Managers are promoting hybrid working models nowadays. But tech companies face challenges when it’s hard to hire and retain software developers. Talented software developers dislike the idea of being closely managed. Similarly, many employees leave their jobs once they experience a culture of micromanagement.
If software developers hate micromanaging, they strongly disapprove of yearly performance reviews. Developers want real-time performance objectives and hope to improve velocity, code deployment frequency, and other key performance indicators.
Scrum teams deliberate their performance at the end of every sprint. So, the feedback from period performance reviews can seem irrelevant.
However, there is also a practical reality that companies require methods to understand whether the agile team and software developers meet or exceed the targets. How can supervisors manage software developers without making them miserable?
Below are some suggested practices that carry agile, scrum, DevOps, and software development principles. Isaac Sacolick of InfoWorld said that he didn’t write them as SMART goals. But leaders should adopt the relevant ones aligned on the organization’s agile ways of working and business objectives.
Define objectives and key results
Defining objectives and key results is a meeting that product owners, development managers, and architects can conduct with their teams to align on measurable success criteria. Ideally, it’s a partnership between the leaders and the team. The leaders define the objective, and the entire group discusses, argues, and decides the key results.
Meet sprint and release commitments regularly
Scrum lies on a foundation of cadences and meeting commitments. That’s why achieving deadlines is one way to measure a team’s discipline and alignment to standards.
Capture satisfaction of product owners and stakeholders
While we shouldn’t urge agile developers to deliver flawlessly, we can seek to capture independent customer satisfaction metrics, Sacolick said.
A satisfaction survey is a tool that more prominent development organizations can use to generate feedback for agile developers and teams.
Measure peer reviews of design, documentation, and ease of use
Ask a developer how easy it is to use another team’s APIs and upgrade another developer’s code. You can also ask about a new application architecture from the documentation. Sadly, you’re unlikely to get a positive response, especially when working on legacy code or in a monolithic architecture.
Choose non-negotiable key performance indicators for DevOps
Product owners and peers provide essential feedback. However, managers must also ensure that developers and development teams review and respond to operational feedback. The input should include specifics around site reliability, security practices, engineering, and responsiveness to IT services management (ITSM) incidents, requests, and other tickets.
Determine impacts from learning, experimenting, and mentoring
Currently, more businesses acknowledge the importance of supporting continuous learning, experimenting, and mentoring programs. Managers should evaluate how developers follow these guidelines and deliver business impacts. Moreover, team leaders should help developers create a career development plan. They should provide feedback on their learning, mentoring, and participation. A proof of concept should align with the employees’ career goals.
Ask developers to suggest work-life goals and objectives
Sacolick said he doesn’t believe the management leaders want to see their talents burn out and join in a resignation. While there are several ways to manage software developers, leaders should remain empathetic to today’s working environment. One way to maintain a balance is to work with human resources on defining work-life goals and objectives.
Finally, managing and measuring performance requires regular conversations between manager and employee. So, make sure to answer a set of questions on goals, criteria, and other concerns and conduct follow-up action.
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