devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Author: Aaron Upright

  • The Impact of Developer Happiness on Productivity

    The Impact of Developer Happiness on Productivity

    Even in an era of unprecedented tech layoffs, most companies are still eager to find and retain top software developer talent. What’s more, many firms are discovering that they lack direct insight into their development teams’ needs and priorities. As a result, some of them are struggling to keep their developers happy and thus productive. A recent Zenhub report found, for the first time, a quantitative link between developer happiness and productivity, including what keeps developers in the same position instead of moving on to another job at the first sign of perceived trouble.

    Software Development Happiness

    The 2022 Software Developer Happiness report is based on a survey of 380 software professionals from a host of different organization types. In brief, the survey found that two of the biggest contributors to devs being unhappy in their roles were a lack of work/life balance and not working on what’s perceived as “quality work.”

    Even with a looming recession and thousands of layoffs, there remains a dearth of senior software development talent. For more junior talent, there will be more available than in previous, pre-pandemic years. As companies strive to do more with less, they still require development teams to build their products and/or the applications that drive their business. Setting up more junior teams for success via collaboration and productivity tools will be key to navigating this new environment.

    Given these findings, if organizations want to retain developer talent, they still need to make sure developers are working on meaningful projects and that they’re able to achieve that work in a way that balances the needs of the business with the needs of the individual.

    An ideal example of this phenomenon is the developer tool ecosystem companies make available to their teams. While the growth of this ecosystem has been a net positive for developers, it has also created a lot of tool sprawl and significant integration challenges.

    Less Time on Application Development

    Stephen O’Grady, an analyst at RedMonk, an analyst firm focused explicitly on software developers, talked a lot about this through a term he coined called the “developer experience gap.” He is referring to developers spending more time integrating tools than working on application development or application code. That integration work comes at a real cost. It means developers are spending less time on application development, are having to work longer hours or do the integration work off the side of the desk.

    The real bottom line to these survey results is that developers are happiest and stay at their jobs longer when empowered to focus on building code. This means spending less time interacting with management, attending meetings or resolving and integrating multiple solutions. The report’s results also emphasized the importance of work-life balance in encouraging developers to stay at their current job longer, while poor work-life balance accelerated the hunt for another job. These insights into developer retention are especially critical as, according to the report, 71% of developers haven’t decided how long they’ll stay with their current employer. The report also suggested that 33% of developers have stayed in a job longer than usual due to the pandemic, which could mean an increase in developer turnover when the pandemic comes to an end.

    Another key finding is that collaboration challenges are viewed as the biggest impediment to developer productivity. Delays in feedback result in lost productivity; nearly 70% lose a minimum of three hours per week per developer and 75% spend at least an hour per week on reporting instead of writing code.

    Finally, developers said their biggest priority is ensuring their software meets business demands, and most developers want high-performance productivity tools. In fact, 93% of developers believed these tools are critical to their success.

    Increase Developer Happiness

    So what can team leads to alleviate these issues? For both team leads and more senior management, the biggest way to increase developer happiness is simply to let them focus on coding. Developers like to showcase their skills, so encouraging them to work on interesting and impactful projects that challenge their skill sets is a great way to boost morale. Ensuring an appropriate work-life balance and paying the developers competitively are the other two recommendations for improving developer retention.

    Additionally, senior management should take another look at how they are compensating their teams. Financial compensation will always be a critical element, but we should expect to see companies shift their focus to programs and benefits that their employees truly need. Particularly given the somewhat chaotic year in 2022 and continuing in 2023, those in the technology industry will shift to valuing organizational stability over just a paycheck. An improved focus on mental health, conflict resolution and work/life balance will also be a big part of attracting the appropriate talent to an organization.

    The full report provides further detailed analyst recommendations for project managers, product owners, team leads and executives. The entire report can be downloaded for free here.

  • Agile Development at 20: Can it Thrive in the Hybrid Work Era?

    Agile Development at 20: Can it Thrive in the Hybrid Work Era?

