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Tag: software developers

  • Empowering Pro and Citizen Developers

    Empowering Pro and Citizen Developers

    When I was the CISO years ago, we had a talented team build the incident management system for our new CIRT. The team built intake forms, interfaces with some of our tools and the workflow to hold it all together. We were fortunate to have the resources of one of the largest companies in the world (at the time), which we used to make our incident response processes faster and more efficient. Thanks to this system, we saved many thousands of hours per year.

    That was 15 years ago, and now organizations are automating processes without the need for talented (and expensive) developers. In fact, this year’s moniker is “Year of Low-Code”—the beginning of a new era. Gartner predicts low-code will continue to evolve, stating that by 2025:

    • 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will use low-code or no-code technologies (up from less than 25% in 2020) and
    • 75% of large enterprises will be using at least four low-code development tools for both IT application development and citizen development initiatives.

    As Gartner’s forecast on low-code applications comes to fruition, product and IT leaders collectively have a lot of work to do to not only provide these tools to customers but internally for their teams, as well. As organizations rise to meet the demand for automation to streamline their customers’ and their own processes, it’s important to remember that this is new territory for many.

    The absence of a well-established route for migrating to automated processes can create challenges if not done correctly. As organizations look to pioneer low-code, I’d like to offer a two-step guide for leadership to begin this low-code journey through personal insights and real-life examples–providing an “automation blueprint” for IT leaders.

    Getting Developers on Board

    Although low-code is about bringing capabilities to non-technical resources, don’t neglect the importance of getting your existing developers on board early. Chris Byers wrote this great piece on why developers should not be worried they will become “extinct” by this new outlook. On the contrary, your core developers are going to benefit from these changes–freeing them up from tedious low-value work and allowing them to focus on higher-order challenges.

    Change of any sort can be daunting, and as with any shift like this, transparency is key. I often write quick blogs in our project management system or update my developer community in their dedicated collaboration platform channel to update the team on any new processes or changes with complete transparency. My team can ask me questions directly on the platform, and they are usually pretty direct. This visibility is key, allowing everyone to feel like they have a say and stake in how the company is accomplishing shared goals.

    It’s instrumental to partner with your DevOps team and ask their advice, as they are your “low-code” experts while you navigate these waters—either creating software with these offerings in your product portfolio for your customer base or deploying tech internally with low-code tools. With the former, your developers really should have no problem getting on board.

    Introducing the Concept to Citizen Developers

    Next, we must empower people to adopt the role of citizen developer by equipping them with the knowledge they need to be successful. Otherwise, we will find ourselves back at square one with the work developers did to create low-code workflows wasted. Whether you’re working with customers, partners, or your internal teams, here are a few ways to building your citizen developer crew:

    • Bring back the lunch-and-learn (hey, they were popular for a reason) via videoconference or collaboration channel: Send out gift cards for participants to order lunch and host a live session to walk through workflows and answer questions.

    • Provide on-demand tutorials: Beef up your company’s video library with a couple of “how-to” videos on using workflows for ongoing reference. Everyone loves an excellent how-to explainer.

    • Write a guide of your own: One of our technical partners is known for its workflow, and they’ve written a guide to their low-code product’s capabilities. It’s available online, and it’s geared towards citizen developers. So it might be worth taking the time to do one in-house; a one-stop-shop for everything low-code.

    Workflows are everywhere you look – not one team in an organization operates without interacting with identity workflows. Take HR, for instance; you might think, “HR deals with people; they don’t need to build workflows.” This overlooks how many HR processes are workflow-driven. Imagine if an organization could tap HR as citizen developers—the department could establish a workflow unique to onboarding, for example. A new hire’s manager receives an automatic prompt to approve access to applications needed for that role. Imagine the time saved, which means more time spent on other business-essential tasks like recruiting quality candidates.

    The investment you make today getting buy-in from developers and educating your citizen developers will pay off in the long run. Now is the time to get started. The road of innovation is always bumpy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make it as streamlined as possible. To play a role in pushing boundaries forward amidst the digital transformation we are experiencing, you will need everyone—developers and citizen developers—on the same (web)page.

  • Empowering Teams to Make Mission: Impossible Possible

    Empowering Teams to Make Mission: Impossible Possible

    “Your mission, should you choose to accept it….”

    That’s the way the original Mission: Impossible TV show and, later, the movie series drew us in. The bad guy’s operation was explained. The goal was clearly defined; infiltrate and destroy. And although the task at hand was extremely difficult and fraught with unknowns, the team of good guys was briefed and everyone understood what they were doing and why. Cut to the good guys succeeding despite the odds being stacked against them.

    For most of us in product development, I think we’ve all faced—or are facing—our own impossible mission. We’re all working on “urgent” projects against some pretty tough odds. Except, unlike the old TV show, we often lack a clear goal. Sure, we’ve got our best team members on it—but does everyone understand why we’re doing what we’re doing? What, exactly, is our mission?

    No Dossier, No Chance

    In the frantic rush to “digitally transform” by churning out new products and features, the mission (if there ever was one) is often lost. Without context, developers can feel like order takers instead of outcome producers. This dynamic is a ticking time bomb; not just in terms of value delivery and business success, but for developer happiness, too. With a worldwide developer shortage and, more importantly, the fact that 80% of developers are reporting burnout, something needs to change. And fast.

    Improving the software developer experience must be a priority. And a clear mission is a great place to start. When we’re not mission-driven, our chances of being innovative, experimenting with new ways of work and empowering ourselves to be at our best are severely limited. 

    Liberated Mercenaries 

    By adopting a mission-oriented approach, development teams gain purpose. Bringing them in on the business problem that needs solving can motivate them and stimulate their creative thinking. And the cherry on top? We can even help reduce their workloads by removing meaningless blackhole tasks. We begin cultivating a work environment that helps realize the “joy;” part of one of Gene Kim’s Five Ideals. 

