Engineering managers and particular person contributors often need the identical factor: to supply high quality work in a approach that feels artistic and collaborative, all whereas doing so in a predictable and sustainable approach. I’d even say you’ll battle to search out somebody who doesn’t need such a work settlement.
It’s additionally vital to notice that there’s wholesome stress and unhealthy stress between engineering managers (EMs) and particular person contributors (ICs). Nice groups work properly once they have a wholesome quantity of stress — they ask questions and problem one another respectfully to get to the most effective resolution.
However there are loads of transferring components to make the EM–IC relationship work, and it’s the friction between these components that may create unhealthy stress.
The reason why there is perhaps stress between EMs and ICs
In relation to measurement and analysis, EMs and ICs have totally different perceptions of what provides worth. This may be primarily based on a number of tension-causing components.
(1) Completely different objectives primarily based on roles. The roles themselves convey inherent stress. EMs wish to make it possible for issues are predictable and the crew is working properly. ICs deal with doing artistic work that’s, at instances, exhausting to foretell and ship with high quality. One needs to measure issues that the opposite can’t at all times ship predictably.
(2) The partition of labor. EMs and ICs are tasked with pondering at totally different ranges. EMs assume one rung increased than ICs — about coordinating many individuals and roles comparable to ICs, product managers, and designers, and shielding ICs from the inputs that come from all of these views.
These worries don’t at all times correspond to what ICs take into consideration — comparable to tech debt, their growth course of, their CI/CD stream. It’s not that EMs don’t fear about this stuff; it’s only a totally different hierarchy of worries.
(3) Unhealthy EMs/Unhealthy ICs. Generally there are dangerous EMs who don’t assume their job is to create a crew of ICs who’re unblocked and functioning properly. This could create a really adversarial relationship, the place a supervisor says, “I want this executed now,” and an IC says, “You don’t perceive what it takes to get that executed.”
Conversely, there may be dangerous ICs who’re exhausting to work with and lack empathy for the issues that EMs fear about. This could result in the “managers are simply pushing paper and don’t truly ‘do’ something” narrative.
(4) Measurements that “don’t matter.” EMs measuring issues that ICs really feel don’t matter creates a disconnect. I’ll discuss measurement extra later, however the stress right here comes, partially, due to the character of our business.
Software program engineering is artistic work, which is by nature tough to measure. But, the EM has to ship high quality merchandise on time, which requires some extent of measuring.
(5) Effectively-intentioned processes gone awry. EMs would possibly put in place processes or guardrails to assist their groups ship issues quicker with increased high quality, however they find yourself being too time consuming, inefficient or onerous for the crew. I’ve seen groups with so many onerous process-related duties that they don’t even really feel like they do a lot work. It’s simply checking loads of bins, and the ICs are depressing.
So, what to do? You must align on measuring what issues.
An awesome place to ease the strain is inside the developer workflow or the software program growth life cycle — the method of taking issues from idea to launch. Inside that life cycle:
Measure issues that matter, not the BS stuff. Keep away from what we all know hasn’t labored previously in our business — monitoring strains of code, pull requests, happiness sentiment.
Measure issues with consistency that correlate to crew efficiency. It’s vital to measure from the true work ICs are performing as a substitute of simply gathering statistics. Specializing in the crew’s efficiency focuses the measures on how everybody can enhance versus calling out people and making a poisonous stack-rank setting.
Measure in a innocent tradition in order that if one thing goes flawed, you’re not pointing fingers. A innocent tradition reinforces a deal with the crew’s efficiency, not the person’s. You speak when it comes to the crew’s outcomes and enhance as a crew.
Automate, automate, automate. Our business has virtually at all times moved itself ahead as a result of we automated away the human, error-prone issues. If you end up saying “Ensure you at all times…” that’s a sign that it’s time to automate. Automate the guardrails as a substitute of creating guide processes.
Automate the developer workflow, CI/CD, alerting, the definition of executed, and many others. You may even consider it as linting for the developer workflow, the place you construct guidelines between alerting, CI/CD, difficulty trackers, and code internet hosting instruments to automate issues that may assist your crew be extra environment friendly and efficient.
Lastly, be open and clear about what issues, what you might be measuring and what your objectives are. In doing so, you’re serving to to drive a crew effort that everybody owns. It’s a bottom-up strategy the place you declare that you simply wish to get higher. You’re asking the crew, “Can we consider in this stuff?” to make sure you measure what builders wish to be a part of, and so they have the flexibility to see how they’re doing and the place they’ve alternatives to enhance.
And by doing this, you’re measuring the appropriate issues. You’re measuring the issues that individuals are truly engaged on, and also you’re utilizing these measurements to judge your crew. That’s the stuff that issues.
It’s not straightforward to maintain stress in examine earlier than it veers into an unhealthy state, but it surely’s crucial to take action. EMs and ICs will respect one another extra for it, and also you’ll get a extra collaborative, environment friendly crew consequently. And inside effectivity, the true beneficial properties to your group begin to materialize.
