DevEx is yet another amalgamated word to hit the technology sector. As you might expect, the breakdown of the word is “developer experience.” Essentially, this is a way to measure and improve the productivity of your developers.
That might sound a bit harsh, as it treats software developers as a means to an end. Of course, that’s not far from the truth because developers do serve a very particular (and crucial) purpose for businesses around the globe. Even so, because those developers serve such an important purpose, ensuring your teams enjoy a positive experience should be seen as a must. After all, those software developers have to work under highly stressful conditions, with the pressure of delivering on time and building products that not only work but are seen as profitable and necessary.
The thing is when so many consider DevEx, the first thing they think of is supplying the individual team members with all the tools required to get the job done. Management might assume it’s limited to deploying collaboration tools, all the frameworks and libraries necessary, numerous programming languages, computers, servers, desks, and peripherals to make developers comfortable and productive.
It’s much more than that. In fact, it’s the human aspect of DevEx that can make the biggest impact on productivity. Neglect this, and your developers will eventually become less productive or, worse, defect to other companies that place a priority on the human aspect of this rather complex and challenging career.
If you want to avoid the need for continually hiring software developers and instead retain that brilliant team you already have, it’s time you and your company consider DevEx a priority.
But how? What are the aspects of DevEx that can have a positive impact on your teams? Let’s take a look at some of the pieces of this puzzle. There are four key aspects that can be implemented without dipping into your budget or having to totally reorganize your company. None of these elements should be seen as overly challenging, so they can be achieved without too much strain on your resources.
Open Communication
Let’s face it, without strong communication, your developers are going to struggle. But this isn’t just about deploying Slack or Rocket.Chat to serve as a means of collaboration between developers, teams, and departments.
Beyond the tools and/or services, it’s absolutely essential that communication be open enough that everyone involved is empowered to speak freely about a project. Don’t limit your software engineers to only discussing a project with one another or immediate supervisors.
It is crucial to motivate software engineers and make sure everyone is on the same page. Your teams need to feel free to speak with upper management and any stakeholders involved. Also, the communication needs to be immediate and effective. One pain point for in-house and remote developers alike is when they seek feedback for something they’ve been working on, only to have that feedback delayed.
The cascade effect of delayed feedback can be especially damaging. Consider this: One software engineer has created a piece of code for a project but needs feedback on it before they can continue work. If that feedback is delayed by so much as a day, it puts that developer into a holding pattern. Now, what if that piece of code is essential for another aspect of the project? Delaying the feedback to that developer puts not only them on hold but also anyone who is waiting for their work.
That kind of stress can be alleviated by ensuring feedback loops are handled as quickly as possible, and any/all delays of that feedback are averted. The faster your feedback loops, the more you can motivate software developers to achieve an effective workflow. Anything less can create a negative work environment and halt productivity in ways you don’t want to experience.
Clear and Achievable Goals
Do you have clearly defined goals to encourage your team members in your development team? If your answer is “To finish Project X in a timely fashion,” your goals need to be revisited. Why? Your dev team is like a highly functioning organism that have to work together in order to succeed.
To that end, look at your dev teams as a collection of separate entities that come together to form a cohesive whole. Each of those entities will have different processes and demands placed on them. Because of that, each entity might have different goals. You might have a UX team with the primary goal of creating a user-friendly interface for an application that is thoughtful and focuses on an experience for end users that is fulfilling, simple, and reproducible.
If you give each team member within those subsections of your dev teams the same goals, they’ll struggle. The important thing is to fine-tune the goals for each section of the whole such that they perfectly serve the purpose those developers serve and continue producing quality work.
It’s more than that. Your goals also need to be achievable to keep your development team motivated. You can’t start a new project and tell your teams they must deliver in an impossible time frame. That will only add an unbearable level of stress to your software developers and could lead to defection.
Workload
The work developers do is critical to the success of companies everywhere. To that end, many companies put their software development team under seriously stressful workloads. Not only can this lead to burnout, but it can also backfire. If you load your teams with too much work (as well as impossible deadlines), those software developers will not last.
By nature, developers tend to dive deep into the waters of their work, only coming up for air when it’s absolutely necessary. And given how much competition there is out there, developers understand it can be necessary to work far harder than they should have to.
This can be resolved in two ways:
- Don’t overload your team with too many projects at once.
- Hire more developers.
It’s always tempting to squeeze as much out of those employees as possible. But the risk can be too great, especially if you have rock stars on your teams who you want to retain and encourage for as long as possible. On top of that, getting new software developers up to speed on a project can cause delays.
The best thing to do, with the help of that open communication you’ve fostered, is to listen to your developers and ensure your feedback is timely, honest, and helpful. But more than that, your primary response to hearing software developers are overworked should not be to tell them to tough it out and get it done but to alleviate the issue by either lightening their load or adding more members to the team. Either way, you’ll greatly improve DevEx and encourage team members by proving to your teams that you’re on their side.
Workflow
Finally, this ties directly into the above three aspects. Once you have open communication, clear/achievable goals, and a viable workload, you must ensure your in-house or remote team’s workflow functions without interruption, stalls, or other obstacles.
Consider this: A developer gets into their zone and is writing brilliant code at an impossible rate. But then they get called into a meeting. Their flow is stopped. Even though the meeting might only last for 15 minutes, the developer’s flow is interrupted for much longer than that. They have to go to the meeting, sit through the meeting, possibly discuss the meeting with other software developers, go back to their office, and work their way back into the zone. What might have originally been a 15-minute stall turns into 30-60 minutes of work interruption.
Should that happen throughout the day, that developer will struggle to remain in the flow. Or, worse yet, they might become frustrated and have problems ever getting back into their zone (knowing they’ll most likely be interrupted again).
You must create an environment where software developers aren’t constantly pulled from their work so they can remain in the zone for longer periods. Doing this will ensure your developers can be more productive throughout the day.
Conclusion
It shouldn’t cost you much to improve the DevEx, whether you have a remote team or in-house. In fact, if you find you’re spending a good deal of your budget on DevEx, you’re probably focusing on the wrong aspects, which won’t offer nearly the return you’ll find with the above pieces. As always, great software development is all about working smarter, not harder, and making sure employees are engaged. Help your software developers to reach that nirvana and they’ll stick with you for the long haul and be happy all the while. That’s a goal every business should have.