    For those overseeing DevOps or other continuous improvement initiatives, we can improve our odds by creating our own Mission: Impossible-like teams. To cite John Doer, venture capitalist, we can build teams of missionaries instead of mercenaries. Folks who are motivated, passionate and outcome-driven. Those galvanized by the excitement of knowing that their efforts will impact the business in a big way will inspire greatness. 

    It is the leader’s role to articulate the mission. When practitioners are empowered to use their creativity for problem-solving, innovation is unleashed and there is little room for misguided, wasteful activities.

    Preparing your Mission Dossier

    You are not alone if your answers to the following are no better now than they were five years ago:

    • Are we prioritizing our customers’ problems first?
    • Are we enabling customers to pull value rather than pushing what we believe is value?
    • Are we providing abundant opportunities for customer feedback and pivoting with learnings from failures?
    • Are we routinely surprising and delighting our customers with exceptional value?

    These are the kinds of questions that indicate how well we understand our mission. If we are aligned with customers, then, by definition, we are aligned with the business since businesses only exist to serve customers.

    So then, how do we articulate the mission so our teams clearly understand their purpose? Here are three steps to get you started.

    Step One—OKRs

    We must emphasize our focus on solving problems for our customers, both internal and external. The objectives must be clearly stated, as they were for Mr. Phelps. And, likewise, we must communicate the sense of urgency that this mission encompasses for the fleeting window of opportunity that exists before customers seek alternative solutions. 

    One highly effective approach is to employ objectives and key results (OKRs) and an OKR tree so that everyone, from the trenches to executive leadership can have line-of-sight to the purpose of their work and their role in the mission. Since DevOps Enterprise Summit 2020 in Europe, OKRs have emerged as a hot topic as leaders seek to translate urgent corporate objectives into meaningful goals for their business and technology teams.

    Step Two—Focus on Flow of Customer Value

    We must set the stage for the successful delivery of customer value. Our processes must be aligned with real customer needs while simultaneously capable of delivery excellence. The best way to do so has been proven out for over 40 years now, i.e.: adopting a continuous improvement approach to the activities which make up the value stream from customer request to fulfillment. 

    That means capturing customer needs via our OKRs and accelerating the flow of work across the value stream against those OKRs. To do that, we must have a means to systematically and continuously remove impediments to flow across all key stages, before and after development

    This approach encourages everyone—top-down, bottom-up—to become single-minded and obsessive about our mission.

    Step Three—Tracking The Mission

    With the mission clear and the teams aligned, we must also be prepared to react and preempt uncertainty. No mission runs perfectly. But we can put literal measures in place to identify danger ahead. Combining team performance metrics, such as DORA, with higher-level value stream management (VSM) metrics that focus on the flow of business value across the whole system can help everyone in the field and in the control room communicate effectively. For instance, if work upstream is holding our developers back from cracking the code, VSM metrics can help direct leadership to send support into the business analysis room.

    With mission alignment and means of communication, accepting a mission becomes enticing for everyone involved and the chances of success improve dramatically. 

  • 3 Ways to Prevent Developer Burnout

    3 Ways to Prevent Developer Burnout

    Without developers, software companies wouldn’t exist—and yet, the experience of these experts can be far from ideal. A recent report from Haystack found that nearly 80% of developers report being burned out and the pandemic isn’t even one of the primary factors. Despite similar job requirements, the experience of developers significantly varies across the industry, adding complexity to an already challenging job. Conflicting coding styles, communication styles and requirements from different teams conspire to make the development process inefficient and difficult and leave developers feeling overwhelmed. Between different organizations and even teams within the same organization, the differences in team culture and educational opportunities can lead to radically different job experiences for the same job title. To retain talented developers in the workforce and maximize their potential, the collective developer experience needs to be improved through a developer-first and inclusive culture and better access to professional development for developers at every level.

    Build a Strong Culture of Documentation, Communication and Knowledge Sharing

    One of the biggest challenges team leaders encounter is how to communicate key information between team members. Many developers are incredibly skilled at their trade but aren’t properly trained or given the time to work on sharing that information with either colleagues or end users. Having skilled technical writers means that the team can provide consistent, clear information about the software—and this is crucial for company success. Having technical writers on the team improves communication and efficiency and enables developers to more quickly and easily locate the resources and support that they need to perform their tasks

    The developer’s goal is to innovate and build successful and maintainable systems. Achieving this requires good team processes and a solid system of documentation. Without user-facing documentation, adoption will suffer as users struggle to get things done with the system. Similarly, without documentation of the individual components, knowledge cannot be shared between teams and so the teams working on the application cannot collaborate effectively. A positive culture around documentation and investment in best practices by all contributors, including developers, makes a huge difference in how successful an organization can be.

    Welcome Employees with Comprehensive and Constructive Onboarding

    Strong communication is especially vital during the onboarding process; it’s one of the most important periods for developers early in their careers. Getting developers up to speed in a new team quickly is crucial—and streamlining education beginning during onboarding can make a big difference. Onboarding is a golden opportunity to bring new developers into the cultural fold and enable them to contribute to the team quickly. Doing so also reduces the risk of losing developers from the team.

    Prioritize an Inclusive and Supportive Culture at all Levels

    The experience of software developers is greatly influenced by the culture of the company they work for. The values of a company and the way that departments interact make a big impact on developers—and it’s not always a positive one. Opportunities for career development, promotions, mentorship programs and training are critical for all employees, but especially those in fields with the potential for high turnover or burnout like developers. Providing developers with resources to further their own understanding and mastery of the job—such as access to a budget for attending conferences and further study—is a critical investment for their success. Organizations both large and small must take initiative to ensure developers see a path forward for themselves at their current company and within the industry—or risk losing their talented developers entirely. 

