Engineering Leadership: The Hard Parts

Chapter 9. Collaborative Technical Practices and Decision Making

In chaotic environments, the difference between success and failure often hinges on how effectively teams work together and make technical decisions. Without robust collaborative practices, even the most talented engineers can build the wrong things, creating unnecessary complexity or duplicating efforts—not to mention the inherent friction, discord, and conflict created by confusion and misdirection. For you to succeed, decision making needs to be crisp and fast, and everyone needs to move in the same direction quickly and safely.

Chaotic environments are already stressful, and if your team (and your leadership style) isn’t in routine or doesn’t support you, then working at a chaotic organization goes from being potentially stressful to untenable. In this chapter, we explore how to establish effective collaborative technical practices and decision-making frameworks that can thrive even in the most chaotic and turbulent organizations.

In Chapter 6, we discussed the dangers of processes for their own sake and the tendency of extensive, unwieldy processes that lead to inertia and inefficiency. We talked about being agile, starting with the smallest amount of process and then building on that, only if needed. The same advice applies to building collaboration and leveling up decision making. In our experience, people innovate in light-touch environments and they stagnate in high-touch environments.

We also introduced ...