General

Introducing This Dot's PAMstack Services - Process Improvement Consulting for Technology Organizations

Published Apr 13, 2020

Updated Oct 9, 2023

3 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

During these challenging and uncertain times, many companies are taking additional measures to review their operational processes, and determine how they can act most efficiently, while maintaining concern and focus for their employees.

Development team leadership is looking for a way to ensure that their employees remain engaged and productive, while developers demand more clarity and understanding to help them perform despite the anxieties currently impacting every global industry.

Now is the time for leadership to develop clear plans of action not only for the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic, but looking forward as well- to when developers come back to their workplaces, and a sense of relative normalcy returns.

To help support teams, eager to audit their operations, and implement more clear and stable processes for leading their teams, This Dot Labs is now proud to offer a new resource through the PAMstack.

WHAT IS THE PAMSTACK?

In short, the PAMstack (Process, Abstraction, & Mentorship) is a modern framework for creating sustainable development teams.

It is not a list of rigid and inflexible rules, nor does it rely on mountains of documentation. Instead, the PAMstack empowers developer teams to streamline their processes, promote workplace inclusion, and better outfit their projects to promote collaboration.

Teams do this by auditing their processes to incrementally simplify complicated workflows that rely on personal excellence above teamwork, migrate their technologies to leverage highly documented modern web tools, and create intentional mentorship programs to invest in team longevity.

By implementing this customizable program, teams will expect to reduce project and hiring budgets, increase productivity, mitigate workplace stressors, and better diversify their workplaces both demographically, and technologically.

WHAT DOES THIS DOT LABS INCLUDE IN ITS PAMSTACK SERVICES?

Leaders who are interested in exploring how the PAMstack will transform their developer teams are encouraged to contact hi@thisdotlabs.co to schedule their free 1-hour process audit with one of our expert PAMstack architects.

In this session, we will explore how your team can take advantage of the PAMstack, including sample process plans, checklists, and documentation; 1:1 mentorship, team workshops, leadership development, staff augmentation, architectural reviews, and the support of This Dot’s large network of industry leaders.

If you are not a team leader, but are interested in learning more about how to implement PAMstack principles in your own processes, we have made many of our resources, and documentation available free on our For Developers page.

There, you can access free workflow checklists, review example process documentation, explore leading technologies, and check out tips for introducing mentorship programs to your workplace.

To learn more about the PAMstack from one of its lead architects, Rob Ocel, you can listen to this talk, or check out our new website: thepamstack.com!

And if you’re ready to begin your journey with the PAMstack, schedule a complimentary process audit today by contacting us at hi@thisdot.co!

