Engineering Leadership: The Hard Parts

Chapter 6. Shipping Products and Code in Chaotic Environments

We discussed in Chapter 1 that doing something is (almost) always better than doing nothing. We stand behind this take but acknowledge that it’s not very nuanced, because there is often more that you should or would do if you had the resources to. So, this means that you must decide what you will do and the order in which you will do it.

To do this, you need to consider prioritization approaches and exactly how to determine your actions. However, circumstances in most chaotic situations don’t lend themselves to implementing highly structured processes and techniques. Indeed, applying those more elaborate processes in a chaotic environment often means serving the process instead of driving the outcome. Don’t underestimate the power of simplicity and common sense.

We need to find some techniques that meet the following criteria:

• Inspire confidence.

• Be execution-focused.

• Be lightweight and adaptable.

• Foster continuous learning.

• Focus on communication and collaboration.

In this chapter, we explore what this means and introduce you to some approaches that could either meet your needs or be adapted to meet them.

Tip

This won’t be a detailed guide to prioritization and the software development lifecycle (SDLC). But it does offer a crash course designed to equip you with the skills to manage right now. For deeper guides, check out Martin Fowler’s collection of Agile guides and Atlassian’s SDLC guide.

Inspire ...