InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Managing High-Performing Software Teams
High-performing teams expect their leader to enable them to make things better, Gillard-Moss said at QCon London. Independence in software teams can enable decision-making for faster delivery. Teams need empathy, understanding, and guidance from their managers.
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How a Sustainable Mindset in Software Engineering Can Increase Team Performance and Prevent Burnout
A sustainable mindset in software engineering matters because software is still primarily built by humans, and we must prioritize their well-being, Marion Løken said at NDC Oslo. Integrating the team more deeply into discovery work, discussing feedback collectively, and fostering a culture of psychological safety helped to engage her team and mitigate burnout.
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Setting up a Data Mesh Organization
A data mesh organization: producers, consumers, and the platform. According to Matthias Patzak, the mission of the platform team is to make the lives of the producer and consumers simple, efficient and stress free. Data must be discoverable and understandable, trustworthy, and shared securely and easily across the organization.
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Data Teams Survey: Lag in DataOps and Value Delivered
We report on Jesse Anderson's 2024 Data Teams Survey which showed a lag in DataOps capabilities, slow LLM adoption, and a concerning decline in perceived value creation by data teams. It called out the importance of teams spread with data science, engineering, and operations capabilities. We also cover Petr Janda's recent podcast on the need for more engineering rigour for parity with other teams.
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How to Improve Software Team Performance with Experimentation
According to Terhi Aho, experimentation is a way of thinking that guides action. By experimenting we can develop ways of working without a major change process. It can help software teams to solve problems in small steps, relieve their workload, and foster self-management.
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Measuring and Reducing the Environmental Impact of Software
Software applications often manage big amounts of data; most of them are internet-based applications, and incorporate artificial intelligence. According to Coral Calero, these three aspects improve the capabilities and functionalities provided by software but they have also increased the amount of energy needed. We need to measure energy consumption of software to control its environmental impact.
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QCon London: Learnings from Automating Deployments
Copying and pasting code from one Windows folder to another as a deployment method can cause downtime. Jemma Hussein Allen presented how they automated their deployments and the benefits that they got from it at QCon London.
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Enabling Fast Flow in Software Organizations
Resolving impediments to flow and removing unnecessary sources of cognitive load can make culture issues disappear in organisations, Nigel Kersten argued. Start with a clear strategy that is easy to communicate, then follow the path to creating stream-aligned teams and platform teams, he suggested.
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The Value of Using Timeless Testing Tools
According to Benjamin Bischoff, developers find new tools much more interesting than old ones, as they offer an opportunity to learn new technologies and approaches and to expand their tool belt. Using tools that have been around for decades, however, can save time and budget. When evaluating tools, it is more important to understand the problem to be solved than to jump straight into the tools.
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Fostering High-performing Work Environments for Software Development
According to Eb Ikonne, leaders should provide a motivating challenge or mission so that the software engineering team understands what success looks like. They can provide an enabling structure for effective teamwork, address things that negatively impact team success, and reduce or remove friction. Coaching can help people discover how to work effectively together.
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LLMs and Agents as Team Enablers
Eric Naiburg and Birgitta Böckeler published articles on the benefits and challenges of using AI as a multiplier in dev teams. We report on their insights for scenarios such as simplifying the germane cognitive load of a domain, automating code migrations, and coaching scrum masters on team facilitation. We also cover Böckeler's experiments with using LLMs to onboard onto a complex project.
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How Tech-Enabled Networks of Software Teams Work
To maintain agility at scale, software teams can use technological and organizational solutions to reduce dependencies and work autonomously. According to Fabrice Bernhard, collaboration technology can be leveraged to create a distributed network of teams. To empower their teams, leaders can support them with a systematic problem-solving culture aimed at delivering good products to customers.
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Experiences from Doing DORA Surveys Internally in Software Companies
Doing DORA surveys in your company can help you reflect on how you are doing software delivery and operation. The way you design and run the surveys, and how you analyze the results, largely impact the benefits that you can get out of them. Carlo Beschi shared his experiences from doing DORA surveys at Agile Cambridge.
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Null-Restricted and Nullable Types for Java
Draft JEP 8303099 was recently made public. This JEP discusses Null-Restricted and Nullable Types, and aims to bring optional nullness-marking to the Java language, in a similar way to that seen in other programming languages (such as Kotlin).
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JSpecify 1.0.0 and Nullability in Java
The JSpecify collective has made its first release. The group's mission is to define common sets of annotation types for use in JVM languages, to improve static analysis and language interoperation. The first release is centred on nullability, and aligns with a recently announced Draft JEP that is exploring this issue at language level.