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

This Dot

Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer

Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer In today's ever-growing software landscape of tools and experience to gain, we can find ourselves lost wanting to do more, yet feeling like we don't have enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we want. This problem is all too common in every level of industry, and as software engineers we can find ourselves racing to finish multiple things yet never actually reaching the finish line with anything. If by chance we do, we're often burnt out and ready for vacation (sometimes after a few days). Sadly, we all can't be Elon Musk, but we can begin to fix our habits and patterns to feel more like a genius. Why Is Time Management Important? As professionals in any fields, it's important that we execute on our work in a consistent way that helps us not only feel *productive*, but also feel like we're helping achieve business goals as well as personal growth goals. Taking an example straight from my own life, I found myself mentally exhausted trying to keep up with everything in my life - my job, personal projects, and my life goals. It seemed like I had so much going on, but my fatal flaw was the fact that keeping myself busy with so much didn't make me feel accomplished. Something had to change. Benefits of Proper Time Management Simply put, there are no downsides to better time management. The act of time management is a great key to our success in whatever we do. While it's as simple as just doing it, focus and consistency are needed to really be successful. Because we live in a world where the speed of business and technology is increasing, being decisive about priorities is even more important. Where we fail is when we try to make snap decisions especially for important tasks that require our full attention. Not only does it take focus and consistency to succeed, but when a person knows what they're doing for the week, day, or hour, they can better focus on tasks and feel better about whatever they're doing. There's a sense of clarity that comes as a result of having a single focus on one thing and executing on it, even if it's not to completion. Helpful Tips for Better Time Management Important Being a master of your time can be a difficult task at first, but with some grit and determination, paving the road to success can become easier. Say you need to meet a deadline for a project with a release in a few days. How can we make our lives easier in a short period of time? 1. Redefine Goals and Expectations The first step is to write down all you tasks including goals, milestones, or whatever you use to describe large bodies of work. This will paint a clear picture of what is and what is *not* a priority. Wins from doing this include: - framing your to-dos to better execute them - freeing your mind from trying to remember why you're doing something - strategizing how to best execute tasks *Pro tip: adding goals and activities you're already currently working on to this list helps make sure nothing is missed.* This doesn't have to be a complicated step with each goal or task being general. In the next section, we'll see how to be effective with this list. 2. Prioritize Goals and Actionable Tasks Now we have a list of things to accomplish and activities already invested in, but we haven't figured out what to perform first. The best way we can prioritize these items is to place value on them. Value can be added to tasks by determing how much of an impact one task can make over the other. We can even timebox them to further increase that value. Ask youself these questions to categorize tasks: 1. Is it urgent and important? 2. Is it important, but not as urgent? 3. Is it urgent, but not important? 4. Is it neither urgent nor important? Remember urgency often has a time limit, and importance can be specific to you or to a group of persons. A couple of examples look like this: 1. Release candidate to deploy to production by 3/1/2021. Urgent because there's a due date, and important because it affects the team and/or business. 2. Technical task to unblock a portion of work. Doesn't have a time limit, but could help unblock yourself or another developer. 3. Make a Plan and Stick to It Lastly, and this may be the hardest part about time management: consistency is another one of those building blocks to success and it's absolutely critical that all of the effort so far does not crash down on us. This one really comes down to knowing how best you work. Whether it's waking up at 4:30 am to get your mind ready for the day or working out to keep your body active, figure out your motivation for the work being done and put it into your schedule. What you gain from doing this is: - a clear visualization of what's being worked on for the day or week - what's up next on your agenda - *when you'll have your breaks to recharge and finish strong* A note on breaks: developers write code, check processes, do code reviews, plan solutions to unique problems, suggest and articulate solutions, and the list goes on. Without scheduled breaks, we'd be on the fast track to burn out before the day's out. Make a plan solid by strategizing about the plan and how you'll *stick to it*. It makes a world of difference to set your work space away from your bedroom, or to work at the office or a coffee shop. Prepare healthy meals ahead of time so you're not skipping meals or eating junk. Workout during the week because your body is a temple, and the mind needs the body like the body needs a fully functioning mind. Tools to Help Structure Your Time As stated before, write things down and block out your time, so you know what you can and can't commit to. Here are a few tools that I use to get me through the day feeling well-accomplished: iCal - makes it easy to import multiple calendars, from one or more email addresses, into a single calendar view. Google Calendar - you won't get the same importing features as iCal, but their interface makes it easy to add shared calendars. If you can find a 3rd-party mail client that offers the same flexibility as iCal, I'd recommend that for the single calendar view. Notion - Notion has changed the way I operate entirely. You can use the free version personally and for work. It just requires that you use one email address per workspace. With Notion, you can: - Take general notes - Keep a work log - Generate to a table of tasks - Set reminders for tasks - Sort tasks into views - Use user-built templates. Some you can buy while others provide instructions on how to make them your own. If Notion isn't the right fit for you, Evernote is another really great tool for assembling thoughts into books, articles, and notes. It also features templates more than Notion does. Conclusion In the earlier example of a deadline for a release candidate, it may feel like there's no time left before that deadline rolls around. That sinking feeling like you're running out of time is the reason you should manage your expectations, priorities, and time. Only good things can come from taking back your time and focusing it. At the end of the day, you can look back and feel a sense of freedom. Be good to future you!...

