Automated ≠ Autonomous: Developer Productivity and AI | MongoDB’s Tara Hernandez
Plus, how to leverage side projects for career growth, the impact of performance management, and navigating the space between should and want.
This week, our host Dan Lines sits down with Tara Hernandez, VP of Developer Productivity at MongoDB. Together, they explore the nuances of developer productivity and the impact of AI in engineering environments.
Tara emphasizes that efficient software development requires a focus on outcomes, reduced noise for developers, and a healthy balance between technology, processes, and communication. Tara also touched on the strategic framework of the 'three horizons' for conceptualizing your investment breakdown across different projects and how to maintain focus on meaningful development work.
Automated does not equal autonomous, right? If you have automation that goes nuts, it probably is doing the reverse of what you would hope.
Like Dependabot: my dependencies are out of date, go fix it. But if you multiply that out five times, you could get in a situation where it could take three engineers all day long, every day to keep up.
Episode Highlights:
01:43 How should you think about developer productivity?
09:09 Three pillars to improve developer productivity
16:07 Automated does not equal autonomous
24:46 Making the golden path the easy path for developers
27:51 What’s exciting in developer productivity and AI?
29:57 The three horizons
38:34 Developer performance vs productivity data
40:23 What is the right way to think about goal setting for noise reduction?
The Download
The Download is engineering leadership content we’re reading, watching, and attending that we think you might find valuable.
1. How to Leverage Side Projects for Career Growth
If you feel stagnant with work and bored with the usual after-work activities like reading or watching TV, it’s time to find an enriching side project.
2. The Impact of Performance Management
Performance reviews can feel like a nuisance, taking you away from more important initiatives. However, over time and with the right attention to detail, they can greatly benefit your teams’ health and organizational growth.
Starting Your Engineering Metrics Program (Sponsor)
A robust metrics program provides holistic visibility into engineering health, predictable project delivery, and a great dev experience. But it’s not always obvious how to build the right software metrics program for your business.
On May 2nd and May 7th, LinearB will be hosting a workshop where you’ll learn how to:
Decide the right engineering KPIs for your organization
Benchmark against industry standards
Gather actionable insights to identify improvement opportunities
Leverage goals to alleviate bottlenecks
Enable your team with workflow automation
3. Navigating the Space Between Should and Want.
When you’re focused on growing your career, every networking event or opportunity can feel like a “must-attend,” even if you deeply don’t want to.
Not overextending yourself and being selective about what you say yes to doing is an exercise of restraint. As
We want to wish Jean good luck on the rest of her pregnancy. Be on the lookout for a new guest post from Jean soon.
4. The Proven Benefits Of Engineering Benchmarks On Developer Teams
To achieve persistent, predictable, high-quality software delivery at scale, you need to benchmark your success against what similar teams are achieving. LinearB CEO and co-founder Ori Keren just published an article with Forbes, detailing how engineering teams improve their performance using LinearB’s Software Engineering Benchmarks Report.
Read here: The Proven Benefits of Engineering Benchmarks on Developer Teams
Upcoming Events
An Engineering Leader’s Guide to Reporting Up
April 17th | Online
Highlights: Effective reporting can help you plan strategically, own your goals, and advocate for what your team needs. LeadDev’s upcoming workshop will help you feel more prepared, confident, and ready to showcase engineering’s impact.
Starting Your Engineering Metrics Program
May 2nd or May 7th | Online
Highlights: In this workshop, LinearB will walk you through how to drive an average 47% reduction in cycle time via your engineering metrics program and provide you with free resources and tools to get started.
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