    The Agile Manifesto turns 20 this year, and while many of the core tenets are still applicable, the world has changed considerably in the last two decades. What would the Agile Manifesto look like if it was written today and took into consideration our new reality of hybrid working environments? Changes are most definitely needed, as software leaders still find themselves struggling to navigate the murky waters of 21st-century project management to get the most out of their team.

    Developers have many complaints about Agile, but most of them boil down to the fact that they often spend more time planning for work than doing it. For example, developers sometimes feel that frameworks like Scrum are top-heavy and bureaucratic, which is the opposite of their intended purpose. Developers can also feel disconnected from the bigger goals of their project, being trapped in an endless list of “to-dos” without the time to think holistically about the features they’re creating.

    With these concerns in mind, let’s take a quick look at what the original Agile Manifesto actually included. It started with four primary values:

    • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
    • Working software over comprehensive documentation
    • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
    • Responding to change by following a plan

    On their faces, all of these seem reasonable; even approaching plain ol’ common sense. But in their zeal to focus on code development rather than bureaucracy, the authors couldn’t have anticipated how much the industry would change. Consider some of the trends we’re seeing in today’s software development teams.

    First and foremost, the idea that “every company will be a software company” has become a reality. It’s hard to imagine an industry that doesn’t leverage software in some way to address its core competency. This trend has, in turn, fueled another major trend: The war for developer talent. Skilled developers were already at a premium prior to the Great Resignation in the wake of the pandemic. Now, developers hold substantial leverage over their employers in ways never seen before.

    The Pandemic and the New Normal of Hybrid Teams

    The pandemic has also brought us the new normal of remote, distributed teams and asynchronous work styles and skilled workers are spread across the globe. There are also new technologies that enable more automation for software teams, including machine learning and AI and other methodologies (like DevOps and DevSecOps) that reduce workloads for developer teams by using automation and process-driven workflows.

    These trends have given rise to particular needs for almost all hybrid developer teams. They include significantly improved productivity for faster software delivery and developer-friendly tool experiences that speak directly to how developers work today. Teams also require guided, asynchronous processes that map to the reality of highly distributed teams. Finally, as the cloud era is firmly a reality, developers need new technologies that offer the ability to scale predictably without suffering from increased complexity.

    Now, let’s look at the original Agile values through the lens of today’s trends and needs. The first is valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools—this definitely requires an update for today’s developer teams. Specifically, process is a prerequisite for productivity. It is an enormous challenge to measure productivity or determine if the team is improving without a consistent process to follow. Without agreed-upon rules for working together, software development can quickly devolve into chaos. Second, putting individuals and interactions over tools seems like a restrictive viewpoint today. Good tools are explicitly designed to facilitate productive interactions between individuals. If they don’t accomplish this goal, they are poor tools; but there are many solid reasons that great tools can increase productivity and make developer teams’ lives much more manageable.

    The second value of the Manifesto also seems to present a false choice, as it prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation. Its heart is in the right place—who wouldn’t want to focus on building workable code rather than creating documentation? However, in the world of distributed teams, detailed documentation is critical for both remote and hybrid teams. This also encompasses documentation that goes beyond just the codebase. Documentation involving decisions, requirements, process, etc. also provides context for teams that are adjacent to developer teams and help them understand progress and goals. Documentation is also helpful for addressing the skills gap and talent shortage. New hires or newly-promoted team members need to get up to speed quickly and provide value as quickly as possible. In addition to training, good documentation can help them do that and help their teams be more productive more quickly.

    The third value of the Agile Manifesto said that we should focus on customer collaboration rather than contract negotiation. I believe this needs a slight but essential adjustment for today’s hybrid teams. Specifically, teams should be building with end-users,—not just “customers”—in mind, which means that the needs of whoever will be using the end application regularly should be paramount. This is particularly important today given how many end users are involved in buying decisions.

    I think the final value of the Agile Manifesto—responding to change over following a plan—needs no edits whatsoever. This remains great guidance for developer teams everywhere, and it seems the Manifesto should take this advice and adapt to the many changes that have occurred since it was first written.

