What is Developer Thriving and how can we build software teams that help developers Thrive?
Science
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This project was co-authored with Dr. Carol S. Lee & Morgan Ramsey
Summary
What does it mean for developers to have resilient productivity, not brittle productivity? How can software teams thrive in the face of the unexpected and unplanned difficulties of software projects?
The Developer Thriving project includes three different studies and a series of guidance and recommendations derived from insights across all studies.
1. The LABS model for Developer Thriving
This study contributes a theoretically grounded model for the workplace sociocognitive drivers of human thriving that promote resilient productivity, innovation grounded in psychological wellbeing, and high quality problem-solving among teams. We believe this psychology-based model is an important tool for leaders and teams who seek to better define tractable and attainable targets for interventions and wish to include developers’ well-being and psychological needs as knowledge workers as they make decisions about team and organization design to yield good outcomes.
The developer thriving framework presented in our study is adapted from previously validated models of thriving in psychosocial and workplace contexts and consists of four factors: Learning culture, Agency, Sense of Belonging, and Self-efficacy & Motivation (LABS). Each factors has a rich history in social science, and has been documented as an important signal for healthy environments for human problem-solving. We see this as a starting place for teams, developers and leaders that want to understand how to craft a strong culture.
2. Visibility & Value of Software Work
In a qualitative companion to the Developer Thriving analysis, we explored the theme of visibility on software teams across interviews and focus groups. Three major themes surfaced in how developers and managers thought about the visibility of software work: Visibility impacts individual motivation, Visibility impacts business decisions and goals, and Visibility as generated through advocacy and careful personalization. In this project, we also dove deep into the frictions that managers and IC developers experience as they grapple with low visibility of engineering work.
3. The TRACE Method for Healthy Measurement on Software Teams
In the third study in our Developer Thriving series, we quantitatively examine how developers experience measurement inside of their workplaces. Developers report frequent misuses of measurement inside of their teams, yet also see great value in careful tracking and data about software work.
Drawing from insights across the entire Developer Thriving project, we make recommendations for how teams can examine their implementation of measurement on software teams and make it healthier. We call this guidance the TRACE method: Transparent, Rewards Growth, Agency, Consistent, Explores Context.