Mar 8, 2021

6 mins

TipsGeneralMentorshipSoftware Engineer

My Career Roadmap

Every developer has their own unique roadmap. I love hearing these stories as they’re constant reminders that there is no right way. Anyone can become a successful developer as long as they have the passion for it. I’ll be sharing my roadmap in hopes that someone also realizes that there are multiple ways to be part of the programming world. My journey started when I attended a junior college in an effort to complete the prerequisites for a Biochemistry degree. I actually got far enough to start taking Organic Chemistry courses. However, my heart wasn’t in it. I found it boring and dreaded anything related to those science classes. I did find it cool that I could recognize some of the fancy ingredients in a shampoo. It just wasn’t what I connected with. I knew that something had to change. I was on track to transfer to a four year university in less than two years. I was always interested in computers and thought about programming. I still don’t know why I was drawn to that: maybe social media made it look cool? The dilemma was to either continue or take a risk by starting a whole new career. I didn’t want to spend more time at junior college, so I needed to make a hard decision: either continue with Biochemistry or drop it completely to pursue programming, but still transfer within the estimated year. I probably would have chosen to experiment with both at the same time if I had realized this a couple of years prior. However, I ended up changing majors within a week. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My first programming class felt a bit scary. The building was run down and cold. The room was cramped. There were only two females (including myself). The course wasn’t hard or discriminating against genders but it probably felt that way due to being completely new to the field and not knowing anyone. It didn’t discourage me from programming. In fact, I still remember typing up my first Hello World program. It was the feeling of writing code that made me realize that I was on the right track. Luckily, the junior college had opened up the new STEM building a year later. This really made the place more welcoming. It was actually pretty cool. There were outlets everywhere! A dream for programmers that we take for granted. One of the courses that I took was Internet Programming. This was a turning point for me. My professor recommended that I participate in the local hackathon that was coming up soon. He suggested forming a team with the two other females in class. I never once thought he was discriminating. I honestly believe that he saw potential in all of us but we were lacking confidence in a male-dominated world. We participated in the hackathon as a female group. It was my first time working with a team and presenting our project to the public. We didn’t win any awards, but it provided some of the confidence that I was lacking. I finally understood that it didn’t matter what gender you are. I found a love of programming and wanted to be one of the best. I ended up getting recruited for a local internship through the hackathon. I was able to learn about realistic expectations when building a project for a client. The lead developer was also very open to teaching a complete newbie. This is where I learned the basics for web development. It was this type of support that helped shape my career. I graduated from junior college with an associates degree in Chemistry and transferred the next semester. The one regret that I do have in my career is the university that I chose. It didn’t have the best resources for the Computer Science students. The classes were boring and most of the professors didn't seem to care. If you weren’t on the game research cohort, you were just another student passing through. During this time, I got a chance to be part of a research team. However, I decided to accept an internship instead. It was another difficult decision as both had great opportunities. I still think that the internship was the best route as it helped me later on. The internship only lasted for the summer. I learned Polymer during this time. The project was my first deployment and it was used by the city. It was also another great confidence booster. I returned to school with the goal to find my first job before graduation. Truthfully, it was very discouraging, even with my internship experiences. Most companies wanted developers with years in programming. They really don’t make it easy for junior developers. I’m almost positive that I placed over 100 applications. When I did get a response, it was a decline. I also attended the career fair that the university organized. That’s where I found the company that gave me a job offer. I started working for them after graduation. This led to web development in the Drupal world for a little over 2 years. It was a small company but provided development growth. I learned the importance of quality assurance and time management. I also acquired the skill to advocate for higher priority tickets. The most important lesson was that a project can only thrive with a unified team and proper documentation. However, the company had a tremendous downsize due to the pandemic. I was once again on the job hunt. Fortunately, the connections I made during the summer internship helped me find a job at This Dot. There was still an interview process, which I passed due to all the career choices that were made. I’m very excited to be here. I’m working with LitElement projects and more structured work environments. It really is a big difference from a very small company. I’m now pursuing the path of being a mentor, a dream that I had since my first internship. I’m working on improving a mentorship program and making sure my mentee has all the support she needs. I barely have a bit over 3 years of work experience. The time went by very quickly and I’m still excited to be programming. I can’t wait to see where my roadmap will be in the next upcoming years. Tweet me your favorite moment in your roadmap!...

