Stage 4 · Lesson 7 of 8
Incidents and on-call at a junior level
An is when something in , the live product that users rely on, is broken or working badly. Most teams have a process for it. One person leads, everyone uses one channel, updates are posted regularly, and a (a written guide) describes known fixes.
Being on-call means being the person who responds when something breaks, usually taking turns in a rotation. As a junior you usually shadow someone on-call before joining the rotation yourself. In an incident, your job is to report what you see with facts and times, follow the lead's instructions, avoid untested changes, and escalate early.
Before your first shift, ask to read past incident reports and the runbooks for your area. Then you will be calm and useful when it happens.
Common traptrying to fix a production problem alone and silently, which makes it harder for others to help.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- GuideFreeGoogle Engineering Practices
Google · Intermediate
Google's guides for change authors and reviewers: small changes, good descriptions and handling comments
- BookPaidThe Missing README: A Guide for the New Software Engineer
Chris Riccomini and Dmitriy Ryaboy (No Starch Press) · Beginner · $29.99 print, $23.99 ebook
The testing, code review, delivery and on-call chapters written for a new engineer