/Leadership

Microsoft's New Future Of Work Report

- Abi Noda tl;dr: The report focusses on LLMs e.g. GitHub Copilot and its impact on software development, suggesting it has the potential to improve productivity and reduce cognitive load. However, its benefits are distributed unevenly across users and it introduces new challenges. Key takeaways: (1) Benefits of LLMs in software engineering depend on the specific task e.g. easier to start a project with an LLM but difficult to change generated code. (2) Issues arise with writing prompts and overreliance e.g. burdensome to inspect code, accepting incorrect code. (3) LLMs help the least experienced the most. (4) Adoption is influenced by how well AI tools fit within workflows. (5) Analyzing and integrating information become more important than generating code. 

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Useful Tradeoffs Are Multi-Dimensional

- Will Larson tl;dr: Tradeoff decisions often result in disappointment e.g. you can’t deploy software quickly and test it thoroughly, you have to sacrifice usability due to safety features. Will believes the key is to introduce a new dimension to the decision making process. His approach: (1) Believe and socialize that there is a new dimension to discover. (2) Get specific on stakeholder requirements. (3) Seeing dimensions is the same as seeing layers of context. Expand your contextual awareness or pull in a team with knowledge. (4) Test new dimensions for usefulness quickly. Don’t go too deep. (5) Ask those who’ve solved similar tradeoffs. (6) Only add a dimension if it provides significantly better outcomes. 

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Trifectas Go All The Way Up

- James Stanier tl;dr: Trifectas are a group of three people from different disciplines i.e. engineering, product and UX, who work together to achieve a goal. They are often smaller teams lower down the org. James advocates and explains how and why trifectas should exist throughout the org - in senior leadership and middle management too. They ensure that the leadership team is aligned with the long-term strategy of the organization, allows for clear accountability, creates positive tension between disciplines and enables issues to be resolved quickly.

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How To Fix Broken Teams

tl;dr: “If you get to a place where you see a team like this, take a deep breath - things are going to be tough for a while.” The author shares the following steps: “The new manager needs to: (1) Fix process and run them well. (2) Manage out cynical culture carriers. (3) Get in the weeds and learn the system. (4) Hire at least some new teammates. (5) Make sure the mission is good. 

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The Research On What Makes A Great Manager Of Software Engineers

tl;dr: Engineers and managers rank the top attributes of engineering managers, and their relative importance. Researchers at Microsoft evaluated how engineers and managers relate and differ in their views, and how software engineering is different from other jobs in the perceptions about what makes great managers. The best managers (according to engineers) are those that create a positive environment, enable autonomy, and present growth opportunities. These factors are often more important than just being technical.

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Measuring Developer Productivity: Real-World Examples

- Gergely Orosz Abi Noda tl;dr: In this issue, Abi outlines the developer productivity metrics used at 17 tech companies, such as Amplitude, Etsy, DoorDash. He then dives deep into several companoes of varying size, notably Google & LinkedIn, Peloton, scaleups and smaller companies. Abi’s advice on how to choose your metrics: start with the problem you want to solve. Is it shipping frictionless, retaining developers by keeping them happy and satisfied, raising the quality of software shipped, or something else? Then work backwards from there. 

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Unit Of Work

- Andrew Bosworth tl;dr: The environment you are working in has a rate of change (entropy) e.g. competitors, regulators, consumer behavior. The relationship between this rate and the unit of work you undertaking is critical to understand: (1) If the unit of work is bigger than the rate of change, then you will fall behind. (2) If your unit of work is smaller than the rate of change you are likely driving change for others. Sometimes you have an irreducibly large bit of work that doesn’t fit inside the entropy window e.g. a re-architecture. The likely outcome is that midway through the very expensive program you’ll find yourself having to start it over because the environment you are building for continues to evolve.

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Learning From A Strategy Project

- Anna Shipman tl;dr: “I was leading one of a number of engineering groups within a larger organization; each group had its own priorities, but most of them required delivery through my team; and we had our own priorities. So we ended up slowing each other down.” Anna looked to her managers to solve this before deciding to create the strategy herself. Here’s are some of the things she learned: (1) Even if you think you know the desired end state, take a smaller chunk and make some tangible steps. (2) Overcommunicate the goal and your progress towards it. (3) Focus more on bringing people with you than on getting a perfect answer.

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Incentives And The Cobra Effect

- Andrew Bosworth tl;dr: “Incentives are superpowers; set them carefully.” The Cobra Effect is when the solution for a problem unintentionally makes the problem worse. Andrew believe this issue is more widespread than anticipated. He provides several examples, including: everyone sharing feedback directly instead of through managers. This leads to people withholding valuable feedback to maintain relationships or damaging relationships if they can’t share negative feedback elegantly.

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Applying The SPACE Framework

- Laura Tacho tl;dr: The SPACE Framework of Developer Productivity is a holistic approach to thinking about and measuring software developer productivity. The SPACE framework is not a list of metrics or benchmarks. Instead, it outlines five different dimensions of productivity that can inform your own definition of productivity, and by extension, your measurements: (1) Satisfaction and Well-being. (2) Performance. (3) Activity. (4) Communication and Collaboration. (5) Efficiency and Flow.

featured in #480