough to build confidence in team’s ability to execute the proposed solution.

What are your thoughts on technical spikes? Have you used them in your projects?