Elements of an Effective Software Organization 🔧 — with Rebecca Murphey
Jun 14, 2024
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Rebecca Murphey, Field CTO at Swarmia and author of Build, discusses the three pillars of her book: business outcomes, developer productivity, and developer experience. Topics include team structure, using numbers effectively, and the effects of her book on Swarmia.
Balancing business outcomes, developer productivity, and developer experience is essential for a successful software organization.
Effective software organizations focus on both quantifiable developer productivity metrics and qualitative developer experience factors.
Deep dives
Rebecca Marfé's Journey Through Tech Giants
Rebecca Marfé, field CTO at Swarmia and former manager at Stripe and Indeed, shares insights from her tech journey. She discusses her focus on improving developer productivity throughout her career and the impact it had at Indeed and Stripe. Marfé emphasizes the importance of investing effort into enhancing engineers' effectiveness.
Three Pillars of an Effective Software Organization
Marfé introduces the three pillars from her book 'Build: business outcomes, developer productivity, and developer experience.' She stresses the significance of aligning these pillars to create an effective software organization. These pillars aim to optimize performance, efficiency, and user satisfaction within engineering teams.
Navigating Developer Productivity and Developer Experience
Marfé explains the distinction between developer productivity and developer experience. Developer productivity focuses on quantifiable aspects like work efficiency and impact, while developer experience delves into qualitative factors, such as sentiment and challenges faced by developers. She highlights the importance of balancing and optimizing both aspects for team success.
Implementing 'Build' Principles at Swarmia
Marfé reveals the application of principles outlined in 'Build' at Swarmia to address cycle time issues and enhance operational efficiency. By utilizing concepts like tracking work progress and identifying bottlenecks, Swarmia leverages its platform to streamline workflows and improve team collaboration. The shared vocabulary from 'Build' aids Swarmia in fostering a more productive and cohesive work environment.
Rebecca is field CTO at Swarmia, former manager at Stripe and Indeed, and the author of Build: Elements of an Effective Software Organization.
With Rebecca, we talked about her journey through Indeed, Stripe and Swarmia and the three pillars of her book, business outcomes, developer productivity, and developer experience.
Here is what we talked about:
(00:58) Introduction
(02:15) Rebecca's Journey
(08:24) Joining Swarmia
(15:02) 1st Pillar: Business outcomes
(23:08) Team structure & Company architecture
(29:18) Keeping the lights on
(33:56) 2nd Pillar: Developer productivity
(38:44) Using numbers in the right way
(43:25) The best way of working
(51:07) 3rd Pillar: Developer experience
(56:52) The effects of "Build" on Swarmia
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