If your developers are not happy, there is a high chance that they will not be productive. Here are three things you can focus on to help improve the developer experience at your company.
Developers are a key component to the success of your business. Whether your company sells software or uses custom software to accomplish tasks, the heavy lifting of bringing that software to life rests on the shoulders of your developers.
To that end, you may have spent a lot of time and effort recruiting the ideal team. You have superstars on your payroll who can deliver the goods to help make your business run more smoothly and efficiently and even turn a profit.
At first, the team works like a well-oiled machine, capable of producing far beyond expectations. Its developers are efficient, happy and collaborative.
Everything is going exactly as planned.
Until that doesn't happen.
At some point, one or more of your developers will become unhappy with the way things are. This feeling can easily spread throughout the team until everything falls apart.
Why did this happen? Probably because you weren't paying attention to DevEx.
DevEx stands for “developer experience” and focuses on how developers think/feel and value their work. At first glance, you might assume that because you've provided everyone on the team with all the tools they could need, you've taken care of DevEx.
It's much more than that.
On any given day, developers must deal with interruptions, impossible deadlines, very challenging problems, management friction, code issues, tools that are not right for the task, budget issues, and an endless supply of tasks. Any of these things can hinder a developer's progress and productivity.
There's no getting around the fact that development work isn't easy.
Consider this. You may have managers who feel the need for constant progress updates. Instead of checking the project's Kanban board, a manager might feel better visiting one or more team members. Each time this manager pops in, it might only take 5 or 10 minutes. This does not mean, however, that a developer has only experienced a 5- or 10-minute setback. See, developers get into a flow. When this flow is interrupted, it takes time to rise again. So what was, on the surface, a 5 or 10 minute sidebar could easily end up being a 30 minute interruption in productivity.
If these interruptions continue throughout the day, they increase until deadlines become increasingly difficult to meet.
Until you really give DevEx the attention it deserves, you risk seeing productivity drop dramatically.
But how can you easily improve DevEx? You might be surprised to discover that it doesn't take that much effort. Let's look at three key aspects you can focus on to ensure your company's DevEx is strong enough to retain key team members.
Improve communication
This one is huge and doesn't just apply to having all the tools needed to make communication between team members and teams possible. When we talk about improving communication, we are also talking about improving lines of communication.
If you have managers who don't provide regular updates or have trouble communicating ideas to developers, serious problems will arise. Given that today's companies have to work at such a high level of productivity, even the slightest problem in communication can cause a cascading problem.
Everyone in your company needs to not only have the communication tools, but also the autonomy to communicate appropriately. Each member of the chain must know who to talk to, how to talk to them, and when communication is allowed.
So it's not just about deploying Slack and being done with it. It's about deploying the platform, creating the necessary workspaces and channels, and ensuring that everyone involved knows how to use the tool and how to communicate with everyone involved.
It is also important that everyone involved is open to constructive criticism. This can be challenging for certain types of developers. When ego gets in the way of communication, the resulting problems can be insurmountable. So you want to make sure everyone involved understands that communication means not only having the power to speak, but also listening to what is being said and not reacting defensively.
Your company's lines of communication should always flow freely.
Reduce mental stress
Being a developer is a stressful job. Not only can the work itself be complicated, but the added stress of release deadlines can compound that stress until it becomes unbearable.
To prevent stress from getting out of control, it's important that you do everything in your power to keep it to a minimum.
It's not always an easy task, but it's not impossible either.
This is the best way to approach this. First, you must understand that the most important task that falls on the shoulders of your developers is to deliver value to customers. These customers can be consumers, other companies or even departments within the company itself.
Once you understand the developer's most important role, you can remove anything that gets in the way of your ability to deliver value. This can mean extraneous tasks (like invoicing, timekeeping, or documentation) that add to your workload. One thing to keep in mind is that the more tasks you assign to a developer that are not directly related to development, the more stress can become an issue. Think about it. Developers already spend many hours writing code. If they have to add extraneous work to this, they will become disillusioned and may even look for a job elsewhere.
This is also related to the issue of communication. The more open the lines of communication are in your company, the less likely stressors will arise. Why? Because your developers will feel comfortable communicating to middle or upper management exactly what is stressing them out. It could be deadlines, lack of tools, not enough help, or even not having time for lunch. Don't discard even the smallest things. Remember, you may have the smallest pebble in your shoe, but if you walk on it long enough, it will feel like a rock.
Encourage a productive environment
When you think of a productive environment, a room full of cubicles with developers working at keyboards might come to mind. Did you know that for some people, a cubicle is the most unproductive environment there is? Additionally, a cubicle farm discourages communication because everyone can be heard.
A productive environment is one that allows those involved to enter their zones so that they can create more effectively and efficiently. This could mean offices for each developer so they can close the door, put on their music, and start writing code. Many developers prefer to work in solitude, which cannot be done in a cubicle.
This doesn’t mean you should “play favorites.” If you have developers who prefer to work in the privacy of their own offices, but your company doesn't have facilities, consider allowing them to work from home. For developers who prefer a more open environment, let them stay in your open-concept office where they can hear and be heard at all times.
The goal here is to understand what your developers need and want. While you don't want to spoil them (by giving them everything they demand), you certainly want to create an environment they consider productive. And that is fundamental. You want to create a productive environment tailored to your team's needs, not a bulleted checklist you found online. If you are serious about improving DevEx, you will understand that it is unique to each company, team, and developer.
To really get DevEx right, you not only need to improve communication, reduce stress, and create a productive environment, but also understand the developer. To do this, you'll need to allow your team members to offer feedback on your workflow and be willing to take the feedback and use it to make improvements. Of course, not all feedback is valid. If you're not sure, think of it this way: something expressed by a single developer may be nothing more than an opinion. If this same thing is expressed by multiple developers, then it's a problem you should solve.
The important thing here is to ensure that your developers have agency and that they know that you (and your management team) will listen to them when they offer suggestions.
Remember, happy developers can create a productive and profitable environment, and DevEx is at the heart of it all.
