You’re a Systems Design professional. How can you work more efficiently?

Coming from an environment that tries to balance a bottom-up R&D workflow and a top-down product development workflow, I believe hassle-free and efficient systems design and development can happen if these workflows are parallelized but weakly coupled. From my own experience in developing a hybrid workflow, I can say that your ability to do bottom-up design activities even as your product requirements are still taking shape plays a very crucial role in: 1) Timeliness of the development activity. 2) Optimal documentation of building block tasks for efficient engineering management

- Prioritize the requirements. Is optimizing cost the biggest ask? Is migrating to the cloud the highest priority? Does the system need to be compliant to specific regulation? Does it need to be super fast? The hard part of System Design is, not everything can be the same priority. - Define stakeholders. Ensure the design doesn't follow "Conway's Law" - Applying first principles of breaking down the big system into different areas helps define the scope and success criteria. it also helps design process more modular and simpler.

- Clearly articulate the problem statement before jumping into solutions, ensuring you understand the core issues and objectives. - Break down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts to tackle them more systematically. - Engage with stakeholders to gather diverse perspectives and ensure all aspects of the problem are considered.

It is important to form and retain excellent relationships with key vendors, as well as constantly looking to form new vendor relationships for products that may be needed for future projects.

?? In the realm of system design, success hinges on our ability to decipher complex challenges effectively. Here are some strategies to streamline your workflow and optimize results: 1?? Thorough Requirements Gathering 2?? Clear Scope Definition 3?? Identify Constraints 4?? Use Case Analysis 5?? Feature Prioritization 6?? Research Solutions 7?? Break Down Complexities 8?? Validate Assumptions 9?? Document Requirements ?? Seek Clarifications By prioritizing the foundational step of defining and understanding the problems we're solving, system design professionals can unlock efficiencies, drive innovation, and deliver exceptional results. ??

- Simple tools are best tools! In my experience, use the tools you already have. I have seen many times, organizations adopt a fancy new tool only to end up not using it. - Tools and frameworks are there to assist you and not add extra overhead. In my experience, it's totally fine to stick to the framework you know. Don't FOMO into frameworks and tools that doesn't work for the org. One example is, TOGAF is great but I have seen huge complex projects done without it.

- Select tools and software that best match the project's requirements and the team's expertise, optimizing for productivity and collaboration. - Stay updated on the latest tools and technologies that can improve efficiency in systems design, such as CAD software for engineers or wireframing tools for UI/UX designers. - Leverage project management and collaboration tools to streamline communication and document sharing among team members.

Ensure that your toolchain is well integrated, use of AI may help cut some lead times. Avoid vendor lock in, any work results should be portable to other tools. SaaS tools are to be preferred to avoid large upfront costs.

The problem or the goal is identified, then you have to choose the right or optimized path to reach the destination. Best and appropriate tool is always necessary to make the journey easy.

Test the tools and see which one you can use. Not all tools are suitable for the task at hand. Use of more than one tool is also recommended to compliment or counter check the other

Make sure to design your systems to be scalable, highly cohesive but low coupled, Keep it simple but not too simple, Don't repeat yourself, Separate your concerns, and "YAGNI" you aint gonna need it. Remember to fail fast and interate.

- Adhere to industry standards and best practices in systems design, such as modular design principles, to enhance maintainability and scalability. - Implement version control systems to manage changes and collaborations efficiently. - Prioritize documentation from the outset to ensure clear communication and ease of maintenance.

?? Embrace clear communication: Establish open channels to ensure alignment on project goals and expectations. ?? Define clear objectives: Clearly outline project requirements, scope, and deliverables to avoid misunderstandings. ?? Prioritize tasks: Identify critical tasks and prioritize them based on their impact and dependencies. ?? Utilize design patterns: Leverage established design patterns to solve common problems efficiently. ?? Stay organized: Maintain thorough documentation and organize project assets for easy access and reference. ?? Conduct regular reviews: Review project progress regularly to identify issues early and make necessary adjustments.

