Book: SE@Google Ch: Engineering for Equity

[zhoukerrr]

Book: https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book/html/ch04.html Chapter: Engineering for Equity

Summary:

1. Bias Is the Default

   • Fail to focus on users of different background and you will fail the users
   • Everyone has certain biases
   • Unconscious biases are more difficult to mitigate than the conscious ones

2. Understanding the Need for Diversity

   • know the demographics of the target users
   • Focus on those that are different from us, especially potential users
   • Diversity within the team helps

3. Building Multicultural Capacity

   • understand how the product can advantage and disadvantage different groups of users
   • Technical skill + discernment to know what can be build (identify and reject controversial features/product)
   • engineers wield great responsibilities that can influence billions of users
   • Slow down and ensure that minimal biases are introduced
   • Responsibility of both individuals and the employers

4. Reject Singular Approaches

   • No one size fits all solution
   • Understanding the entire problem is the key
   • Targeting the majority first then working on edge cases is flawed. This gives people who are already advantaged a head start
   • By building an inclusive design from the start, we enhance the experience for all users
   • Challenge Established Processes

Application to RepoSense The users for RepoSense are mostly based in nus. However, we had received a request to support foreign languages. While this may not be a priority for the team in the near future, it is definitely something that we can look into to further expand our user group.

I believe that everyone adds great value to the project as everyone comes in with a new perspective. In RepoSense, this constant addition of new members is a diversity is some way.