Blackmill is an engineering practice consultancy focused on deliberate development. We believe thoughtful engineering practices lead to quality, stability, and efficiency.
The best way to make software is to constantly seek for new efficiencies, new improvements. There is always room for growth. Blackmill helps you review your engineering practice to identify its key strengths and core weaknesses. We help you learn and grow.
An engineering practice has three major components:
- People
- Philosophy
- Processes
These are the meta structures of how a techology organisation does its work.
People enact Philosophy via Processes.
People
Blackmill assists with hiring processes, particularly hiring for diversity. We coach tech leads and engineering managers in effective management practices. We offer an apprenticeship program that provides dedicated company-specific on-the-job training to ramp up less experienced software engineers faster.
Philosophy
A well-defined philosophy with established core values are the heart of your company and the root of your success. The same can be said for your technology organisation. But do your people know what your philosophy is, in engineering terms? Do they know how it applies to their work? Are your processes aligned with that philosophy? Are your people?
If alignment does not exist, then your philosophy is not what you think it is. Blackmill can help you discover that and adjust appropriately so that your engineering teams will thrive.
Processes
Blackmill works with you to assess your existing codebase(s), your methodologies, and your communication patterns. We examine and iterate on your software engineering processes. We identify and suggest improvements that create greater efficiency and leverage.
Blackmill partners with you to develop and maintain a lasting culture of learning that can:
- recruit great candidates;
- do a better job interviewing those candidates, with better results, in less time;
- keep top performing employees interested and productive;
- raise the bar for current employees; and
- fill the long-standing knowledge gaps that hold employees back.
The result will be engineers who understand more of the full stack, are able to make more informed decisions, and exhibit more autonomy. Code designs will become cleaner, better architected, and your testing regimen will improve. Your engineers will less often feel inclined to take shortcuts in face of difficulties. Consistency between “generations” of engineers will increase as everyone gets on the same level over time. We deliver a decreased Time To Value for new employees and increased skills for veteran staff.
Work with us to lower your costs, speed up your development life cycle, increase application stability and deployment confidence, reduce software bugs, and make your team happier.
Learn more about what we do.