    Many of the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto continue to be outstanding guidance that is applicable for most developer teams. There is, however, some nuance that should be considered for a couple of them. To wit:

    “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”—This is true, but today, remote and hybrid teams are a reality. That’s not changing any time soon. Teams need to optimize for asynchronous communication and collaboration.

    “Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.”—Sure, but given the myriad demands on software teams, developer burnout needs to be monitored and managed or overall quality and productivity will suffer.

    “Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done is essential.”—I couldn’t agree more, but in my mind, this means that teams should leverage automation where possible to maximize “work not done.”

    Conclusions

    In general, it seems that the Agile Manifesto holds up pretty well, provided that today’s workplace realities are taken into account. If software teams recognize that tools and processes create conditions for greater productivity and that documentation is critical in a remote/hybrid world, their remote Agile teams will be much better off. In addition, teams should build with end-users in mind, not just customers. With this added nuance and recognition of a changing world, today’s software teams can continue to thrive while leveraging this decades-old advice.

  • The Key to Embracing DevOps: A Real-Time Roadmap

    The Key to Embracing DevOps: A Real-Time Roadmap

    While the term “DevOps” has become somewhat of an industry buzzword, it represents an important shift in the way teams think about planning, building and deploying software. Drawing its inspiration from the Agile movement, DevOps extends many of Agile’s core principles beyond development to how teams deploy, monitor and inform their next round of product planning.

    Because DevOps touches so many areas of the software development lifecycle, more stakeholders than ever before are now involved in the design, production and release of software projects. With more moving parts and people, the continuous delivery of valuable software depends on these stakeholders being aligned at all times and moving in close coordination with each other.

    In reality, however, that’s much easier said than done.

    The problem with most projects is that they face a lag time based on the manual nature of updates required from the people doing the work. Sometimes this delay may be considerable. At the same time, accuracy becomes a problem because it involves people manually making and changing entries. This only compounds as the number of teams and dependencies involved in a project grows.

    Another significant issue is the disruptive nature of context switching on development teams. Ideally, developers can concentrate on coding and not have to contend with a myriad administrative issues. In reality however, most developers are constantly forced to leave where they’re working to provide status updates for the team. Every “start-stop” slows the process and can even impede creativity. 

    While it’s tempting to just do away with updates, they’re incredibly important for the business. Stakeholders and customer facing teams need to understand if projects are on track or running behind schedule. Similarly, management needs to understand what projects are at risk in order to step in and provide additional resources or work with the team to determine ways to reduce scope. 

    So, how can teams stay aligned without compromising the developer experience?

    While there’s no one right way to achieve total team alignment, one solution is maintaining a real-time roadmap that is shared between development teams, ops teams and the rest of the business. In a true, closely coupled DevOps environment, data from testing, deployment, integration, monitoring or other steps can be fed into roadmaps to reflect new realities and considerations.

    If such input comes fluidly and automatically, the roadmap will not only reflect the exact status of development but also the practical matter of having software work as intended in a production environment. Again, not only can business owners know the true status of a project, adjustments and decisions can be made along the way to ensure that goals and expectations can be met.

    A by-product of accurate, fluid, real-time roadmaps is the trust that stems from all being on the same page and having joint ownership for the entire process. The transparency and currency of such a vantage lessens finger-pointing and lessens “us-them” tendencies, as the work and the results can be jointly held. What results from this is accountability across the entire software development lifecycle.

    Real-time, integrated, roadmaps perfectly fit with the spirit of what DevOps tries to achieve.

    They operationalize work being completed and allow for user feedback and telemetry to continuously flow back into the next rounds of iteration planning. Real-time roadmaps accurately reflect what’s happening at each stage in the DevOps lifecycle, creating a single source of truth for developers, business owners and operations teams working at each stage of the process to ship value to customers.  

    The spirit behind DevOps calls for tighter integration leading to increased levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Adding real-time, integrated roadmaps to the DevOps discipline makes it even better.

    — Aaron Upright