Interesting Readings #2
Welcome to my newsletter! Each week, I spend my learning time reading online and reading books. My main goal is to go deeper in my learning and share it with you.
This week I have focused more energy on a topic which is often an object of confusion: engineering metrics.
Weekly Focus: Metrics
The state of Dev Ops is behind the most common metrics and frameworks we use today. We have all heard about the 4 metrics (DORA) and more recently the SPACE framework. When talking about the purpose of using metrics we tend to talk about two concepts.
Developer productivity is the most common one. It is about how much work we can get done.
Developer experience is the other concept, often referred to as a side effect of the other.
The excessive focus on the first concept though, can be counterproductive. We should not forget that developer experience is the most important thing here.
It is all about capabilities and processes to improve our software delivery end to end. (N. Forsgren).
The focus is to enable work to go faster and be more reliable.
We need better technical, architectural and cultural practices to do that.
The exercise to find the right metrics is necessary for each team that want to improve. It is a process, rather than a product you can buy off the shelf or learn from a book. After DORA and SPACE, industry leaders are talking about a new framework where developer experience is at the heart.
I have linked some insightful articles that you can read about it. I have left some highlights from those articles below.
As developers are our “users”. What it is like to write software, is this a friction free process? Is this a predictable experience? Can we reduce uncertainty and improve predictability? This eventually contributes to productivity.
You cannot improve what you do not measure, so measuring the software development process is more important than ever
”How to measure and improve developer productivity with Nicole Forsgren”
( Video & Video )
When handling metrics, teams must always be careful to remember Goodhart's law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." The danger is that metrics become an end in themselves rather than a means to an end.
DORA metrics are leading indicators of planning accuracy and predictability, but they are lagging indicators of efficiency and quality.
“DORA Metrics: We’ve Been Using Them Wrong” ( Read more )
We need both lagging and leading indicators. Lagging indicators are the closest thing we have to success. However lagging indicators are hard to achieve and take a long time. We need to have a proxy for it that we can measure often and that can give us a clear sense of progress. This is where leading indicators come in. We need both of them, as we have to make sure that our set of leading indicators are taking us to success.
“Leading and lagging Indicators” ( Read more )
"The DevEx framework provides a way to improve developer productivity in a systematic and developer-centric way. We encourage readers to capture metrics within each of the three dimensions in order to illuminate areas of friction as well as effectively prioritize the areas that will have the biggest impact on the organization’s intended outcomes."
DevEx Framework Metrics ( Read more )
Read more
Your biggest mistake might be collecting the wrong data.
Dora does not measure productivity
Personal & Well Being
Leverage your strengths
It's inspiring to see how people find ways to leverage their strengths. In this story, Dennie diagnosed autistic, becomes aware of events that trigger his energy levels and takes action. More self-awareness and knowledge of our strengths will make us more successful.
Also from this other article, taking learning at the micro-personal level:
“Leverage” means generating a large effect from a relatively small effort, created by riding tailwinds of natural abilities or hard-won assets, rather than fighting a battle for which you are ill-equipped
Leveraging strengths is the only way to do great work. (Not “fixing weaknesses.”) Better yet, leveraging differentiated strengths means you beat the competition. Best is when that differentiation is durable over time.
Inspirational quote
Patience only works if you do. Doing the work + patience = results.
Planning to work + patience = you’re just waiting.
( James Clear - author of Atomic Habits )
People and Teams
Overcoming your fear of giving tough feedback (Read more)
I dread feedback and I was bad at it for a long time. However, everyone can be better at it. It is not something that comes naturally, we need to practice it. It is a skill! Some highlights:
You’re not doing anyone a favour by avoiding conflict. When problems go unaddressed or are swept under the rug, everyone suffers, including you. A lack of constructive feedback is also detrimental to your team, depriving them of mentorship and growth opportunities. Workplaces marked by poor communication and unclear expectations are breeding grounds for low trust and disengagement.
Feedback should be a regular ritual, not an occasional blast. Making feedback a habit ensures the tiny annoyances and frustrations you harbor don’t blow up into major conflicts. Plus, gradually exposing yourself to fearful situations is the best way to overcome them. The more you practice giving feedback in lower-stakes, everyday scenarios as part of your role, the better at it you’ll become.
Episode 2: Fear of Conflict (Read more) or the book
In the previous episode, we covered the first dysfunction: The absence of Trust
The second dysfunction is connected to the first one, because if there is trust a team can engage in conflicts and discussions.
✅ Ideological conflict is limited to concept and ideas, and avoids personality-focused/mean attacks. It can still be filled of passion, emotions and frustration. An outsider could confuse it with a destructive conflict.
⚠️ There is a lot of energy and waste that can go in avoiding debate
💡 Recognise that conflicts are important and productive
Practical activities you can do:
Assign someone as “miner”. Someone that can extract disagreements within the team and shed light on them during meetings, until resolved
Real-time permission - Recognise we are having a conflict but due to its nature it’s important to discuss and resolve