    While developers’ experiences vary across the industry, between departments and even smaller internal teams, there is inherent value in improving communication, investment and culture on a micro and macro scale. To attract and retain highly skilled and innovative developers and ensure success for teams and companies as a whole, executive leadership must work with their developers to find a cohesive system and create an experience that works for everyone. Like any other specialized professional in a complex trade, developers are invaluable to their teams and community; advocating for the improvement of their work experience throughout their careers is the best way for tech companies to keep developers creating software that improves our world.

  • Shopify Gives Devs More Creative Freedom

    Shopify Gives Devs More Creative Freedom

    Shopify’s Unite 2021 conference was held on June 29, 2021, and the e-commerce platform had some big, developer-centric news to share. Alan Shimel spoke with Shopify’s Glen Coates about the developer-first business model that is giving developers the most opportunity to build their businesses with a new 0% revenue share model, and how developers can leverage as much creative freedom as they want, from low-code capabilities in Online Store 2.0 to “max-code” custom storefronts. The video is below, followed by a transcript of the conversation.

    Alan Shimel: Hi, everyone. Welcome to another TechStrong TV segment. My guest this segment is Glen Coates. Glen is with Shopify. Glen, welcome to TechStrong TV.

    Glen Coates: Thanks, Alan. It’s great to be here, man.

    Shimel: It’s great to have you on. Glen, no pressure, but I think you’re the first person from Shopify who has been on TechStrong TV.

    Coates: There you go. _____ [inaudible due to audio distortion] it’s going to be all up from here, like you’re starting at the right place.

    Shimel: We’re starting at a low bar.

    [Crosstalk]

    ‒ it only gets better. We’ll see. Anyway, Glen, I think our audience doesn’t need an introduction to Shopify. We’ve all bought things online through Shopify storefronts and so forth, but why don’t we talk a little bit about you, your background, your position with Shopify?

    Coates: Right. I’ve been at Shopify a couple of years now. Before Shopify, I founded a startup called Handshake, and Handshake was a wholesale-focused e-commerce platform, so very much like Shopify but not focused on direct-to-consumer selling, just on wholesale. Handshake was acquired by Shopify about two years ago, so I’ve been at Shopify since the acquisition. In my time in the last couple of years at Shopify, I initially started out focused on wholesale, obviously, given my background. I spent most of last year focused on Shopify’s checkout, which is, obviously, a pretty important part of Shopify, and then about six months ago, _____ _____ product for what is called Shopify Core.

    If you’re a merchant, Shopify Core is like what’s in the box when you buy Shopify. It’s the online store, it’s the checkout, and it’s the back office admin that lets you set up and run your business. If you’re a developer, Shopify Core is the core developer platform, so the APIs, the dev tools, the docs, all the things that let you build apps and themes and work on the Shopify platform. Yeah, and, obviously, it’s a big responsibility and a really exciting role to be able to help the world of entrepreneurs start and try their business ideas.

    Shimel: Absolutely. Glen, just to give a little color, how many different Shopify merchant stores are there, whether it’s sheer number, percentage of commerce, or what have you?

    Coates: Yeah. Today, Shopify powers almost two million merchants. I mean, obviously, the last year has been kind of an accelerant to businesses going online, and that’s both been new businesses, people trying businesses for the first time, and it has also been traditional businesses going digital more quickly than they might have otherwise. But yeah, today, Shopify powers almost two million merchants worldwide, and it wasn’t that long ago that that was only a million. Even at massive scale, even being the world’s largest commerce platform in terms of number of merchants, it’s still growing very quickly, which I think just goes to the pace at which the world of business is going online, and how many people want some help with that.

    Shimel: Got it. Excellent. Thanks for all that info. If you don’t mind, let’s turn to the topic of today’s conversation, and I’m going to let you explain it, if it’s okay.

    Coates: Sure. Next week, it is Shopify Unite, which is our annual conference. Over the years, Shopify Unite has been focused on a combination of merchant and developer topics, but this year we’re really doubling down on developers, and really making it a developer-centric conference. The reason for that is sort of going back to the question you asked me a second ago, is Shopify was founded in Canada, and, if you go back five, six, seven years, Shopify’s mission has always been to make commerce better for everyone. But, if you go back half a decade, it was mainly North American merchants mainly selling apparel, mainly direct-to-consumer, which that’s a big market but it’s not the world of commerce.

    Over the last few years, Shopify has expanded considerably into new industries, new countries, new ways of welling, so wholesale as well as retail, and so we’re now in a much more diverse world of commerce, different businesses doing different things. As we sort of march down the road and try to fulfill that mission of making commerce better for everyone, that everyone is becoming a lot more diverse as we expand. Shopify can’t build all the solutions for everyone, all those different niches. While we have a great core product that includes many of the out-of-the-box things that people need to start and run a digital business, it’s not everything. We need the help of the world of developers to help build those solutions for the markets for the spaces that they are experts in to complement what is in Shopify Core, and really deliver everything that merchants need to successfully start, run, and scale a business.

    This year, we’re really focused on developers and helping them get onboard with our platform. There are really three main legs to that, I would say. The first one is mainly technical. I think for your audience, some of those details are important, like Shopify really is expanding to be PlanetScale commerce infrastructure, really becoming the power lines, the plumbing, the electricity grid that runs the world of commerce. So, we’ve done some things to really scale up our infrastructure that if you’re a developer building on Shopify, you can be confident your stuff is going to run at global scale without you really having to do anything. Our checkout can handle seven times the load that it could before. We’re now at greater than 30,000 checkouts per minute on a single shop.

