Driving Alignment Within and Across Engineering Teams

What could be better than having everyone in your team pushing in the same direction? Or the same thing happening across several teams?

Building alignment allows to scale the impact of engineering leaders, avoid wasting time on the wrong things, get explicit buy-in from stakeholders, and more.

This presentation attempts to answer:
What is alignment in the context of engineering teams?
What are typical examples of misalignments within and across teams
What are some strategies to drive alignment in both cases?
What is the role of a line engineering manager in driving alignment?

Transcript

1. Diego Quiroga Driving Alignment Within and Across Engineering Teams linkedin.com/in/diego diego.quiroga@gmail.com
2. Alignment for Engineering Teams TODAY
3. The Impact of Misalignment TODAY
4. Tools and Practices TODAY
5. Q&A TODAY
6. A team is aligned when...
7. Where We Are Today Where We Want to Be Where We Are Today Where We Want to Be People Functions as Vectors on a Team John 1.5 units of productivity Paul 1.5 units of productivity Ringo 1 unit of productivity George 2 units of productivity Direction of Effort θ Direction of Effort θ Total Production Toward Goal: 6 Units 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Production Toward Goal: 3.5 Units -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Paul 1.5 units of productivity George 2 units of productivity Ringo 1 unit of productivity John 1.5 units of productivity In an ideal world, everyone is 100% aligned In the real world, misalignment impairs speed and quality
8. Continuous and unproductive discussions about prioritization SITUATION #1 No clear mission, just ownership Lack of focus, meta conversations Working on the wrong things Delivering not the most important Neglecting maintenance work Failing
9. Teammates acting against what you think are clear team agreements Different interpretations of a role Friction hindering collaboration Non-explicit working agreements Unclear expectations Loss of trust and resentment Failing SITUATION #2
10. Teammates with different, lower standards for quality Changing context not recognized Practices that don't translate well Potentially wrong first impressions Inadequate onboarding investment Undocumented practices/standards Failing SITUATION #3
11. Are you looking to create alignment on ... decision making? ... direction and goals? ... behaviour?
12. Define Team Tenets for faster decision-making Once something is decided, make it absurdly explicit in written Use note/share/group/vote to avoid groupthink Leverage design reviews for consistency and knowledge spread Encourage simple language, short words, outlines and lists. COLLABORATIVE DECISION MAKING
13. Define and maintain a Team Charter aligned with your org goals Keep written and visual artifacts representing plans and progress Repeat messages three times using different formats/channels For any change you want to introduce, start by explaining "Why" Strive toward alignment, knowing that it won't be perfect SETTING A DIRECTION
14. Be the model for the kind of interactions you want to see Develop and maintain written Working Agreements Reward those pointing out misalignments within your team Communicate first principles: 'finishing work over starting new' Just enough process for clear expectations and consistency EXPECTED BEHAVIOURS
15. No team is an island
17. The Air Sandwich TYPICAL PROBLEM #1 Confusion and competing efforts Unrealistic and incomplete plans "We want X, you figure it out" One-way communication, no dialogue Unaddressed contentious issues Misalignments under the surface
18. The Infamous Ownership Matrix Good intentions are not enough No single responsible for the process Complexity grows, clarity declines Accountability for changes is not upheld Unmaintained artifact becomes stale FAIL TYPICAL PROBLEM #2
19. The Most Important Thing of All Long-term projects that start slow Unclear priority vs short term initiatives Mixed messages from leadership Artificial deadlines no one believes One-off speeches to rally the troops Rushing in the final stages TYPICAL PROBLEM #3
20. Fill the gap with vertical and lateral back-and-forth dialogue Favour multiple smaller sessions over sparse all-hands Learn how your ‘neighbours’ operate and how they prioritize Do not become the proxy between your team and others Transparency helps. Share your wins, losses and challenges. FIXING THE AIR SANDWICH
21. Minimize sources of truth, one per category if possible Have a DRI for shared artifacts and the process around it Automate notifications for critical changes, i.e., ownership Challenge: develop a culture of accountability where not checking/acting on dashboards is seen as a major faux pas. NO INFORMATION REFRIGERATORS
22. Set an active pace from the beginning, minimize top goals Invest in clarity, reduce noise and conflicting interpretations Surface contentious assumptions continuously until resolved Provide extra visibility into work remaining and progress Postmortem not only incidents but critical decisions LARGE INITIATIVES ALIGNMENT
23. Alignment for Software Engineering Teams The Impact of Misalignment, Within and Across Strategies and Fixing Tools TODAY
24. Alignment is not easy
25. Stop waiting
26. Start creating alignment from where you are
27. Thank you Diego Quiroga linkedin.com/in/diego diego.quiroga@gmail.com
28. Q & A
29. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making - Sam Kaner How to Build Silos and Decrease Collaboration • tinyurl.com/silos-collab Liberating Structures Exercises • www.liberatingstructures.com Socializing Strategy - Will Larson • lethain.com/socializing-strategy Creating Transparency at Work (Atlassian) • tinyurl.com/transparency-work Fostering Autonomy in Engineering Teams • tinyurl.com/foster-autonomy GitLab's Guide to All-Remote • tinyurl.com/all-remote ADDITIONAL RESOURCES