Leading Effective Engineering Teams

Chapter 3. The 3 E’s Model of Effective Engineering

In the previous chapters, I laid out the foundations of team effectiveness and discussed the different metrics that can be used to measure efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. As software organizations strive to keep pace with the changing business world, teams change and evolve to become more efficient and effective. Organizations, teams, and people within those teams are going through a continuous cycle of growth and metamorphosis. We need a model for effective engineering that can stand true and help teams and team leaders through the different stages of growth.

In this chapter, I will introduce the new 3 E’s model of effective engineering—a scalable model that can help engineering leaders to instill effectiveness in their teams from the ground up. (See Figure 3-1.)

In the 3 E’s model, effective engineering is built through the following stages, in order of progression:

1. Enable

Enable effectiveness by first defining what it means to your team or organization. The definition should explain how best to measure effectiveness in a way that makes sense for the business domain. Once effectiveness is defined, you can actively work toward it by sharing aspirations and strategies with others on the team.

2. Empower

After identifying strategies to enable effectiveness, leaders must empower their teams to adopt them. Empowerment is about facilitation—removing distractions, blockers, and other complications as a leader so that ...