Impactful Engineering; Scope Management 101; EM at Amazon; Eat the Frog
Issue #22 Bytes
đą Dive into Learning-Rich Sundays with groCTO ⤾ď¸
đď¸Ex-Head of Engineering @DOJO, Jagannath on Impactful Engineering
Is your team disconnected from the customerâs problem? đ
đ Check out #Ep51 of the groCTO Originals podcast, Jagannath Kintali, ex-Head of Engineering at Dojo dives deep into the importance of exposing teams to customer challenges and how it drives better engagement, focus, and success. Donât miss these valuable insights for creating products that truly resonate!
Here is a short clip from the podcastđ
How do you ensure your team knows the problem theyâre solving? Share your experience! â.
Article of the Week â
âGood, fast, cheapâyour choice of two.â Yes, butâŚ
This motto reveals one truth while concealing two more.
Scope should never be rigid. Flexibility in scope allows for better control of time and costs while ensuring that critical features are delivered. That doesnât mean you go willy-nilly cowboy style and churn code until you run out of money.
After nearly three decades after the inception of the manifesto and XP practices, the scoping-last still comes as a surprise to many a manager. Scope is the most critical variable in balancing the scope-time-cost triangle and a fundamental lever in performance-focused, generative cultures.
Editorâs Note: Hey this is Denis, Iâm aware our summary is almost longer than the original. Iâve included extra nuggets of value for you from the conversation below in the comments as it sparked a lot of interesting debates. Enjoy!
The Scope-Time-Cost Triangle
The truth revealed: no one controls all variables unless they are naĂŻve or negligent.
The first concealed truth: the relationships between the factors are not linear, nor are they unlimited (they have diminishing returns).
The second concealed truth: âgood/fast/cheap, pick 2â only holds true for fixed quantities of work (e.g. several copies of something; not to be confused with scope).
Kent Beck: Software ainât like that. We do the work to discover what work needs doing.
Scope as the Main Lever
Many who quote the iron triangle speak of trade offs. Kent argues that because money acts as a fuel for all three levers, the diminishing returns on the extremes offer an opportunity to find configurations of optimal arrangements that allows for just enough quality to keep delivery fast and defects low and just enough scope to figure out what will create the best outcome faster.
Fabien N. in the comments highlighted another key point: Instead of minimizing the cost of building the product, minimize the cost of being wrong about how valuable the product may be.
Incremental Development
One of the original tenets of Extreme Programming disciplines is the idea of incremental delivery. The Agile Police would have you think that itâs all about splitting up work so it can be parallelised independently.
However, in order to build a product incremental the team needs training and experience in two crucial skills:
Planning Incrementally. The team must be prepared to decide what to do. Every day, every week. Planning cannot be an expensive fire-and-forget all-hands. It must be part of the on-going discovery and work.
Delivering Incrementally. The team must have the courage to work out safe and reliable practices on how to get their incremental progress into production before it is finished. Not doing so robs them of the situational awareness and feedback to actively plan their next step.
đ˘ 3 Days To Go- DORA Webinar ft. Dave Farley
Typo is back with âThe Hows & Whats of DORAâ webinar ft. Dave Farley, Founder of Continuous Delivery, and TDD/DDD Coach, Denis Cahuk.
Practical tips from experts on implementing engineering metrics, continuous delivery, TDD & more.
Other highlights đ
Being an engineering manager at Amazon
Anton Zaides shares his interview with Gilad Naor, a Amazon and Meta Engineering Manager to highlight three key management topics:
3 things engineering managers should learn from Amazon
What he doesnât miss about working at Amazon
What he still misses the most
What stood out to him from the organizational culture at Amazon was:
#1 Solve problems with mechanisms
In a famous internal video, Jeff Bezos talks about why good intentions are irrelevant. When things don't work, it does not matter what people wanted. All that matters is fixing the problems with mechanisms.
Amazon is notorious for its âreading-at-meetingâ procedures, where everyone gets up to speed with the agenda sheet prior to discussion. Find the Mechanism that will work even when people are new or under-qualified or have a bad day. These are the solutions that work.
#2 Be precise
Weasel wordsâ
In rhetoric, a weasel word, or anonymous authority, is a word or phrase aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague, ambiguous, or irrelevant claim has been communicated.
Gilad dropped the weasel words for âsignificantâ, âlow latencyâ, âannoyingâ and adopted more precise terminology, including target metrics and constraints where available.
Communication becomes actionable and factual the more you remove weasel words to un-fluff your rhetoric.
#3 Full autonomy in your team
Developers own complete features at Amazon. Gilad describes teams at Amazon to have a clear goal and full autonomy to reach it. No Agile Police. No needless bureaucracy. Teams self-organize for their specific projects, including ownership of microservices, SDLC and when necessary hiring. You still need to build a business case of course to get funding (head-count), but that is what keeps the entrepreneurial spirit alive.
âŚ
As for what he does and doesnât miss of his time there⌠check out the full interview below đ
Do your hardest task first thing in the morning
You know that feeling.
Early morning, youâre dreading doing the one thing in combination with the many things keeping you busy. The day seems chaotic from this perspective before everything calms down before your first coffee / yoga / cold shower / workout.
The temptation is strong to do that one thing at the end of the day after all the distractions are taken care of and you can focus fully on it to give it your best. Right? Thatâs the reason⌠right?
Another great collab between Ethan Evans and Jason Yoong. Tackle the most challenging task at the start of the day to boost productivity and focus.
Why it Works:
Morning energy is higher, making it easier to concentrate.
Completing difficult tasks early reduces anxiety and stress for the rest of the day.
Builds momentum, making other tasks feel easier.
Practical Tips:
Identify your hardest task the night before.
Start your day with no distractions to focus on the task.
Break the task into smaller, manageable chunks to reduce overwhelm.
Benefits:
Increases overall productivity.
Frees up mental energy for the rest of the day.
Boosts confidence by accomplishing something significant early on.
P.S.: You may also know this concept as eat the frog.
Do you have what it takes to make it a habit or do you need more help to⌠đ
Find Yourself đť
Thatâs it for Today!
Whether youâre innovating on new projects, staying ahead of tech trends, or taking a strategic pause to recharge, may your day be as impactful and inspiring as your leadership.
See you next week(end), Ciao đ
Credits đ
Curators - Diligently curated by our community members Denis & Kovid
Writers of the week - Kent Beck, Anton Zaides & Gilad Naor, Ethan Evans & Jason Yoong
Sponsors - This newsletter is sponsored by Typo AI - Ship reliable software faster.
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