Chainflip Development Update — May 12th 2023
Dear readers of the DevUpdate,
In this post I want to tell you a bit more about some of the process changes we have implemented at chainflip.
As mentioned in the last update, we have moved over to using the Linear app for managing our tasks and projects. We have now almost completed our first two-week cycle and will look at the data we've collected along the way and how the new process flow worked for the developers. We should also get a better understanding of how our deadlines compare to the estimates produced in the first cycle.
In addition to that, our Rust aficionado Alastair has been working on writing out some observations on typical problems and pain points in our development, along with recommendations on how to improve them. The goal is to produce a handy guide for developers and reviewers that will align our strategies in dealing with testing, code structuring, version control and more.
Finally, we have slightly re-organised the dev teams in a way that should make communication easier and reduces the time spent in meetings. These new "squads" try to strike a balance between the working locations and the responsibilities of the members.
Other progress includes:
Our renaming initiative is almost complete. All the backend code and documentation has been updated, now the product team will turn this into a beautiful and intuitive user experience. On the topic of user experience, we've been testing all kinds of swaps not just through the bouncer or direct interaction with the Blockchain, but also by going through the UI.
Outlook:
Most of the findings from the Audit have been addressed and we are now writing up a summary and some comments, so that we can release it to the public.
In parallel, our Devops team are conducting a thorough assessment of our IT landscape through the lens of various regulatory frameworks. This includes monitoring, the flow of data, access rules and drawing dozens of beautiful little process diagrams. In the end we should be able to feel very confident about our setup.
The first release candidates for the Perseverance 0.8 release are being tested and we're putting some finishing touches on the functionality.
Vibe check:
The vibes are good, helped by the arrival of spring in Berlin. However, we can feel the pressure rise as we're getting closer to the main release. It certainly hasn't helped that Github was repeatedly broken over the last couple of days! Typical conversations in the office sounded like this: "Did my last merge break the pipeline?" -- "No, it's Github again..."