    It’s interesting what’s happening to the world of commerce, like the world of social selling has made, and the way algorithms reinforce themselves in terms of distribution to drive traffic towards things that are trending. It’s become more important than ever that a merchant who blows up, whether it’s because of them being re-shared by an influencer or whatever it is, that they can capture that demand in the moment. Traffic is basically getting more spiky on the Internet. When things trend, they trend fast, and so Shopify already was the highest throughput checkout on the Internet but it’s now 7x higher, so merchants should never worry about not being able to make the most of those moments when they’re trending becoming more and more important.

    Shimel: It’s hyperscale, is what it is, Glen. We’re seeing it not only in merchants and commerce, but across everything. The Internet is big business, it is worldwide business, and especially with COVID, right? If you haven’t built your infrastructure to hyperscale, you’ve got trouble.

    Coates: Right.

    Shimel: That’s what digital transformation is about. That’s what the world is demanding right now, hyperscale.

    Coates: I imagine the readers, viewers of your site are not strangers to the world of what it takes to scale websites, and I think a lot of what Shopify tries to do is say, “Well, listen. We’ve figured that out for you. You’re a merchant with an idea. You’re going to come up with a new shoe or a new candle,” or whatever it is. Entrepreneurship is a risky endeavor, not everyone succeeds, but, when you succeed, like we really want you to be able to just capture the whole thing. The checkout works at one checkout a minute when you’re just starting out, and then, on your biggest days, it goes to 30,000 and you just don’t have to do anything. It just works, which is great. Kind of piece number one of Unite this year is Shopify really is PlanetScale infrastructure for commerce, and we already were the leaders and we’ve kind of gone up another multiple from there. Point two is really like, “As a developer, what things can I build on your platform? What are the opportunities for me to innovate, like where can I do that, and why is that exciting?”

    We’ve made some major updates to our online store, to our themes platform, which is obviously every merchant basically runs an online store with a theme on it. There is a new themes platform that allows developers to properly separate basically data and presentation into different layers in a way that makes themes more modular and extensible and kind of upgradable in the future. We have this powerful new data infrastructure that allows merchants and developers to essentially build custom data models inside a shop, and not just be confined to the out-of-the-box data model that ships with Shopify. There is now a much more powerful customization framework for both theme developers and app developers to integrate custom content into themes without having to hack the theme by hand and try to take it off the upgrade path, which is really great for merchants. We have also recognized that the Shopify online store is based on a web templating language called Liquid, which is similar to the templating languages that all developers are basically familiar with.

    We are also announcing, if you want to, you choose your own stack. If you want to build your website using React or something else that’s not our out-of-the-box stack, we’re also making available a new platform codenamed Hydrogen that will allow developers to basically choose their own stack, build online stores using whatever technologies they want, but ‒ and this is the crucial part ‒ still leverage a global infrastructure and hosting in scale and, “I don’t have to think about it. It’s just going to work,” on the Shopify platform, which is really great and really unique. Last but not least, I mentioned earlier that I spent last year on checkout. We are opening up for the first time the ability for developers to build checkout apps. Checkout is the piece of Shopify that it really matters. It’s where the money changes hands. It has to scale, it has to be super reliable ‒

    Shimel: Super secure.

    Coates: Super secure, super trusted, right, and trusted not just in the technical security sense of the word, but even just in the emotional sense of the word, like when I’m a buyer and I’m buying from an online store, when I see this checkout, does it feel familiar? Does it feel like something I can rely on? Am I comfortable handing over my money? Checkout is really where, in the _____ journey, the emotions shift from at the top of the funnel it’s kind of, “Okay, your brand, it’s really different. It’s exciting. I want to see differentiation. I want to be challenged and see new things.” But, when you’re handing over your money, the emotional tone is different, right? You’re not looking for excitement, you’re looking for predictability, right?

    Shimel: Yeah.

    Coates: Historically, Shopify’s checkout has been less customizable than the actual storefront pages higher in the funnel, and so now we’re opening up a new extensions framework for checkout that allows developers to build in apps that securely extend the function of Shopify’s checkout without compromising on the trust, the scalability, the speed, and all those kind of baseline, crucial things.

    Shimel: Very cool.

    Coates: That’s really cool. The last thing I’ll mention is we’ve talked about, “Okay, as a developer, if I build on your platform, is it just going to scale to the world?” The answer is yes. “Okay, so then what am I going to build?” Okay, so there are a bunch of new programming surface areas that we’re opening up for people to build apps and themes into, and then the last piece is, “What’s in it for me? Where are the dollars? If I start building your platform, am I actually going to make any money as a developer?” One of the things we’ve announced is _____ economic opportunities for developers. One is we’re cutting the rev share on apps in the Shopify app store to zero for the first million dollars in revenue per year, and, after the first million dollars, we’ve actually cut our rev share from 20 percent, which was already one of the lower rev shares in the industry, down to 15 percent. We’re really trying to help developers who have an idea for an app or an idea for a theme get that off the ground, no rev share on that first million bucks, and we really just want to help developer entrepreneurs get going as easy as we try to help merchant entrepreneurs get going ‒

    [Crosstalk]

    Then, the second one is that the Shopify theme store has historically not been open for submissions from any developer who wants to build a theme. There has been a sort of a curated set of themes there until now, but we’re actually opening up the theme store, so developers who want to build a theme and sell it to merchants will now have that opportunity that they didn’t before, which is also a huge market that is new.

    Shimel: Look, I think emphasizing the developer and the developer interaction in Shopify is huge. Glen, this is all great. I didn’t want to stop you when you were talking, but of course we’ve pre-recorded this show and it’s now playing after Unite has already taken place, I believe, on the 29th.

    Coates: Right.

    Shimel: But, for people who maybe want to see a replay of it or maybe get the highlights, is there a place we could send them to check it out?

