Checkout this youtube (just below 11minutes): Ten Quick Tips to Improve Your Chef Workflow – ChefConf 2015
1. Chef on a Windows workstation.
2. Shared ServerSpec Helper files.
3. https://docs.chef.io/dsl_recipe.html#shell-out
4. use screen recording software.
5. use pre-baked VMs or Containers
6. troubleshoot with Pry.
7. use run_state to store data, available later in the chef run.
8. coerce everthing instead of checking for .nil?
9. use a good text editor.
X. write stuff done, then add them to SCM.