How Your CTO Builds A Software Development Process from Scratch
During a one-on-one with one of my Engineering Managers, I suggested they put a match to everything in their process that isn’t adding value.
How do I do that?
- Software Engineering Manager
I’ve been developing software, leading software teams, and learning about the craft of software development for over 25 years. I needed to bring my Manager along in the next 10 minutes. How would I do that?
What is your goal?
As software developers, we realize value when our users get significance from the software we’ve built.
Delivering software to our users becomes our guiding principle — all of the activities we take on point towards delivery.
If we aren’t delivering, then we are accumulating software inventory that has no value by itself. However, our software shows its worth when it’s in the hands of our users. Manufacturers similarly manage their stock using “just in time” techniques.
What are the minimum steps?
We can work backward from our users to figure out what we need to do.
- Deliver the software to our users. Today, we deliver most software as a web application or an app in one of the app stores.
- Build and package the software, preparing it for delivery.
- Validate that our software does what we think it’s supposed to do. You could call this testing.
- Design and build the next iteration of the software. I think of an iteration as a thin slice of functionality that accomplishes one small task. The work feels degenerate when we define it correctly.
Working forward in time, we need to develop, test, build, and ship.
What about everything else?
How do I handle pull requests? Do I need to write a story card with acceptance criteria? What about my ritual meetings?
These practices, and many others, are tools that development teams can use to solve specific problems. I think about them like an electrician’s toolbox, a carpenter’s belt, or an archer’s quiver full of arrows. We have the tools we need at hand, but we don’t always need to use all the tools.
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📋 About Milo
I am a tech executive, writer, speaker, entrepreneur, and inventor. I’ve been developing software since 1995 and developing teams for over a decade. 🚀
I write articles about software, engineering, management, and leadership.
You can also follow me on Twitter. 🐦
