CraftConf [Preview] "Empathy - The Hidden Ingredient of Good Software Development"
When I ask fellow developers what they think about empathy, the answer is often “not much”. However, I believe that the skill of empathy, being able to place yourself in another’s position, is crucial to designing, building and operating software at any scale. Join me for a whistle stop tour of the benefits of empathy, which I have learned from working on a wide variety of software projects over the previous ten years. I will share stories of success and failure, and suggest practical techniques that you can harness in order to help your team develop empathy. When gathering requirements and performing business analysis, it is obvious that the ability to experience from within another user/customer/being's frame of reference is a valuable skill, but the same can be said when writing code. If we follow Martin Fowler’s train of thought where “any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand” we can see that empathy is at the heart of this skill. We could also argue that the rise of “DevOps” is simply both sides of the traditional divide trying to understand each other better. Developing the skill of empathy isn’t necessarily easy, but in this talk I will share my learnings, techniques and tricks for developing more effective software.
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CraftConf [Preview] "Empathy - The Hidden Ingredient of Good Software Development"
- 3. A typical software development debacle… Me: I think we’re some missing empathy here… Dev: Is that a JavaScript framework? Empathy.js? Me: No, no – shared understanding... Dev: Is it a new communication style? RxEmpathy? Me: No, I mean thinking about the needs and feelings of your (customer|team mate|boss|internet troll) Dev: ... 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 6. @danielbryantuk • Chief Scientist at OpenCredo • Agile, Architecture, CI/CD, DevOps • Microservices, cloud, containers • Driving change through the application of technology and teams • London Java Community Associate • InfoQ Editor, DZone MVB, Voxxed… • Conference regular: Devoxx, JavaOne, QCon… 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 7. The next 30 minutes • Core principles • Empathy in the real world • Requirements gathering • Architecture and development • Operations • Leadership 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 9. Core themes in the presentation • Know yourself • Who we are determines how we see others (emotional intelligence) • The first person we must examine is ourselves • Know others • The world – with one exception – is composed of others • We can lift people up or take people down • Seek rapid feedback • No one gets it right all the time 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 13. Requirements gathering Because we’re creating software for other people 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 14. IT as conversational medium • Agile • Start with why (impact) • Design thinking • Empathy • Ethnography • Abductive thinking • Iterative user testing 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 16. Personas • Represent a major user group • Express needs and expectations • Uncovering universal features and functionality • Describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and values 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 18. Ethnography - “Get out of the building” • www.notonthehighstreet.com • “In your shoes” • Large UK retailer • “Shop floor time” • My own experiences… 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 19. Core themes - requirements • Know yourself • Identify your bias (as much as possible) • What impact am I seeking (start with why)? • Know others • Seek to understand users • Visit users in their natural habitat • Seek rapid feedback • Prototyping • Build, measure, learn 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 21. Architecture • Shared understanding • Architects must code • Risk management • Technical • Stakeholder • ‘Just enough’ upfront design 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 24. Coding • All code is communication • ”Clean Code” • Wikis and READMEs “Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live.” -Jeff Atwood blog.codinghorror.com/coding-for-violent-psychopaths/ 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 25. Systems thinking – the user journey • Understand the user journey • “Shift left” QA • Three amigos • ”Quality Advocates” • BDD and TDD • Outside in 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 26. Core themes – architecture and dev • Know yourself • Check your communication skills • Know others • Solution-focused • Think outside-in • Seek rapid feedback • Prototype 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 30. “Developer-on-call” An occasional spike to the head is a good thing... ...metaphorically speaking • You build it, you run it • Accountability • Shared responsibility • Communication 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 31. DevOps - it’s not a department • Pair with developers • Treat operators are stakeholders • Involve in standups • Communication face-to-face 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 32. Outside-in (and systems) thinking • Lineage-driven fault injection • Semantic monitoring • Avoiding alert fatigue 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk www.infoq.com/presentations/failure-test-research-netflix
- 33. Core themes - operations • Know yourself • Seek freedom and accountability • Know others • Dev-on-call / DevOps • Think outside-in • Seek rapid feedback • Semantic monitoring (systems) 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 35. Leadership • Know yourself • Big five personality traits, MBTI, meditation • Know others • Engineers (including myself) can be a funny interesting bunch! • Care about the team (their stories, journey, motivation…) • Coaching is a valuable skills • Seek rapid feedback • 360 feedback 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 38. Final thoughts • Know yourself • Who we are determines how we see others • The first person we must examine is ourselves • Know others • The world – with one exception – is composed of others • We can lift people up or take people down • Seek rapid feedback • No one gets it right all the time 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk
- 39. The rest is up to you… Thanks to all the OpenCredo team and Tareq Abedrabbo for inspiration @danielbryantuk daniel.bryant@opencredo.com www.opencredo.com 25/04/2016 @danielbryantuk