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Governance by Coding
Leadership / Advice
Embed governance into the systems themselves, not into documents or meetings.
The Idea
Instead of writing policies and hoping people follow them, encode the rules into the tools and systems people use.
Examples
- CI/CD pipelines that enforce code quality, tests, and security scans.
- Infrastructure as code with guardrails built in.
- Templates that guide people toward the right patterns.
- Linters and formatters that enforce coding standards automatically.
- Access controls that implement the principle of least privilege.
Why It's Better
- Policies on a wiki page get ignored. Policies in the pipeline get followed.
- No human judgement required - the system enforces it.
- Consistent across all teams.
- People don't resent automated checks the way they resent manual gatekeepers.
The Balance
Not everything can or should be automated. Use governance by coding for the non-negotiables. Use human judgement for the nuanced stuff.
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