The Three Rs

No, I’m not talking about reading, writing, and ‘rithmitic, I’m

talking about the three Rs that are critical in creating and keeping a

software organization strong.

The three Rs in this case are Rigor, Resources, and Raison

d’etre. Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

Resources

I begin with resources because when push comes to shove

this is one of the most important factors in making your team a

success.

Am I saying that you can’t build an incredible team with nothing but

the sheer will to bring your idea to fruition? Hell no. I’m saying

that good will only goes so far. After a while you will need to pay

your people what they’re worth, and be able to hire enough help that

individual contributors don’t feel like they’re being exploited and

suffering from burn out.

This is a mistake I’m seeing more and more companies make over time.

Modern development techniques are increasing our overall

productivity dramatically, but they are not a substitute for having

enough man power to do the job you need done in the time frame the

business demands.

You can’t substitute creature comforts for this either. No amount of

free snacks, soda, coffee or snuggles will make an engineer who’s

working night and day with no time to take care of themselves

happy. These things are nice add-one and can make employees feel

valued, but only when they’re in addition to an environment that gets

the basics right.

There are other aspects to being properly resourced. Be sure you can

afford the equipment you need. If your business demands that you run a

data center, do it right! If you don’t, you will increase the

frustration your employees have to deal with day to day to get their

jobs done, and that will seep into overall job satisfaction very

quickly.

There’s more to say on this - good office work environments including

sit/stand desks, keyboard trays or whatever else your employees need

to be productive without harming themselves. Don’t skimp on this

stuff, it’s super important, and your employees will thank you for it.

Rigor

I wrestled with myself a bit as to whether this should come

first or second, but anyway, Here we go. We all know that having

rigorous processes as individual contributors and organizations is

important. It’s what enables us to deliver quality software in a

timely fashion and bring value to our customers.

However a lot of people, including some very experienced engineers,

seem to think that how we get there is some kind of magical journey to

another dimension, only attainable by the assistance of some wizard or

ascetic.

But the cold, hard, in-sexy truth is that it’s all about

discipline. Doing precisely the same set of things over and over again

until they become second nature, “baked in” whatever you want to call

it.

Let’s take code reviews as an example. I can’t even begin to tell you

the difference I’ve seen between strong organizations and weak ones,

and almost inevitably, how teams handle code review is the canary in

the coal mine.

I’m not suggesting that code reviews in and of themselves are some

kind of magical panacea that will make your organization great, but

chances are good that if you’re doing regular code reviews with every

merge, you’re also doing testing. If you’re doing comprehensive

testing, you’re probably also taking the time to write good

documentation. The list goes on and on.

Everybody knows these are good things, but why are so many

organizations slow to adopt them? Well, as usual with such things,

It’s Complicated. One contributing factor is definitely team size

versus work load, as outlined in the section on Resources.

Individual contributors who are working straight out all the time

aren’t going to take the time to do proper code reviews, and chances

are good that in such organizations, their managers won’t be pushing

for them either. It’s a kind of myopia that cripples teams and

actually hurts the business both short term and long. Some people are

beginning to see that, but it’s something we should all be aware of

and actively promoting within our organizations wherever we are on the

discipline curve.

Raison d’etre

This is about vision. I know, we’ve all had that

word misused, abused, and generally beaten to death so much over the

course of our careers that most of us cringe when we hear it. However

no other word embodies what I’m trying to get at in quite the same

way.

In order to form a cohesive unit - something we all agree is critical

to success, we all have to know where we’re going. What precisely are

we trying to build, and why? Where’s the value for our customers, and

where do we see our product going in the future?

I’ve encountered many organizations where this isn’t clear at all, and

when that happens, a sort of spiritual malaise sets in. It’s like a

disease, spreading up through the ranks and sapping job satisfaction

and pride in workmanship.

Fixing things once your organization has gone this way is hard. I

mean, really hard, because regaining the trust of your team is not

something you can do over night. You’ll need to overcome years of hard

earned scar tissue before people will be able to have the confidence

in you and your product that are necessary for success. There are no

clear cut prescriptions to make here, because each organization’s path

to healing will depend on the nature and scale of the wounds.

Much easier to start on the right foot and stay that way. Doing so is

actually straight forward. The key is having a clear vision yourself,

and communicating that with your team.

I realize our business is a harm scarum one and that changes in

direction are not only inevitable but desirable to meet changing

conditions in the field, but how those changes are handled and the

frequency with which they occur can mean the difference between an

organization that thrives and a cadre of walking wounded, shambling

from one death march to the next until they take too much damage and

decide to ply their trade elsewhere.

Hiring and layoffs are another aspect of employee trust whose import

should not be underestimated. When you hire, hire for the long haul

or be crystal clear about what your expectations are “We’re trying

this risky new thing and you’re here to make that happen. If it

doesn’t work out, we may need to go our separate ways.” I can’t

imagine anyone who wouldn’t appreciate knowing that up front, and if

they have even a tiny amount of character and maturity, if that’s the

way it plays out when the time comes, you can walk away friends. It’s

a booming industry out there and there are no shortage of jobs.

If they must happen, layoffs should be handled quickly and

professionally. You need to be crystal clear with both the people

being laid off and the people left behind as to why this is happening

from the perspective of the business. The people who are left will be

nervous and unsettled, and they’ll be able to recover much more

quickly if everything is handled in an above board way.

Again, don’t lie. If you need to lay people off, and you have a

flexible schedule in your office, by all means do send out mail

saying “mandatory meeting at X time” to be sure everyone will be in

the office, but don’t tell those being laid off that it’s a meeting

about something else entirely. They will resent you for it.

Crystal clear, honest communication and clear vision will result in

enthusiastic employees who are excited at the prospect making their

company a raging success.