I’ve been an engineering leader for many years. Every good technical professional will tell you that you are always learning. Every day is a school day. There are a lot of books, podcasts, articles, and frameworks about leadership like The Value Flywheel Effect. These books provide insights that heavily shape my thoughts on engineering leaders.
1. Simon Wardley for engineering leadership
You have to understand your landscape. You must map. Simon Wardley has created a complete approach that he calls his strategy cycle. It’s brilliant:
Purpose – Why? Do you know what you are doing?
Movement – Wardley Mapping will help you understand your landscape, its evolution, and blockers to change (inertia).
Climatic patterns – these help describe factors that you may be observing. Internal or external.
Doctrine – this is a list of potential things you could/should do. Do you know how good your execution is?
Leadership – given all of the above, what will you do?
After completing the map, you need to return to the start. It’s a cycle. Wardley Mapping is a critical component of this – start there (and the book is free).
2. Creativity Inc. – culture for engineering leaders
This book may surprise you! The Pixel story, as told by Ed Catmull, is an excellent example of engineering leadership. The idea of the ugly baby and the machine is compelling.
In the book, Catmull explains:
“….when you think of how a movie starts out. It’s a baby. It’s like the fetus of a movie star; we all start out ugly. Every one of Pixar’s stories starts out that way. A new thing is hard to define; it’s not attractive, and it requires protection. When I was a researcher at DARPA, I had protection for what was ill-defined. Every new idea in any field needs protection. Pixar is set up to protect our director’s ugly baby. Of course you can’t protect the baby forever. At some point, it has to grow up and change into something, because the beast is still there. That’s a positive thing. Because sometimes the ugly baby would rather play in the sandbox forever.”
Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull
3. Sense and Respond – customer
Every engineering leadership organization must be empathetic toward the customer. There are many ways to do this, but the approach laid out by Seth is straightforward and effective. Seth explains that:
“Most leaders and project teams think this is simply the evolution of “IT”—leaving business management unchanged. This is not true. As this technology becomes embedded in literally every phase and process of our businesses, we need new organizational structures and management practices capable of leveraging these new capabilities.”
His book:
“describes the tools, techniques, and practices that managers need to thrive in this new world.”
Sense and Respond, Gothelf & Seiden
4. Accelerate – rapid delivery
There are too many books and complicated approaches to writing great software. Some techniques are so contrived that the engineering leadership needs to remember what they are doing. Teams can track dozens of metrics, but many end up needing clarification. Accelerate is incredible as it reduces delivery to 4 key metrics [explain]. When talking to a team, it is simplest to ask, “How many times did you deliver last week?” That question will unravel everything you need to know about performance in 3 minutes. Or you could spend three weeks doing a Root Cause Analysis.
5. The Software Architect Elevator – Engineering Leaders
Architecture is the lost art. Agile has killed it in many ways, as architecture has become a phase early in the waterfall cycle. Gregor has done the best job of explaining how an Architect should work:
“The role of architects has fundamentally changed. While knowing UML and architecture styles was sufficient a few years ago, modern architects reduce friction, align technology and organization, and chart a credible transformation journey. All while keeping up with the latest tech without being blind sighted by buzzwords. These architects ride the Architect Elevator to connect the organization’s penthouse, where the business strategy is defined, with the engine room, where the enabling technologies are implemented.”
And it’s not just Architects.
6. Team Topologies – teams
The team has always been the fundamental unit of delivery. Not organizations or individuals. How you organize groups and how they interact is crucial. There are four basic topologies:
Stream-aligned team: aligned to a flow of work from (usually) a segment of the business domain
Enabling team: helps a Stream-aligned team to overcome obstacles. It also detects missing capabilities.
Complicated Subsystem team: where significant mathematics/calculation/technical expertise is needed.
Platform team: a grouping of other team types that provide a compelling internal product to accelerate delivery by a Stream-aligned team
The enablement team is the most potent concept here, and engineering leaders widely misunderstand it.
7. The Fearless Organization – environment
It goes without saying, but psych safety is critical to allow individuals and the engineering leadership to bring their whole selves to work. Prof. Edmondson of Harvard Business School explains that:
“psychological safety is required for team high-performance. Psychological safety is defined as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes“
The Fearless Organization, Edmondson
8. Community of Practice – sharing
Finally, you can structure communication channels and knowledge management in many complex ways. Millions are spent on this by large companies. Often, the most effective method is “unscripted collaboration.” Put people together, and they will talk. The power of community inside an org is very effective. Webber’s 5 step process is very insightful.
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