Feb 2, 2021

4 mins

CareerMentorship

A Breakdown of RxJS 7.0 Performance Improvements

It’s official. RxJS 7.0 has been deemed stable and is now available in its beta form. The core team, committed to maintaining a dependable and adaptable reactive programming tool, has built this new release to improve many aspects of developer experience without triggering changing breaks to existing code. Through a partnership with Google, the RxJS core team was able to test its latest release by integrating the library into the Google 3 monorepository. In doing so, they ran RxJs against thousands of build targets, and across countless applications, to identify where code breaks were happening, and what could be done to ensure stronger stability. Updated Typing RxJS 7.0 is written in Typescript 3.8, which allows users to leverage all of Typescript’s latest features. For example, RxJS’ typing inference capacity, especially with respect to how the library handles generics, has significantly improved. Previous versions struggled to type larger rests of arguments, with prior upper bound limits not usually exceeding 8 or 9 values. These limitations, however, have been removed, allowing developers to pass an infinite number of values with one call. The team was also able to fix many antiquated types that did not reflect the runtime behavior of actual APIs. As a result, several Observables, including *'toPromise()'*, have been deprecated in order to mitigate the challenges of legacy behavior without significantly impacting existing code. New Features animationFrames(): an Observable that returns the milliseconds elapsed since the start of the Observable, which is especially useful for coding animation, and replaces previous methods of incrementing numbers. lastValueFrom() and firstValueFrom(): Observables that return the last and first values in a promise, respectfully. They improve upon *‘toPromise()’* by returning an ‘EmptyError’ when passing promises without values, and giving users more flexibility when selecting the values they want returned. AsyncIterable support: Any areas of code that previously accepted a Promise, or an Observable, now also accept AsyncIterables. rxjs-for-await: a separate library which supports async-await for-await loops via AsyncIterables. *'retry({resetOnSuccess: true})'*: In 6.0, if you had a source that errored with, for example, a retry count valued at 5, it would only error a total of 5 times, no matter how many successful messages it had passed. With *'retry({resetOnSuccess: true})'*, the retry count value will reset every time a successful message is passed. TimeStamp: an interface with a *‘now()’* method that returns a number. Name Changes: In order to create fewer collisions between four legacy operators, and creation methods with the same name... *'zip(other$)'* is now *'zipWith(other$)'*. *'combineLatest(a$, b$)'* is now *'combineLatestWith(a$, b$)'*. *'merge(partner$)'* is now 'mergeWith(partner$)'. *'concat(ender$)'* is now *'concatWith(ender$)'*. Deprecations In 7.0, no critical elements have been removed from the library, but several features have been deprecated. These include: ResultSelectors, which have been deprecated since 5.0. The process of passing scheduler arguments through functions such as ‘of()’ or ‘range()’ has been deprecated, and should be replaced by using ‘scheduled()’ or ‘observeOn()’. This has been done in order to remove scheduling logic from operators that don’t need it. Some subscription signatures will be deprecated. With this newest release, subscriptions should only be called with a single function, or a partial or complete Observable. The same will also go for tap signatures. This will simplify the development process and help eventually make the library more lean with future releases. Functions that pull in schedulers are now deprecated as of this release in order to prepare users for the eventual phase-out of passing schedulers to certain functions. Looking Forward to 7.1 and Beyond In order to support future changes to the library, the RxJS team will begin introducing ESLint transformations. These updates will help developers remove deprecated code, such as APIs, from their applications, and prepare users for future, major releases as the library becomes faster and leaner. However, Ben Lesh, RxJS core team lead, ensures that no breaking changes will be scheduled until version 9.0 at the earliest. How You Can Contribute The RxJS core team welcomes enthusiastic RxJS experts to help contribute to refining version 7’s future updates. Those experienced with ESLint transformations, or who want to update documentation are welcome to contribute to this open-source library. And of course, the RxJS team relies on the amazing work of authors, bloggers, content creators, and those working in developer relations, to share insights into the library with the development community. If you’re just getting started with RxJS, check out this fantastic “1 Hour to Learn RxJS” tutorial by Ben Lesh from This Dot Labs' Javascript Marathon, where you can learn about Observables and operators, including how to build an Observable from scratch!...