    Coates: Yeah, if they just go unite.shopify.com, they’ll be able to watch the keynote and then dive into the other sessions that were part of the event and dig into whatever they would like.

    Shimel: Fantastic. Glen, thanks for a great recap on what happened at Unite and what’s going on at Shopify. Please come back on and keep us posted. You were wrong. You set a high bar. It’s going to be tough for people to beat, so come in and please keep us up to date on what’s going on at Shopify, especially with this renewed focus on developers and development options on the platform.

    Coates: I appreciate your time, man. Thanks for having me.

    Shimel: All right. Glen Coates on Shopify, about Unite, the Shopify conference here on TechStrong TV. We’re going to take a break and we’ll be right back with another guest.

  • Why Developers Should Care About Resilience

    Why Developers Should Care About Resilience

    Recently, a friend reminded me of a joke we used to have when we were both developers at a huge software corporation (we won’t mention names, but back when printers were a thing, you probably owned one of theirs). We didn’t develop printers. We developed performance testing and monitoring tools.

    We were the dev team, which was completely separate from the QA team and from the Ops team (yes, I’m that old – we didn’t even call it DevOps back then). Support was part of a completely different organization and “business” was something that happened in an altogether different galaxy. That is, until a customer had an issue.

    When an important customer had an issue, we definitely felt it at R&D. Managers called hourly to check on status, and we would have intense conversations with the support team who would then, in turn, have intense discussions with the customer. If we, the software engineers developing the product, ended up on the same call with both support and the customer, it was a sure sign that things were bad. You knew that millions of dollars were on the line, and, consequently, that pressure was high. But most of all: you knew that we would do anything we could to solve the problem, because we needed those millions of dollars to be paid, so that we could keep getting paid. And so, we kept the coffee flowing.

    This is where the joke part comes in. We used to have a system for managing support tickets, collecting information, tracking time and assigning it to the relevant software or support engineer, so everyone would know who was in charge. Today, you probably use Zendesk, ServiceNow or one of their alternatives. We used a home grown system, of course.

    Our joke was this: the purpose of the system was not to track and measure and propagate the handling of customer issues. The purpose of the system was to indicate someone else is now responsible for solving the problem. Or, if you would rather paraphrase one of my favorite Douglas Adams jokes, the issue is now under a Somebody Else’s Problem field.

    Because solving customer issues is difficult and frustrating, and being pressured by business could ruin a software engineer’s day. This is because when you’re a happy code monkey, and all you want to worry about is writing beautiful code and releasing cool features and drinking some coffee, solving a customer issue gets in your way.

    You end up spending too much time sifting through endless logs, crossing your fingers and trying to reproduce an issue that only happens at 2 a.m. on a Friday, usually when a blue zebra is passing by. Spending your time on a heated support call is less fun than, say, drinking coffee quietly with your friends.

    As R&D managers, we understand that our developers want nothing to do with solving customer issues. We want to make sure they are motivated and happy and efficient, and that they are free to challenge themselves by learning the latest buzz-worthy technologies and thinking up ways to introduce those into our product in a way that will make our customers happy.

    Additionally, as R&D managers, we are far more likely to understand the business impact of having too many support tickets or having support tickets that take too long to resolve. We know that the loss on such cases is twofold:

    1. The customer that faced an issue and is waiting for a solution may become frustrated, and the company may lose their business.
    2. Our engineers are busy solving that customer issue instead of delivering new value to the business.

    Therefore, as R&D managers, it is our responsibility to make sure that our engineers have the tools to handle these issues as efficiently as possible when they come up. It is our responsibility to make sure they are motivated, and that they understand the business impact of solving a customer issue as quickly as possible. And whenever possible, it is our job to make sure that they make our application as reliable and stable as possible to begin with.

    That ensures that we have test coverage, and the right knowledge, practices and tools to ensure that we have as few customer issues as possible to begin with.

    Happily, changes in dev culture usually means that “support” and “business” and even “customers” are not as far away as they used to be. When developing a SaaS platform, your developers often have an almost intimate, real-time ability to track what users are doing and how it impacts their experience. The culture of DevOps has done a lot for breaking the silos that used to separate the dev team from the support team, and to make sure that all members of the team engage and understand how the code they write and the issues they resolve help our customers.

    I hope you already found the way to motivate your team to solve such issues, and that they have enough time to drink coffee. If you and your team are still struggling, we suggest bringing in a live debugging tool that can help them solve customer issues even faster, by making sure they have all the data they need at their fingertips, and that they can instantly reproduce any issue in a live, remote environment. Live debugging tools give your engineers a developer-friendly experience, and also gives them the power to reduce issue resolution time, too. Now, all you need to worry about is that your engineers have enough coffee.

  • Top 4 Challenges for Developer Teams in 2021

    Top 4 Challenges for Developer Teams in 2021

    As remote work continues into 2021, developer teams are still navigating the new landscape for working across distributed teams and how this new way of working affects product delivery. In particular, there are several key challenges that every developer must face this year, including adapting to new tools and workflows internally, balancing the prioritization of keep-the-lights-on initiatives with product initiatives, and understanding how to address emerging customer challenges.

    As developer teams are responsible for keeping both internal systems healthy and maintaining service uptime for customers, addressing these issues and implementing the strategies below will help ensure better delivery, easier deployment of application and software solutions and improved internal communication processes.

    #1 Get Better at Digital Experience Monitoring

    For businesses to survive in this current environment, neglecting to monitor a user’s digital experience across their life cycle can mean losing business to a competitor. At a bare minimum, developer teams must ensure that their application’s basic infrastructure is sound. This means monitoring key metrics like CPU load, memory load, memory used, disk space, queue lengths, API uptime or error codes returned.

