Don't leave your developers in the lurch when they encounter problems.
Have you ever stopped to think how difficult a developer's job really is? The work itself is not only difficult, but it also requires meeting often unreasonable deadlines. And because your company requires the software you create to work correctly, there's an added level of stress that some of your other employees don't experience.
Therefore, when a developer encounters a common, everyday obstacle, it can impede progress. Every time a developer has to stop what they are doing, they will have to spend more time getting back up to speed when they return to code. That alone can be a real problem, especially for developers who already have a lot of trouble concentrating.
With that in mind, what can you do to help these developers overcome the common obstacles they face throughout the day? You might be surprised to discover that it's not as difficult as you think. At the same time, it's also important that you don't create an environment where your software engineers are isolated from other workers. You don't want to completely isolate your developers or make them feel like they're better than the rest of your team.
However, if you want these engineers to meet deadlines without compromising the quality of their code, it's important to help them overcome common obstacles.
Let's take a look at how you can manage this effectively.
Avoid interruptions
One of the biggest headaches developers face is outages. This can be in the form of unnecessary meetings, visits, phone calls, off-site excursions and site visits. Every time you interrupt a developer, it's not just the time the interruption lasts that stops them from working, but also the time it takes for them to get back to writing code. This may require them to review what they last wrote, consider their goal, and finally get back to work.
If you (or other employees) interrupt your developers throughout the day, downtime will increase. To get the most productivity out of your developers, they should be left alone to do what they do best: write code. Disturb your software engineers as little as possible throughout the day and you will find that they will work much more efficiently.
Download non-development work
At some point in the future, your managers may have tasked developers with doing things other than development. They can have them work on user onboarding, invoicing, team management, or even some light administrative tasks. Such duties should be considered the same as interruptions because they prevent your developers from doing what you hired them to do: develop.
Be sure to regularly check in with your engineers to keep them focused on this singular software engineering task. Any chance to offload non-development work means those developers will be more productive.
Actively listen to your team
This is harder than you think. Active listening means more than just hearing words. You must listen to the meaning behind the words, the attitude that drives the words, the subtext behind the words, and the physicality associated with the words.
When you can truly listen to your team, you will be better able to know what problems they are facing or what needs are not being met. This is probably a much bigger deal than you are imagining. Once you start actively listening to your developers, you'll be better equipped to know what obstacles they're facing and how to address those issues more effectively.
Be as flexible as possible
If you become strict with your developers, problems will arise. To achieve a higher level of productivity, you must show your developers that you can be flexible. This can come in the form of a release deadline (which you shouldn't be too flexible with), scheduling, and remote work. The stricter you are with developers, the more stress they will face in their jobs.
Create a flexible environment that is not only enjoyable to work in, but also meets the specific needs of the developer. You might have one developer who works best when under pressure from tight deadlines, while another is highly stressed and less productive. When you understand how your different developers work and can be flexible with those needs, you'll see their productivity skyrocket.
Emphasize quality over quantity
It's tempting to demand big numbers from your developers. This is a mistake. Yes, your developers need to produce code, but emphasizing quantity over quality is a disaster in the making. What you want are developers who produce the highest quality code possible. When this happens, they may seem a little slower, but the fact that the code may require a significantly shorter testing phase means the overall development lifecycle will be shorter.
A shorter development lifecycle means you can release faster and more reliably. Make quality your goal and reap the benefits.
Employ a Kanban board
If you really want to help your developers, use a Kanban board. These simple-to-use project management tools can help keep developers on top of their tasks and make team collaboration even easier. Even better, kanban boards help remove middle management from the picture, which can go a long way toward avoiding interruptions and avoiding non-development tasks.
Most importantly, though, kanban boards provide developers with a visual representation of where each task is on the project timeline. This helps keep developers on track with deadlines so they can avoid the stress of having to rush to the end.
Kanban boards are a cost-effective and simple-to-deploy solution that can bring considerable benefits to your developers and your business.
Avoid cubicles at all costs
This may be a challenge for some companies, but having your developers work in cubicles is often less productive. As we already said, development is already a challenging job, which is why you need your development team to collaborate with each other, something that cubicles prevent.
But if you have no choice but to use cubicles, it would be better to put all your developers on the same floor, that way everyone will respect each other and distractions will be minimal. The best case scenario, however, is to give these developers offices so they can close their doors and be productive.
Conclusion
You don't need to treat your developers with kid gloves, but you may find that a little extra attention to help them overcome common workplace obstacles goes a long way in making them more productive. And when your developers are more productive, your business will flourish. Common obstacles are everywhere, so keep an eye out for those that can slow down the development process.
