Development teams: an untapped source of innovation that you must unlock!

Software Development Teams:Secrets to Achieving Unprecedented Rates of Growth and Innovation
Jeffrey Hammond, Principal Analyst
May 3rd, 2011

Your development teams are an untapped source of innovation that you must unlock!
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Entire contents © 2010 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

How would you describe the act of developing software?
Algorithmic?
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How would you describe the act of developing software?
Or heuristic?
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Three steps to a high performance team
Get (and keep) the right players
Create conditions for them to thrive and team
Manage with lean techniques and selective measures

Finding stars . . . why does it matter?
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“Stars” are simply more productive . . .
Numerous studies show a 10-time difference in productivity and quality among software developers and teams.
A tale of two developers . . .
Jim
Drew

There Are Two Types Of Dev Professionals
Type X Dev Pro
Type I Dev Pro
Self identifies (Is a developer)
Gets involved in side projects
Self invests in learning new skills
Does development (It’s a job)
Works 9-5, overtime if rewarded
Doesn’t invest in self improvement
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Internally driven
Self-motivated
Expected rewards
Defined performance
Motivation
Biologic
Put food on table.
Pay mortgage.
Send kids to college.
Source: Adapted from Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Riverhead Hardcover, 2009

Get (and keep) the right players.
Create conditions for them to thrive and team.

Creating a climate that attracts “stars”
Three cultural elements that create space for (and attract) intrinsically motivated development team members:
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
Source: Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Riverhead Hardcover, 2009

Autonomy! Are you kidding?
What about compliance?
What about governance?
“We need to put fences around development teams to ensure they don’t wander off the path we want them to take . . .”
— Executive at a dev. tools ISV
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Focus on ends, not so much on means
Govern (and measure) autonomous behavior:
Self-directed teams
Limited stage gates
Quality metrics
Engagement
On-time delivery
Customer centricity
Rapid recovery
Build a:
Results-OrientedWorkEnvironment
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Mastery takes practice and perseverance
Covet engagement.
Set a10k plan.
Focus on your 12.
Build a “flow friendly” development shop.
Source: Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Riverhead Hardcover, 2009 and
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, Little, Brown, and Company, 2008.
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Purpose: prerequisite for self-actualization
“We’re on a mission from God.”
“We’re not evil.”
“OTTWD”
“We want to put a dent in the universe!”
“Let’s build a smarter planet”
Do you have:
Transparency?
Shared goals?
Simple policies?
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Get (and keep) the right players.
Create conditions for them to thrive and team.

Lean software is not really about this . . .
. . . it’s about getting teams “in the zone” — and keeping them there.
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Wastes that impede flow
Manufacturing sources of waste:
App dev. equivalents:
Overproduction
Waiting (time on hand)
Unnecessary transport or conveyance
Overprocessing or incorrect processing
Excess inventory
Unnecessary movement
Defects
Unused employee creativity
Too many superfluous artifacts
Broken builds
Too many tool transitions
Rigid architectures
Analysis paralysis
Late discovery of defects
Rising downstream labor costs
Polluted supply chain management (SCM) streams
High null-release ratios

Key ALM processes that improve “flow”
Portfolio management
Production planning
closed loop
Project management
JIT Demand
Management
Build and software configuration management
Deployment
Release management
Change management
Service management
Testing and quality assurance
Change aware
continuous integration
Change aware
configuration management
Release management
closed loop
Production control
closed loop

Measures that matter for the end result

Forrester case studies on high performance teams
Atlassian
Ultimate Software
Sabre Holdings
CI&T
Netflix
Funambol
For more, see: www.forrester.com/masstlc

A game plan changing culture
The next 90 days
Share these concepts with your management team.
Explore the suggested bibliography.
Ask your performers about “out-of-job innovations.”
Run a “flow analysis” with your development teams.
Create an “engagement plan” to spur intrinsic motivation.
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A game plan for your BT strategy
Longer term
Make a decision on how “innovative” you want to be.
Begin to implement specific best practices (360-degree reviews, innovation time, OSS, Agile development).
Start attacking waste that “slows flow.”
Implement “unexpected” rewards system.
Adjust measures to focus on building a ROWE.
Start managing like a pro sports team.
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Thank you
Jeffrey Hammond
+1 617.613.6164
jhammond@forrest.com
Twitter: jhammond
www.forrester.com

Selected Forrester research
November 3,2010, “Best Practice: Building High-Performance Application Development Teams”
April 8, 2011, “Case Study: Sabre – A Culture Of Engagement”
March 7, 2011, “CI&T – High Performance, Brazilian Style”
January 14, 2011, “Atlassian Creates An Innovation Culture That Produces Results”
November 3,2010, “Ultiamate Software Reinvents Its Development Shop To Stay On Its Game”
November 2, 2010, “Software Development Archetypes – What’s Your Sign?”

Selected bibliography
Netflix: Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture (http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664)
Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Riverhead Books, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, Little, Brown & Co., 2008
10X Software Development (http://forums.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/default.aspx)

Development teams: an untapped source of innovation that you must unlock!

by MassTLC on May 04, 2011

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Development teams: an untapped source of innovation that you must unlock! — Presentation Transcript