    For a fuller user experience, developer teams should also monitor things like page or app load times, drop-off points in an app and crash logs. The third level of digital experience monitoring is keeping tabs on what your users are doing, such as skipping the onboarding flow, inviting friends to your app, posting content or how much total time they’re spending within the app. Robust digital experience monitoring will ensure that you are constantly measuring the quality of your users’ experience and making improvements along the way.

    #2 Expand Where and How You Gather User Feedback

    Beyond initial user monitoring, teams should continuously collect feedback to improve features and fix issues that might not have been discovered during testing. One natural way to do this is to aggregate user reviews and support questions to find common themes that may help product teams prioritize future releases. It is also critical to think outside of the box in terms of where and how feedback is collected. Teams can also collect feedback in other ways, such as conducting data analysis and user research sessions or having direct conversations with customers. Giving key beta users early access to a new release can also help developer teams understand whether their application is meeting users’ needs, and whether it is intuitive to use.

    Ultimately, by engaging with customers in extensive and real conversations, teams may learn where there are disconnects between users and the products, and what they can do to bridge this gap. Once the information is collected, teams should then prioritize what needs to be done first by ranking requests by frequency received, financial value of fixing the issue, strategic importance to the overall organization and engineering effort.

    #3 Prioritize Low-Code and Customer Self-Service Models

    Removing barriers to entry for customers is especially critical right now, as developers consider changing user needs, tighter budgets and fewer personnel to implement new code. Customers just don’t have time for entire enterprise sales and onboarding cycles to implement new solutions, so requiring less code is a great way to introduce a more self-service model. This model is also great for non-developers to implement and ensures that customers (whether fellow developers or even someone on a marketing operations or web team) can easily integrate new tools and software into their existing solutions. This is not only critical for those without a more technical background, but also valuable for time-strapped product teams who want to buy, versus build, a new feature.

    #4 Codify Hiring to Help Developer Teams Succeed

    During the pandemic, both large companies and small startups have pivoted significantly in the way they recruit and onboard engineering, DevOps and technical roles. Leaders of developer teams need to codify their hiring plans and put in place remote work strategies, especially with the hybrid working model that combines remote personnel with in-office staff.

    When hiring for remote teams, consider where individuals are located for both development and customer support purposes. Once you determine these core hubs, there should be guidelines in place to reduce the need for team members to work across major time zone differences. This can mean having a core software team in a centralized region that also overlaps with a major customer base, or having an engineering team located in a similar time zone to the design team for easier communication.

    Overall, the needs of each developer team will differ depending on the size of the company and the industry it serves. That’s why it’s critically important to adapt your systems and infrastructure accordingly. Furthermore, listening to and processing user feedback, building products that meet ever-changing customer demands and continuing to focus on team communications will help ensure long-term success in a post-pandemic world.

  • Amid COVID-19, Developers Struggle to Keep Pace

    Amid COVID-19, Developers Struggle to Keep Pace

    It’s been a wild ride for digital innovation. It’s also been a stressful year for developers. At most organizations, the pandemic has increased reliance on digital experiences (and its programmers) exponentially. IT spending is rising, and competition is skyrocketing. More than ever before, the pressure is placed on developers to meet rigorous demands.

    A recent study by Couchbase revealed how developers are revolutionizing digital transformation efforts throughout the COVID–19 crisis. Yet, this output may not be sustainable. The 2020 Tech Lead Survey, which surveyed 450 senior IT decision-makers worldwide, exposed stressors for development teams, which, if not mitigated, could easily result in fatigue and burnout.

    So Much To Do, So Little Time

    Some digital transformation efforts that were slated to take five years have had timelines reduced to a matter of months. In this unprecedented era, flexibility is an indispensable characteristic to adapt to change. In fact, 63% of respondents said that flexibility to change direction on a whim is critical to meeting digital transformation goals.

    But, extreme flexibility comes at a price. Forty-nine percent of respondents indicated their development teams have been asked to do too much in too little time. As a result, 40% of respondents said their development teams were behind schedule with their current projects.

    “In a year when organizations have had to struggle to adapt to new decentralized ways of working and rapidly evolving markets, developers have come under severe pressure to help their organizations adapt,” said Steve Yen, co-founder of Couchbase.

    It’s apparent that developers are under escalating pressure. If the weight continues to pile on, exhaustion could bring overall production to a grinding halt. At least leaders realize who is driving digital innovation — 92% acknowledge developers are the unsung heroes of current digital transformation initiatives.

    Lacking Clear Direction From On High

    Eighty-six percent of respondents experienced challenges with their development teams. However, this does not wholly reflect poorly on developer inabilities — managers have a responsibility to set more explicit guidelines.

    Another obstacle: goal setting. Forty percent of respondents reported that setting clear, measurable goals for their team is a serious challenge. In addition, ensuring developers use the right technology, and ensuring teams understand overarching strategic goals were oft-cited pain points, as well.

    Resolving these issues will be critical to reducing developer complaints and remediating the stressors outlined above. “There needs to be investment in not just people, but also in the technology, management and communication that will help individuals succeed,” said Yen.

    Solution: DevOps

    So, where should architects direct new investments? Well, of the 450 IT leaders surveyed, 92% believe DevOps could have a revolutionary impact on their digital transformation efforts.

    The report refrains from offering specific technical advice, but makes the following general recommendations:

    • Don’t rely on legacy technology ill-suited for the tasks at hand. Current investments must be future-proofed for tomorrow’s scalability and integration requirements.
    • Don’t assume onboarding new tech will be easy. As digital innovation matures, new technology becomes more refined and specialized. As I’ve covered, whether it’s Kubernetes, service mesh or multi-cloud strategies, all require time to learn, along with some pretty specialized skillsets.
    • Take time to communicate with developers and understand obstacles. Be realistic with timelines, and do not ask for too much. Plan out project goals strategically, because haste does not equate to overall speed.

