Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
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Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
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Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#2Had to read quite a bit before Conway’s Law was mentioned, but glad it was.
Viewing organizations and software engineering through this lens has been a game changer for me personally. As an individual contributor I now appreciate horrendous technical debt and glacially slow development as systematic organizational issues, rather than blaming burnt out or lazy engineers.
Now I’m much more aware and critical of technical and executive leadership. “A fish rots from the head” is one of those quotes that resonates with me more and more everyday.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#3The main takeaway:
Engineers prioritizing making systems easier and more consistent end up with overly complex, difficult to operate systems
Product managers prioritize shipping features and end up making the software development process slower
Security prioritizes minimizing risk of change and ends up maximizing the risk of out-of-date software.
Flat organizations prioritize open communication and end up with cliques and internal politics.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#4High turnover also contributes to tech debt. When turnover becomes ingrained in company culture, engineers have no incentive to care overly much about the overall health of the code base.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#5High turnover also contributes to tech debt. When turnover becomes ingrained in company culture, engineers have no incentive to care overly much about the overall health of the code base.
I can attest to this because the company I currently work for has the highest turnover I've ever experienced. People are barely making it 8 months, meanwhile the bosses are pushing for faster growth to match our newish funding. That's leading to people who have been here for 2 months hiring _more_ people to replace the people who left at 8 months. Just about every project is suffering from simply not understanding what it does or how it works, which leads to more burn out which causes even more churn. I've never seen the cycle this close before and it really is wild just how bad it can get.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#6High turnover also contributes to tech debt. When turnover becomes ingrained in company culture, engineers have no incentive to care overly much about the overall health of the code base.
I can attest to this because the company I currently work for has the highest turnover I've ever experienced. People are barely making it 8 months, meanwhile the bosses are pushing for faster growth to match our newish funding. That's leading to people who have been here for 2 months hiring _more_ people to replace the people who left at 8 months. Just about every project is suffering from simply not understanding wh…
The current job market is punishing poorly run companies. It's too easy to pick up the phone and get a new job quick these days if you're unhappy, contributing to churn.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#7I thought that was a pretty good essay. I've never had Security running the show, but the other scenarios he discusses match my experience.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#8High turnover also contributes to tech debt. When turnover becomes ingrained in company culture, engineers have no incentive to care overly much about the overall health of the code base.
I have the opposite experience. When people typically stick around for the majority of their career, there's no incentive to capture knowledge thoroughly. Onboarding time was noticeably longer because of it.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#9In most organizations that has one, the sales department has an outsized influence on every other department including tech.
Re: Hunting Tech Debt via Org Charts
#10In most organizations that has one, the sales department has an outsized influence on every other department including tech.
Hire a department full of persuasive people. Expect to get persuasion. On top of which, subverting an organization's decision making processes and channels is a core competency of good sales departments. A two-edged sword if there ever was.