Adopted the atomic methodology and created its own Design System with a unique structure that can be customized and adapted to each needs. atomic methodology is composed of four distinct stages working together to create interface design systems in a more deliberate and hierarchical way: IONS: are styleguides and design tokens. ATOMS: are the most basic components like a button. MOLECULES: the more complex components ORGANISMS: are the output final modules.

Best practice is a build up on other practices. Follow the standard but at the same time, tweak where possible to fit your requirements and document.

- Regularly review your designs with stakeholders and team members to gather feedback and identify areas for improvement. - Adopt an iterative design process, allowing for refinements and adjustments based on testing and feedback. - Use metrics and benchmarks to evaluate the effectiveness of your designs and guide iterations.

Best way to design a system is to review the system, create a test strategy and scenarios with help of stakeholders and also have an external review. Afterwards you can have points of improvements

Yes, after definition of the problem, selection best practices, tools etc, now this is the time to review the steps if everything is going well then iterate as per additional requirement or for improvement or to enhance the functionality, usability, security scalability etc.

- Dedicate time for continuous learning, whether through formal education, online courses, or industry seminars, to keep up with evolving technologies and methodologies. - Practice reflective learning by reviewing past projects to identify lessons learned and areas for personal development. - Cultivate a network of professionals for knowledge exchange and support in tackling complex design challenges.

Definitely, Defining the problem is the top most step in which we need to define a problem in such a way that it's easy to understand by everyone. If it's not properly described then we cannot achieve the perfect sustainable solution for long run.

Here's a list of resources for system design engineers: Blogs: High Scalability: Offers real-world system design case studies. The Morning Paper: Summarizes and analyzes research papers related to distributed systems. Tech company engineering blogs like Netflix Tech Blog and Airbnb Engineering. YouTube Channels: Tech Lead: Covers software engineering, system design, and career advice. Hussein Nasser: Focuses on distributed systems and software architecture. Substack Newsletters: The Morning Paper (Substack): Get research paper summaries. System Design Weekly (Substack): Receive weekly insights and resources. Gergely Orosz's Substack: Insights on software engineering and system design.

Always take your past experiences and apply them to your current work. Follow through with the implementation and see where the process gets hung up. Take action so the next one does not experience the same issues. No such thing as failing, only learning.

Always keep yourself and the team updated, share knowledge, technology changes fast and we can not always be the first to know.

While writing any system design, we should breakdown bigger problem into smallest problem and design over it(similar to how we determine base condition of recursion, considering smallest input first). Once you are able to draw one iteration of design, iterating over it and fine tuning it in smaller chunks will solve the biggest system design. My Learning - Like everyone else, I also started with building complex design at the start and it got more complicated.

System design should balance between short term deliverable and long term goals. If only chasing immediate challenges without vision of future planning, system design engineer would soon get exhausted for multiple iterations and left bad impression to others of lacking enough knowledge and experience.

- Work-Life Balance: Maintain a healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout and sustain long-term productivity. - Time Management: Use time management techniques to prioritize tasks and focus on high-impact activities. - Adaptability: Stay flexible and open to changing requirements or project scopes, adapting your approach as needed to meet new challenges.

In my experience yes you need the right tools, you need to find the balance between using state of the art technology, product quality and time to market. And of course efficiency hinges on embracing continuous learning to stay ahead of tech trends, employing automation for repetitive tasks, and focusing on creating modular, scalable designs. But most important is to prioritize open, frequent communication with the teams that will implement the design and other stakeholders, to ensure alignment and swift iteration. This approach not only streamlines the development process but also fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration, essential for tackling complex system challenges effectively.

Amazon's development of its cloud infrastructure, AWS (Amazon Web Services), showcases how to work efficiently on complex system designs Automated Processes: AWS heavily relies on automation for resource provisioning, scaling, and management, reducing manual oversight and allowing engineers to focus on innovation Agile Development: By adopting Agile methodologies, Amazon was able to iterate quickly, incorporating user feedback into rapid cycles of development and deployment Cross-disciplinary Teams: Amazon organized its development teams around services (the "two-pizza teams"), ensuring that each team had the skills and authority to design, develop, deploy, and maintain their services