{"id":897,"date":"2014-11-05T15:10:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T23:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/?p=897"},"modified":"2014-11-05T15:10:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T23:10:36","slug":"dont-go-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/dont-go-changing\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&rsquo;t Go Changing&hellip;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/to-combine-or-not\/\">last post<\/a> dove into the world of engineering teams \/ combined engineering \/ fancy-name-of-the-moment where there are no separate disciplines for development and test. I think there are advantages to one-team engineering, but that doesn\u2019t mean that <em>your <\/em>team needs to change.<\/p>\n<h4>First things First<\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but it\u2019s worth saying again. Don\u2019t change for change\u2019s sake. Make changes because you think the change will solve a problem. And even then, think about what problems a change may <em>cause<\/em> before making a change.<\/p>\n<p>In my case, one-team engineering solves a huge inefficiency in the developer to tester communication flow. The back-and-forth iteration of They code it \u2013 I test it \u2013 They fix it \u2013 I verify it can be a big inefficiency on teams. I also like the idea of both individual and team commitments to quality that happen on discipline-free engineering teams.<\/p>\n<h4>Is it for you?<\/h4>\n<p>I see the developer to tester ping pong match take up a lot of time on a lot of teams. But I don\u2019t know your team, and you may have a different problem. Before diving in on what-Alan-says, ask yourself, \u201cWhat\u2019s the biggest inefficiency on our team\u201d. Now, brainstorm solutions for solving that inefficiency. Maybe combined engineering is one potential solution, maybe it\u2019s not. That\u2019s your call to make. And then remember that the change alone won\u2019t solve the problem (and I outlined some of the challenges in my <a href=\"http:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/to-combine-or-not\/\">last post<\/a> as well). <\/p>\n<h4>Taking the Plunge<\/h4>\n<p>OK. So your team is going to go for it and have one engineering team. What <em>else<\/em> will help you be successful?<\/p>\n<p>In the I-should-have-said-this-in-the-last-post category, I think running a successful engineering team requires a different slant on managing (and leading) the team. Some things to consider (and why you should consider them) include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Flatten<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s really tempting to organize a team around product functionality. Does this sound familiar to anyone?<br \/>Create a graphics team, Create a graphics test team. Create a graphics performance team. Create a graphics analysis team. Create a graphics analysis test team. You get the point. <br \/>Instead, create a graphics team. Or create a larger team that includes graphics and some related areas. Or create an engineering team that owns the whole product (please don\u2019t take this last sentence literally on a team that includes hundreds of people).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get out of the way<\/strong> \u2013 A book I can\u2019t recommend enough for any manager or leader who wants to transition from the sausage-making \/ micro-managing methods of the previous century is <em><a href=\"http:\/\/stevedenning.com\/Books\/radical-management.aspx\">The Leaders Guide to Radical Management<\/a> <\/em>by Steve Denning (and note that there are several other great books on reinventing broken management; e.g. Birkinshaw, Hamel, or Collins for those looking for even more background). In TLGRM, Denning says (paraphrased), Give your organization a framework they understand, and then get out of their way. Give them some guidelines and expectations, but then let them work. Check in when you need to, but get out of the way. Your job in 21st century management is to coach, mentor, and orchestrate the team for maximum efficiency \u2013 not to monitor them continuously or create meaningless work. This is a tough change for a lot of managers \u2013 <em>but it\u2019s necessary<\/em> \u2013 both for the success of the workers and for the sanity of managers. Engineering teams need the flexibility (and encouragement) to self-organize when needed, innovate as necessary, and be free from micro-management.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Generalize and Specialize<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019ve talked about Generalizing Specialists before (search my last post and my blog). For another take, I suggest reading what Jurgen Appelo has to say about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.noop.nl\/2010\/06\/t-shaped-people.html\">T-shaped people<\/a>, and what Adam Knight says about <a href=\"http:\/\/thesocialtester.co.uk\/t-shaped-tester-square-shaped-team\/\">square-shaped teams<\/a> for additional explanation on specialists who generalize and how they make up a good team. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This post started as a follow up and clarification for my previous post \u2013 but has transformed into a message to leaders and managers on their role \u2013 and in that, I\u2019m reminded how critically important good leadership and great managers are to making transitions like this. In fact, given a choice of working for great leaders and awesome managers on a team making crummy software with horrible methods, I\u2019d probably take it every time\u2026but I know in that team doesn\u2019t exist. Great software starts with great teams, and great teams come from leaders and managers who know what they\u2019re doing and make changes for the right reasons.<\/p>\n<p>If your team can be better \u2013 and healthier &#8211;&nbsp; by working as a single engineering team, I think it\u2019s a great direction to go. But make your changes for the right reasons and with a plan for success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My last post dove into the world of engineering teams \/ combined engineering \/ fancy-name-of-the-moment where there are no separate disciplines for development and test. I think there are advantages to one-team engineering, but that doesn\u2019t mean that your team needs to change. First things First I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but it\u2019s worth saying again&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/angryweasel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}