Jul 31, 2020

4 mins

RxJS

“We were seen as amplifiers, not collaborators,” Ashley Willis, Sr. Director of Developer Relations at GitHub, on How DevRel has Changed, Open Source, and Holding Space as a Leader

Ashley Willis has seen Developer Relations evolve from being on the sidelines of the tech team to having a seat at the strategy table. In her ten years in the space, she’s done more than give great conference talks or build community—she’s helped shape what the DevRel role looks like for software providers. Now as the Senior Director of Developer Relations at GitHub, Ashley is focused on building spaces where developers feel heard, seen, and supported. > “A decade ago, we were seen as amplifiers, not collaborators,” she says. “Now we’re influencing product roadmaps and shaping developer experience end to end.” DevRel Has Changed For Ashley, the biggest shift hasn’t been the work itself—but how it’s understood. > “The work is still outward-facing, but it’s backed by real strategic weight,” she explains. “We’re showing up in research calls and incident reviews, not just keynotes.” That shift matters, but it’s not the finish line. Ashley is still pushing for change when it comes to burnout, representation, and sustainable metrics that go beyond conference ROI. > “We’re no longer fighting to be taken seriously. That’s a win. But there’s more work to do.” Talking Less as a Leader When we asked what the best advice Ashley ever received, she shared an early lesson she received from a mentor: “Your presence should create safety, not pressure.” > “It reframed how I saw my role,” she says. “Not as the one with answers, but the one who holds the space.” Ashley knows what it’s like to be in rooms where it’s hard to speak up. She leads with that memory in mind, and by listening more than talking, normalizing breaks, and creating environments where others can lead too. > “Leadership is emotional labor. It’s not about being in control. It’s about making it safe for others to lead, too.” Scaling More Than Just Tech Having worked inside high-growth companies, Ashley knows firsthand: scaling tech is one thing. Scaling trust is another. > “Tech will break. Roadmaps will shift. But if there’s trust between product and engineering, between company and community—you can adapt.” And she’s learned not to fall for premature optimization. Scale what you have. Don’t over-design for problems you don’t have yet. Free Open Source Isn’t Free There’s one myth Ashley is eager to debunk: that open source is “free.” > “Open source isn’t free labor. It’s labor that’s freely given,” she says. “And it includes more than just code. There’s documentation, moderation, mentoring, emotional care. None of it is effortless.” Open source runs on human energy. And when we treat contributors like an infinite resource, we risk burning them out, and breaking the ecosystem we all rely on. > “We talk a lot about open source as the foundation of innovation. But we rarely talk about sustaining the people who maintain that foundation.” Burnout is Not Admirable Early in her career, Ashley wore burnout like a badge of honor. She doesn’t anymore. > “Burnout doesn’t prove commitment,” she says. “It just dulls your spark.” Now, she treats rest as productive. And she’s learned that clarity is kindness—especially when giving feedback. > “I thought being liked was the same as being kind. It’s not. Kindness is honesty with empathy.” The Most Underrated GitHub Feature? Ashley’s pick: personal instructions in GitHub Copilot. Most users don’t realize they can shape how Copilot writes, like its tone, assumptions, and context awareness. Her own instructions are specific: empathetic, plainspoken, technical without being condescending. For Ashley, that helps reduce cognitive load and makes the tool feel more human. > “Most people skip over this setting. But it’s one of the best ways to make Copilot more useful—and more humane.” Connect with Ashley Willis She has been building better systems for over a decade. Whether it’s shaping Copilot UX, creating safer teams, or speaking truth about the labor behind open source, she’s doing the quiet work that drives sustainable change. Follow Ashley on BlueSky to learn more about her work, her maker projects, and the small things that keep her grounded in a fast-moving industry. Sticker Illustration by Jacob Ashley....

Apr 18, 2025

3 mins

Engineering LeadershipGitHub

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