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Product development structures as systems (Interview)

Sep 23, 2022

Guest

Lucas Fernandes da Costa

Lucas Fernandes da Costa, a software engineer at Elastic and a text-mode enthusiast, dives deep into product development systems. He critiques traditional deadlines, advocating for flexible trajectories over rigid roadmaps. Lucas shares insights on the futility of daily stand-ups, proposing more effective communication strategies. He also emphasizes the need to engage directly with customers, challenging conventional Agile thinking. The discussion reveals the importance of adaptability and actionable metrics for fostering a healthier development environment.

01:27:22

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ADVICE

Engineering Teams as Queuing Systems

Model engineering teams as queuing systems to improve predictability.
Focus on matching the rate of tasks coming in with the rate of tasks being completed.

insights

INSIGHT

Software Development vs. Manufacturing

Software development is not a factory; it's more like building a custom home.
It involves unknowns, interdependencies, and potential changes in direction.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Betting Analogy for Product Development

Betting analogies illustrate how uncertainty affects decision-making in product development.
Breaking down large bets into smaller ones allows for truncating bad bets earlier.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

The Evolution of Interfaces: Text vs. Graphical User Interfaces

04:38 • 2min

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Navigating Software Development Challenges

06:18 • 25min

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Navigating Project Delays

31:37 • 8min

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Navigating Urgency in Software Development

39:45 • 21min

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Navigating Metrics and Productivity in Development

01:00:22 • 6min

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Enhancing Workflow Through Metrics and Collaboration

01:06:35 • 18min

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Exploring Product Development Systems and the Benefits of Seamless Coding

01:24:31 • 2min

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#16840

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Test-driven development

By Example

Kent Beck

This book provides a hands-on introduction to test-driven development (TDD), a software development process that emphasizes writing automated tests before coding. Through practical examples, Kent Beck demonstrates how TDD can lead to cleaner, more reliable code by encouraging simple designs and continuous refactoring. The book follows two TDD projects from start to finish, showcasing techniques for increasing the quality of software development.

When Will It Be Done?

Daniel Vacanti

This book addresses the challenges of forecasting project completion dates by offering practical tools and insights. It helps readers understand how to make accurate predictions and deliver on promises, focusing on the importance of predictability in customer and team expectations. The book is part of Daniel Vacanti's work on improving flow-based processes.

#12304

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Out of the crisis

W. Edwards Deming

In 'Out of the Crisis,' W. Edwards Deming describes the foundations for a completely new and transformational way to lead and manage people, processes, and resources. Originally published in 1982, the book emphasizes the need for a transformation in management style and governmental relations with industry. Deming's theory is based on his famous 14 Points for Management, which contradict many standard practices of the era, such as production quotas and management by inspection. The book stresses the importance of long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy, innovative plans, and continuous improvement in product and service quality to ensure future success and sustainability.

#10653

• Mentioned in 3 episodes

The Principles of Product Development Flow

Second Generation Lean Product Development

Don Reinertsen

This book challenges the conventional wisdom in product development by highlighting the flaws in current practices, such as maximizing capacity utilization and eliminating variability. It introduces a new approach based on solid economics and real science, focusing on controlling invisible and unmanaged queues that undermine product development performance. The book provides 175 underlying principles organized into eight major areas, including improving economic decisions, managing queues, reducing batch size, applying WIP constraints, accelerating feedback, managing flows in the presence of variability, and decentralizing control. It draws on insights from lean manufacturing, telecommunications, and computer operating systems to create flow in product development processes, leading to significant improvements even in mature processes.

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Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability

Daniel Vacanti

#435

• Mentioned in 39 episodes

Rework

David Heinemeier Hansson

Jason Fried

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson presents a fresh and unconventional approach to business. The book argues against traditional business practices such as writing business plans, seeking outside investors, and staffing up. Instead, it advocates for a simpler, more efficient way of doing business, emphasizing the importance of productivity, avoiding unnecessary meetings and paperwork, and ignoring the competition. The authors draw from their experiences at 37signals (now Basecamp) to provide practical advice and examples that support their counterintuitive ideas. The book is designed to inspire and provoke readers to rethink their approach to work and entrepreneurship.

This week we’re talking about product development structures as systems with Lucas da Costa. The last time we had Lucas on the show he was living the text-mode only life, and now we’re more than 3 years later, Lucas has doubled down on all things text mode. Today’s conversation with Lucas maps several ideas he’s shared recently on his blog. We talk about deadlines being pointless, trajectory vs roadmap and the downfall of long-term planning, the practices of daily stand-ups and what to do instead, measuring queues not cycle time, and probably the most controversial of them all — actually talking to your customers. Have you heard? It’s this newly disruptive Agile framework that seems to be working well.

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Featuring:

Lucas Fernandes da Costa – Website, GitHub, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Useful engineering metrics and why velocity is not one of them
How finishing what you start makes teams more productive and predictable
How high capacity utilisation hurts a team’s performance
How and why exploiting uncertainty makes products more profitable
Why tall hierarchies slow organizations down and how to fix them
Talking to your customers: a disruptive Agile framework
Why your daily stand-ups don’t work and how to fix them
Why long-term plans don’t work and how to fix them
“Planning Is Guessing” at Startup School by David Heinemeier Hansson
Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability
The Changelog #488: Mob programming deep dive (with Woody Zuill)
The Changelog #340: All things text mode (with Lucas da Costa)

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

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