Hi, I'm Rowland. I build reliable software systems, write about engineering practice, and care deeply about the human systems that shape strong teams.https://rowlandekemezie.com/en-ushttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/building-integration-systems-that-survive-reality/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/building-integration-systems-that-survive-reality/Once integrations become business-critical, the work is no longer just calling APIs. Reliable integration systems need boundaries, state, failure handling, idempotency, observability, operations, and auditability.Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareintegrationsdistributed systemssoftware architecturebackend systemsBuilding Integration Systemshttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/integration-systems-trusting-data/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/integration-systems-trusting-data/Bidirectional sync turns integration into an authority problem. Reliable systems need field ownership, conflict detection, event history, reconciliation, and explainable state.Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareintegrationsdistributed systemssoftware architecturebackend systemsBuilding Integration Systemshttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/external-systems-lie/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/external-systems-lie/External systems do not fail only during outages. They drift, evolve, and quietly violate the assumptions your product has turned into invariants.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareintegrationsdistributed systemssoftware architecturebackend systemsBuilding Integration Systemshttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/my-ai-thesis/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/my-ai-thesis/The lowest-regret response to technological change is learning enough to understand where it helps, where it fails, and how it changes your craft.Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTArtificial IntelligenceailearningtechnologycareerAI and Professional Practicehttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/integrations-start-where-api-documentation-ends/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/integrations-start-where-api-documentation-ends/API documentation gets you to the first request. Real integration engineering starts when your system has to own the boundary between external behavior and internal meaning.Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareintegrationsdistributed systemssoftware architecturebackend systemsBuilding Integration Systemshttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/leading-without-losing-yourself/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/leading-without-losing-yourself/The hardest part of technical leadership is learning without losing yourself.Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTLeadershipengineering managementleadershipsoftware engineeringhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/ai-in-the-hands-of-professionals/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/ai-in-the-hands-of-professionals/Why expertise compounds when AI makes generation cheap.Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTArtificial Intelligenceaiprofessional servicesexpertisejudgmentAI and Professional Practicehttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/tech-debt-is-usually-a-consequence-of-success/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/tech-debt-is-usually-a-consequence-of-success/Technical debt is not always engineering failure. Sometimes it is the cost of learning, growth, and product success before the architecture catches up.Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTTechnical DebtEngineering LeadershipTechnical DebtSoftware Architecturehttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/you-will-be-fired/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/you-will-be-fired/Why engineering leaders need a philosophy before the system chooses them as the problem.Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareengineering managementleadershipsoftware engineeringmanagementhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/engineering-management-is-being-rewritten-by-ai/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/engineering-management-is-being-rewritten-by-ai/As generation gets cheaper, engineering management shifts toward judgment, validation, and learning.Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSoftwareengineering managementaisoftware engineeringleadershipAI and Professional Practicehttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/top-30-things-i-learnt-at-gitstart/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/top-30-things-i-learnt-at-gitstart/I have worked with GitStart for three years and two months and have seen low and aha moments in the short spell. I've interviewed candidates from different continents; worked with Engineers, CTO, and CEOs from various companies and product offerings. I've bootstrapped distributed Engineering teams and managed developer growth. I've experienced what it means to run lean operations and navigating through the path of customer success. I've seen client frustration.Mon, 31 May 2021 20:40:32 GMTStartupsoftware engineeringculturestart upleadershiphiringhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/dark-theme-support-for-my-website/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/dark-theme-support-for-my-website/Dark theme support is great judging by the fact that most people already use it. It seems reasonable to have my website support such use case.Fri, 31 May 2019 22:40:32 GMTSoftwaredark themecodereact-hooksSassCSShttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/code-review-is-great-but/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/code-review-is-great-but/Quality software development requires an efficient process for code reviews. Tech teams spend about ~15% of their time doing code review and handling the resultant effect. Whereas this is a great habit for tech team, not everything falls under the category of code reviews.Tue, 23 Apr 2019 22:40:32 GMTSoftwaresoftware engineeringcode reviewcode qualityhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/improving-your-visual-review-with-percy/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/improving-your-visual-review-with-percy/UI review is an integral part of software development cycle especially, mobile and web development. Finding a scalable way of integrating automated visual testing with immediate feedback cycle to improve the whole process and ship with confidence.Wed, 17 Apr 2019 22:40:32 GMTSoftwarevisual testingtestingregression testingQAhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/how-classroom-education-almost-ruined-my-learning/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/how-classroom-education-almost-ruined-my-learning/Learning unarguably is one of the greatest assets in human capital development. Learning itself can be a rewarding experience. One of the questions I have faced often is how to learn. I don’t have all the answers. But I made some costly mistakes that are avoidable.Thu, 02 Feb 2017 22:40:32 GMTEducationlearninglifeeducationschoolhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/handling-ajax-in-your-react-application-with-agility/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/handling-ajax-in-your-react-application-with-agility/ReactJS ecosystem has become huge since Facebook made the API public. More so, great libraries have been built in the declarative style adopted by React. However, real life applications require making AJAX requests to servers. And this can pose a great challenge while using React. You need to know what library to use for your AJAX processes.Wed, 02 Nov 2016 22:40:32 GMTSoftwarereactreduxredux-sagaredux-thunkajaxhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/the-effective-learner-an-introductory-approach/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/the-effective-learner-an-introductory-approach/It’s said that when one stops learning he starts dying. We all learn but what we learn and how we learn is key to success. The focus should be on behavioral patterns for learning.Wed, 27 Jul 2016 22:40:32 GMTEducationlearninglifeeducationschoolhttps://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/ive-got-no-problem-with-education/https://rowlandekemezie.com/posts/ive-got-no-problem-with-education/I was inspired by the last post on The Effective Learner. The responses I got were mind blowing and my response was, I’m not in it alone but more importantly, we can make a difference.Fri, 22 Jul 2016 22:40:32 GMTEducationlearninglifeeducationschool