    Under pressure to perform and maintain flexibility, it makes sense that engineers are feeling the pressure of an amplified development pace. As that pace is likely not to decrease in 2021, finding methods to better support developers is key for long-term sustainability.

    At many organizations, a greater DevOps investment equates to operationalizing and automating processes for areas like microservices CI/CD, and networking and zero-trust security. It could also mean supporting developer workflows with some-code tooling. Other institutions are even introducing low-code tools to democratize the development process, intending to relieve some burden from professional engineers.

    Invest in Developers, Invest in Smooth Operations

    On average, development teams grew by 20% in 2020. As expectations for developers rise, so will investment in developers and the processes that support them. As teams move forward, it will be critical to gather feedback and understand what’s causing gridlock so that developers maintain agility and avoid burnout.

    In this competitive climate, choosing the correct people and systems to support new digital advances will be a competitive advantage. “Investing in [developers] in the right way will help them play to win,” said Yen.

    Since 2017, Couchbase has surveyed IT decision-makers on the challenges they face throughout their digital transformation efforts. Here, I highlighted the major takeaways from the 2020 report. You can view the full findings here.

  • New ASG Report Looks at COVID-19’s Impact on Software Development

    New ASG Report Looks at COVID-19’s Impact on Software Development

    We are all trying to adapt to a new world created by COVID-19. As the coronavirus continues to spread, the economy and businesses everywhere have been severely impacted, and no one really knows what the so-called “new normal” will be. For now, most organizations have gone remote, not knowing when—or even if—employees will be able to return to their offices.

    While some organizations have been open to the idea of working remotely, many have also struggled to shift to a remote workforce seemingly overnight. For software developers, however, remote work is nothing new. Many developers have successfully worked remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic even started.

    “The Future of Remote Work and Software Development“ research published today by Accelerated Strategies Group dives into the long-term impact of a decentralized workforce on software development and delivery. ASG interviewed 347 industry leaders from around the world to gather and refine data on the impact of COVID-19 on software teams and their organizations’ ability to create software, and the importance of remote work tools and applications during the pandemic.

    The ASG report, commissioned by CloudBees, revealed some interesting trends. The survey found 63% of respondents said digital transformation objectives have significantly or somewhat increased in priority. Business automation (61.6%) and the need for investment in creating contactless services (60.1%) have increased somewhat or significantly.

    More than half of the respondents said the COVID-19 conditions have increased their focus on DevOps initiatives (51.75%) and increased their progress on cloud migration (52.25%). Also worth noting is the growth in companies’ DevOps and Agile adoption, with 46.24% of respondents stating they are using cross-functional teams, 55.64% practicing daily stand-up meetings and 43.23% automating tasks.

    The majority of respondents (59.49%) to the ASG report saw an increase in productivity on software teams since the pandemic started. Forty-two percent of respondents said it has become somewhat easier to complete their work tasks in a timely manner.

    However, feedback concerning respondents’ ability to manage unproductive distractions was mixed: 39.7% said managing these distractions was somewhat or much easier, 36.36% said it was somewhat or much more difficult and 23.48% said they had no change in their ability to manage these distractions.

    When asked to provide insight into the potential negative impact of their remote workforce on productivity, more than one-third (38.6%) of respondents said there was no change, 27.58% of respondents indicated that teams were slowed down significantly or somewhat and 33.83% said things moved along significantly or somewhat faster.

    The majority of remote workers (64.4%) expect to remain working remotely, either permanently or at least three or more days per week, once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Only 12.7% said they anticipate returning to an office location full-time.

    For the most part, the transition to working from home has benefited software teams. COVID-19 has not only impacted the global economy, but also business priorities and has accelerated business and software strategies. Though the future is uncertain, and no one has a clear picture of what the “new normal” looks like, there is a huge possibility many software and DevOps teams won’t return to the office—at least not full-time.

  • DevOps Agility Shines in the Midst of a Pandemic

    DevOps Agility Shines in the Midst of a Pandemic

    As a career developer and now a chief technology officer, I am experiencing firsthand how COVID-19 has forced us all into new ways of working. I’m also aware that these new ways may be with us for a while. Last month Gartner announced that 74% of companies intend to shift some percentage of their workforce to permanent work from home status. 

    The fears many technology leaders have is that working from home will disrupt the processes in place for coworkers to communicate and collaborate. I would argue that DevOps overcomes those challenges by design. Organizations have become increasingly confident in DevOps with research from Global Market Insights finding “DevOps Market size exceeded $4 billion in 2019, and is poised to grow at over 20% CAGR between 2020 and 2026.” Companies that hold onto practices that are less agile will find they hamper velocity and allow competitors to vault ahead in a rapidly changing digital environment. 

    A study by the software developer CA Technologies ⁠— now part of Broadcom ⁠— found that more agile companies achieve 60% higher revenue and profit growth than their peers. In another study of agile companies, this one from industry research firm Gartner, 74% of respondents reported better alignment between IT and the business.

    DevOps and Agile go hand-in-hand toward greater organizational success.

    Software Developers Feel the Need for Speed

    Developers working remotely will thrive on the unimpeded workflows and synchronous collaboration DevOps makes possible, even while separated. Today, when customers are consuming more digital services than ever, the traditional development methods just don’t meet the speed required. In a recent xMatters survey of 300 consumers, 90% said they are using digital services — from grocery and takeout food delivery to videoconferencing and banking. Eighty two percent said they will continue to do so even after the pandemic is history. Customers previously accustomed to brick and mortar services now have high expectations for uptime, performance and feature sets for digital services, so leaders will have to embrace DevOps to continually improve the user experience.

