Team Development Guidelines — Engineering Standards for Growing Teams

Document Info

Sprint: 01 - Infrastructure Foundation
Created: June 25, 2025
Version: 1.0
Status: Approved
Owner: Development Team

Summary: Comprehensive development guidelines for Lakehouse team including Git workflow, coding standards, testing practices, and collaboration protocols to ensure consistent, high-quality deliverables.

Development Workflow

Git Workflow (GitLab Flow)

Main branch: Production-ready code only
Staging branch: Pre-production testing
Develop branch: Integration branch for features
Feature branches: Work stream specific development

Branch Naming Convention

feature/ws1-infrastructure-devops
feature/ws2-data-engineering-platform
feature/ws3-customer-domain-data
feature/ws4-data-catalog-governance
feature/ws5-analytics-api-layer
feature/domain-01-customer-analytics
feature/domain-02-lending-risk

Commit Message Standards

Follow conventional commits format:

<type>(<scope>): <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer]

Types: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, test, chore
Scopes: ws1, ws2, ws3, ws4, ws5, domain-01, domain-02, etc.

Examples:

feat(ws1): add docker-compose for complete lakehouse stack
fix(ws3): resolve customer data generation encoding issue
docs(ws4): add data catalog setup instructions

Development Environment

Required Tools

Git: Version control
Docker Desktop: Container orchestration
VS Code: Primary IDE with workspace configuration
Python 3.9+: Data engineering scripts
Node.js 16+: Frontend development (if needed)

VS Code Extensions (Auto-installed)

Python, Docker, YAML, SQL
GitHub Actions, Black formatter
Docker Explorer, Pylint

Environment Setup

# 1. Clone repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd <project-root>
 
# 2. Open VS Code workspace
code .vscode/workspace.code-workspace
 
# 3. Create Python virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # Linux/Mac
# or
venv\Scripts\activate     # Windows
 
# 4. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
 
# 5. Start Docker stack
docker-compose up -d

Code Standards

Python Code Style

Formatter: Black (auto-format on save)
Linter: Flake8, Pylint
Line length: 88 characters
Import organization: isort

Docker Standards

Use official images when possible
Pin specific versions for production
Include health checks for all services
Use multi-stage builds for optimization

Documentation Standards

Markdown: All documentation in markdown
Comments: Explain why, not what
Docstrings: Python functions with type hints
README: Each domain/component has README

SQL Standards

Style: Uppercase keywords, lowercase table names
Naming: snake_case for tables/columns
Formatting: One column per line in SELECT

Testing Guidelines

Test Structure

tests/
├── unit/           # Unit tests for individual functions
├── integration/    # Integration tests for services
├── performance/    # Performance benchmarks
└── e2e/           # End-to-end workflow tests

Testing Requirements

Unit tests: >80% code coverage
Integration tests: All service connections
Performance tests: Meet SLA targets
E2E tests: Complete user workflows

Test Commands

# Run all tests
pytest tests/
 
# Run specific test category
pytest tests/unit/
pytest tests/integration/
pytest tests/performance/
 
# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=src tests/

Security Guidelines

Secrets Management

Never commit secrets to Git
Use .env files with .env.example templates
Rotate passwords regularly
Use strong, unique passwords

Docker Security

Run containers as non-root users
Use official base images
Scan images for vulnerabilities
Limit container resources

Access Control

Principle of least privilege
Use service accounts for automation
Enable 2FA for all accounts
Regular access reviews

Monitoring & Logging

Logging Standards

Format: JSON structured logging
Levels: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL
Context: Include request IDs, user IDs
Sensitive data: Never log passwords/tokens

Monitoring Requirements

Health checks: All services must have /health endpoint
Metrics: Prometheus format preferred
Alerts: Define SLA-based alerting
Dashboards: Grafana visualization

Deployment Process

Environment Promotion

Developer Local → Dev Environment → Staging → Production

Deployment Checklist

CI/CD Pipeline

Trigger: Pull request to develop/staging/main
Steps: Test → Build → Security scan → Deploy
Notifications: Slack/Teams integration
Rollback: Automated rollback on failure

Code Review Process

Review Requirements

Mandatory: All code changes require review
Reviewers: Minimum 1 for feature branches, 2 for main
Scope: Code quality, security, performance, documentation

Review Checklist

Review Timeline

Response time: <24 hours for review request
Resolution time: <48 hours for approval
Escalation: Contact work stream lead if delayed

Communication & Support

Daily Standups

Time: 9:00 AM daily
Duration: 15 minutes
Format: What did you do? What will you do? Any blockers?

Communication Channels

Slack/Teams: Daily coordination
Email: Formal communications
Video calls: Complex technical discussions
Documentation: Async knowledge sharing

Support Process

Level 1: Team member support
Level 2: Work stream lead
Level 3: Technical architect
Level 4: Program manager

Troubleshooting Guide

Common Issues

Docker services won't start:

# Check Docker Desktop is running
docker --version
 
# Check available resources
docker system df
 
# Clean up if needed
docker system prune

Git push rejected:

# Check commit message format
git log --oneline -1
 
# Amend if needed
git commit --amend -m "feat(ws1): correct commit message"

VS Code workspace issues:

Close VS Code
Delete .vscode/settings.json
Reopen workspace file
Reinstall recommended extensions

Getting Help

Check this guide first
Search project documentation
Ask team member
Contact work stream lead
Escalate to technical architect

Document Version: 1.0
Created: June 25, 2025
Owner: Lakehouse Program Team
Next Review: Weekly team meeting