Technical excellence, meaning e.g. quality code, sound architecture, good test automation and coverage, continuous integration and continuous deployment, is the pre-requisite of sustainable software development. Sustainability of software development is essential for improving the Return On Investment and extending the life cycle of software products and services. In my talk I will explain why the majority of organizations is still not making effective management decisions to ensure they get technical excellence. I will argue that technical excellence is impossible to buy from a software vendor and impossible to enforce in contractual terms. The other side to this subject is my second argument: the only way to ensure technical excellence is to have a skilled and motivated team that takes responsible of it, and giving that team the responsibility and means to ensure technical excellence I will go over my personal experiences relating to management decisions regarding technical excellence and illustrate the thinking that is behind the ineffective decision-making related to technical excellence. In conclusion, I will describe what kind of change of mindset is required for making effective management decisions regarding technical excellence.

1. Technical Excellence:
Why does it not stick even now?
Antti Kirjavainen
@anttiki

2. Test Coverage Policy: The Idea

4. Test Coverage Policy: The Idea
>60%
Unit Test
Coverage
Quality
Regular
reports

5. Test Coverage Policy: The Reality
>60%
Unit Test
Coverage
Lots of tests
doing
nothing but
adding % of
test coverage
Regular
reports

6. Technical Excellence

7. Technical Excellence
Continuous attention to
technical excellence and
good design enhances agility.

8. Examples of Technical Excellence
quality code,
sound architecture,
good test automation and
coverage,
continuous integration and
continuous deployment.

10. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Photo by Daniele Zedda

11. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Photo by DanielePeople10
Infographic from Zedda

12. Technical Excellence
building it right
to
maximize delivery potential

13. Why don’t we have it, then?

14. Processes
Alert
And
policies
Alert!
Your organization
might be suffering from a
Legacy mindset.
Photo by Jeremiah Owyang

15. Test Coverage Policy: The Idea
>60%
Unit Test
Coverage
Quality
Regular
reports

16. Test Coverage Policy: The Reality
>60%
Unit Test
Coverage
Lots of tests
doing
nothing but
adding % of
test coverage
Regular
reports

17. Alert
Contract clauses
Alert!
Your organization
might be suffering from a
Legacy mindset.

18. Contract with a Warranty Period
We’ll fix all the defects for free
during these periods!
Development
Acceptance
Testing
Support,
warranty period
6 months

19. Contract with a Warranty Period
Development
Acceptance
Testing
Support, warra
nty period
6 months

20. Prioritization by Business
value

21. Example from Real Life: The Plan
Product Backlog
Feature 1
15 months
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Feature 6

22. Example from Real Life: The Reality
Product Backlog
Architectural feature I
12 months to
go
Feature 1
Feature 2
Architectural feature II
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Feature 6

23. Example from Real Life: The Decision
Product Backlog
6 months to
go
Architectural feature I
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Duct tape & chewing
Feature 6
gum solutions

24. Example from Real Life: The Effects

25. Old approaches do not solve the problem
Processes and
policies
Contract clauses
Business value
prioritization

26. Why?

27. Traditional Management Paradigm:
Extrinsic motivation
Desire to achieve goal G
Reward result R
Assume R leads to G
Problems with non-linear effects
From Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

28. Non-linear effects in SW dev
We are here
From Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

29. What is needed instead?

30. New Management Paradigm:
Intrinsic motivation
Desire to achieve goal G
Where G is its own reward
No non-linear effects
From Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

31. Nurturing Technical Excellence
Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

32. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Understanding
Photo by DanielePeople10
Infographic from Zedda

33. Skills

34. Autonomy

35. Discipline
Antti Leinonen, Sirkus Magenta, photo by Tuomas Stenbäck

36. Requires
Motivation
Understanding
Skills
Autonomy
Discipline

37. How can devs support that?

38. Managers, Business and Developers
Shared
Trust enables
Developers can
bring
Motivation
Autonomy
Skills
Understanding
+Understanding
Discipline
+Discipline
Managers
Developers
Business

39. Motivation for Managers, Business?
Shared
Motivation
?
Trust enables
Developers can
bring
Autonomy
Skills
Understanding
+Understanding
Discipline
+Discipline
Managers
Developers
Business

40. Manager
What’s in it for me?
Business

41. Example from Real Life: Legacy How-To
Product Backlog
6 months to
go
Architectural feature I
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Duct tape & chewing
Feature 6
gum solutions

42. Example from Real Life: The Effects

43. Your cautionary story?

44. How to build trust?
Shared
Trust enables
Developers can
bring
Motivation
Autonomy
Skills
Understanding
+Understanding
Discipline
+Discipline
Managers
Business
?
Developers

45. Who should define indicators / metrics?
Managers
IT / architects
Business
Developers

46. Test Coverage Policy
>60%
Unit Test
Coverage
Lots of tests
doing
nothing but
adding % of
test coverage
Regular
reports

47. What would the Experts choose instead?
Leading
Indicators
Developers
Technical
Quality
Sound
Architecture
Lagging
Indicators

48. Micromanagement by the team
Mike Cohn

49. What to do if there’s no trust?

50. Do not be an order-taker!
Product Backlog
6 months to
go
Architectural feature I
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Duct tape & chewing
Feature 6
gum solutions

51. How to grow development organization?
Shared
Trust enables
Developers can
bring
Motivation
Autonomy
Skills
Understanding
+Understanding
Discipline
+Discipline
Managers
Developers
Business
?

52. Let excellence grow in circles or guilds!
Team A
Team B
Team C
Team D

53. Let excellence grow in circles or guilds!
Team A
Team B
DevOps
Circle
Team C
Team D

54. Houston Inc. Frontend Circle
Outside
world
Outside
frontend
scene
Houston
Inc.
Feedback
Idea
s
Conferences +
events
Frontend
Circle
Visibility
Training
Board of
directors
Houston
Personne
l
Customer
s & sales

55. Conclusions

56. Technical Excellence
building it right
to
maximize delivery potential

57. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Photo by Daniele Zedda

58. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Photo by DanielePeople10
Infographic from Zedda

59. Old approaches do not solve the problem
Processes and
policies
Contract clauses
Business value
prioritization

60. Traditional Management Paradigm:
Extrinsic motivation
Desire to achieve goal G
Reward result R
Assume R leads to G
Problems with non-linear effects
From Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

61. New Management Paradigm:
Intrinsic motivation
Desire to achieve goal G
Where G is its own reward
No non-linear effects
From Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

62. Emphasis on Flow over Batches
Understanding
Photo by DanielePeople10
Infographic from Zedda

63. Skills

64. Autonomy

65. Discipline
Antti Leinonen, Sirkus Magenta, photo by Tuomas Stenbäck

66. Managers, Business and Developers
Shared
Trust enables
Developers can
bring
Motivation
Autonomy
Skills
Understanding
+Understanding
Discipline
+Discipline
Managers
Developers
Business

67. Manager
What’s in it for me?
Business

68. What would the Experts choose instead?
Leading
Indicators
Developers
Technical
Quality
Sound
Architecture
Lagging
Indicators

69. Let excellence grow in circles or guilds!
Team A
Team B
DevOps
Circle
Team C
Team D

70. Nurture Technical Excellence
Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

71. Maximize the Impact
Photo by Spettacolopuro

72. Thank you for your attention

73. Antti Kirjavainen
antti.kirjavainen@houston-inc.com
@anttiki
http://www.slideshare.net/AnttiKirjavainen/
http://learninggamedev.wordpress.com/
http://www.houston-inc.com/