    One Team One Dream

    Given the various specializations within organizations, embracing DevOps must often begin by bridging the unique cultures of each team, including development, quality assurance, security and customer success. One way to do that is to establish shared Service Level Indicators and Service Level Objectives with a focus on customer experience. For example, working toward five nines digital service availability, sub-second website page loads and same-day security patch deployments as common goals will aid in the formation of a cohesive unit. Additionally, the team should feel executive-level DevOps buy-in, which should manifest itself in optimal technologies and appropriate alignment of talent. 

    DevOps Developers Are Hot, Don’t Let Them Burn Out

    Developers with experience working in a DevOps organization have always been in demand, and the rapid adoption of digital services is making these software professionals even more valuable. According to a recent LinkedIn report, DevOps is the single most recruited position on the platform today. Attracting and retaining these skilled workers can be extremely challenging. 

    One way to increase retention is to foster a culture that respects work-life balance. When surveying consumers about the impact COVID-19 had on the adoption of digital services, xMatters simultaneously asked 300 IT professionals about the impact this mass-scale adoption was having on them. Unfortunately, 88% said their work-life balance had deteriorated. Most DevOps teams were already accustomed to being on-call 24/7; so if they’re feeling COVID-19 has pushed them over a line, burnout is a real risk. It’s essential to recognize this and act on it. Providing DevOps teams with the right tools to automate CI/CD in a secure way, even while working remotely, goes a long way. 

    Time for DevOps to Shine

    The changes driven by the pandemic will have long-lasting effects on the frequency with which we use digital services to live and work. Customer experience will remain paramount and those metrics will be increasingly visible at the executive level. We will also see a greater focus on lean practices and cost reduction. I can think of no approach that does more to meet consumer expectations, address fiscal challenges and increase employee satisfaction than DevOps does. 

  • What the Best Developers Do to Be Great at Their Jobs

    What the Best Developers Do to Be Great at Their Jobs

    Good developers are in demand—great ones, even more so. With software development employment in the U.S. expected to grow by 21% by 2028, the need for engineers is only going to surge further.

    But this doesn’t mean that the labor landscape will become uncompetitive: Now more than ever, individuals with a passion for software are entering the field, and organizations will only be looking for the best. As the amount of people going into software development goes up—with global numbers expected to reach 27.7 million by 2023—it will become increasingly important to demonstrate your skills and dedication to the profession.

    The gap between a good developer and a great one is bigger than you may think. Here’s what the best developers do to excel at their jobs and lead in their field.

    The Best Software Developers Know How Their Skills Fit Into the Big Picture

    While a good coder handles the responsibilities they have within their role, the best coders make sure they see the big picture. They take the time to understand the foundations of how businesses work, including revenue, profit, bottlenecks and the strategies of departments other than their own. 

    This might mean investing extra time into general business self-education or holding meetings with other departments, but great programmers know it’s worth it in the long run. They recognize the importance of grasping how the cogs of an organization come together to keep things running—and exactly how they fit in.

    By having this 360 view, they can hold influence in areas outside their remit and clearly match the business’ mission to their own work. Valuable coders will use their problem-solving mindset to propose solutions to company-wide problems and put themselves in the shoes of other team members.

    Rest and Relaxation Is Vital for Productivity

    Far from the stereotype of frequently pulling caffeine-fueled all-nighters, the best developers know that, like the powerful systems they work with, they also need some downtime to recharge.

    Great coders challenge the stereotype of having a bad diet and inactive lifestyle and prioritize their own health and well-being. They recognize that as soon as you pass the threshold of 50 hours of work a week, you’re no longer productive. In fact, working too much can be counterproductive, as you’re much more likely to make mistakes.

    Great developers know when to shut down their computer and spend time with their families, do some exercise, spend time in nature and eat a healthy meal. This time to recharge is essential in order to go back to work refreshed and ready to tackle any problems with a clear and rested mind.

    Continuous Learning Is Crucial for Progression

    Ideally, all developers should be making efforts to advance their education in the field they’re in. As a developer, if you stop studying, you’re bound to get stuck at one point or another. The best coders make this a special focus in their lives, and make sure they’re always up to date with the latest developments in the technologies they work with.

    It could be a new coding language, new frameworks or a new technique. Great coders are constantly making a concerted effort to advance their own education. Ultimately, they are always asking “why,” and are unafraid to experiment using their newfound skill.

    Developers can easily find online courses to supplement formal education. Taking part in hackathons is another way to boost extra learning, as well as keeping up with technical blogs and podcasts.

    Great developers also follow other passions outside of coding. For example, the logical nature of software development allows coders to excel at learning other skills, such as languages, playing an instrument, martial arts or even flying a plane. It enables them to exercise the same part of their brain while enjoying something fun and non-work related.

    Personal Projects Show Dedication and Independent Thinking

    Coders know that the best way to learn how to build great products is through practice. Even if the project ultimately fails, building a product will always provide important lessons to apply the next time.

    Side projects that a developer might work on include personal tools, open-source libraries, a startup idea or a freelance project. These personal projects allow programmers to be in the driving seat: They are forced to solve problems independently instead of asking for help, equipping them with skills that might otherwise take longer to gain.

    Engaging in independent work also allows developers to explore and utilize the new languages and frameworks that they gain in their personal education efforts. When developers that have spent time working on their own projects try to prove themselves in the job market, they will stand out against those that have remained largely within the confines of their professional role.

    Ultimately, the vast majority of developers are in the game because they have a passion for building exciting and useful products. This makes it easier to find those who go the extra mile to really hone their existing skills and learn new ones. But, like in any profession, there will always be a certain percentage that remains a cut above the rest. Take a holistic approach to your career in software development with this advice and raise your game, and chances of landing that dream job.

    — Phil Alves