What is engineering culture?

Engineering culture often refers to common beliefs and behaviors of engineers within a company. A strong engineering culture allows engineers to work more effectively together.

Different engineers often have different understanding or beliefs on the same topic, such as whether a PRD is needed for a design doc, or whether an engineer should write tests for their work. Without a strong engineering culture, engineers often waste timing debating on nuances, which can significantly hurt business productivity and create poor customer experience.

Large technology companies often have strong and unique engineering culture. For example: Apple favors design and quality; Amazon favors customer experience; Facebook favors success metrics; Google favors engineering excellence; Microsoft favors business success. Each engineering culture has its pros and cons. In general, having an engineering culture is better than not having one. A good leadership should intentionally foster a strong engineering culture in their company.