I once asked an engineer I respect deeply “what’s an acceptable timeout for this integration test?” His answer has stuck with me for a long time: “whatever your

I once asked an engineer I respect deeply “what’s an acceptable timeout for this integration test?” His answer has stuck with me for a long time: “whatever your users will tolerate when they attempt that workflow.” Software can always be made better and can always be made faster. But you do have to know when to stop, and for me it’s always at “what my users will tolerate.”