The Three Foundational Blocks that Optimize Developer Performance

Our previous post titled "How Do You Manage Your Technical Debt?," mentioned the four dimensions of developer productivity that are critical to success. They are:

• Speed of development – in an increasingly competitive marketplace, the desire to please one’s customers as quickly as possible is never far away;
• Quality – maintaining a reputation for quality is critical to maintaining a customer base;
• Results/Functionality Delivered – reflect promises made;
• Cost of Delivery – always a temptation to cut corners here, usually in favor of cutting time

As we also discussed, keeping these various dimensions in balance is important to long-term success.

The Three Foundational Blocks

Fortunately, consistent, long-term application lifecycle success is achievable by building developer performance on three foundational blocks that together optimize development and increase productivity:

1. Robust Processes Based on Industry Best Practices – Above all, clarity in communication at every stage

1. Use an Agile-based methodology with well-defined templates, coding standards and project delivery guidelines.
2. Remember that development and QA go hand-in-hand through the development lifecycle
3. Conduct continuous software evaluation in collaboration with the customer
4. Also remember strong service management processes to support all development activities

2. Effective Project Management & Leadership – Decide your destination in order to select and navigate the best route:

1. Create and adhere to your delivery roadmap, even as you focus on reducing re-starts and re-work
2. Measure the accuracy of your effort estimation (for future projects) as you measure the team’s throughput
3. Assign needed support resources to reduce bottlenecks (QA, BSAs, DBAs, etc.)
4. Technical managers should run development teams, and remember to stay actively involved in code and design reviews
5. Additional goals include the ability to remove noise and distractions; a forward-looking plan to address sick time and vacations; and a constant focus on Developer Retention

3. Tools – Select the right tools for your team, together with an emphasis on collaboration:

1. Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) productivity tools to enhance ease of development
2. Always emphasize team collaboration for more effective and efficient development
3. Code Analysis tools to ensure secure, reliable and compliant software

By taking such an approach to software that adopts a holistic view, the likelihood of accruing technical debt can be minimized, and even avoided altogether. Remember, proactively managing technical debt is a critical aspect of efficient delivery. Mastering it will contribute to lasting success.