"Ownership" and "owning the process" show up a lot in IT industry, especially when you read job offers. What does it really mean to own the process when you work as a software developer? For me a recipe for the ownership is pretty simple.

You care

It's not just about getting assigned task done and moving to another one. You don't take things as granted. You ask questions if something is not clear. You speak up if something doesn't feel right. Your goal is to understand the reason behind the things you are asked to do. It's not just about coding, it's more about contributing. Sometimes, after long (and painful) discussion this means dropping the feature or not coding things at all.

It's not just about coding but also proper testing. You don't drop you task after it's merged. You check with QA, you check with Product owner, you check the metrics. You see how the thing you built behaves and you even may have some ideas how to improve it.

You see things that are not strictly in your scope

When you want to own what you do, you need to think of the product you build and people you work with. You consider how your task would impact the users. You think if your change may interfere with your or other team members work. You can see dots in various places and you know how to link them.

You are proactive and jump in the different roles when needed. You take care of the tasks without your manager micro managing you and asking about the progress every two hours. You know how to handle problems that show up or you know who to ask for help.

You have knowledge or you know where to get it

You have not only technical knowledge but also domain knowledge. You know why things are built the way they are. You know how to go with the existing flow. While thinking of implementing a feature, you already have an idea on what changes in other places are required. Or you know who to ask to get these pieces of information.

These things may sound simple but in reality they are hard. You need to change the way you think about the work to really get the ownership going. It's not like you ask one or two questions and - done - an ownership badge shows up. Owning something requires constant learning. You always have more to discover.

So why you should care? Can't you just code the task based on 3 requirements you see in the ticket description? And if something it not clear, can't you just do it your way and hope that this doesn't comes back to you? Of course you can. But would it give you satisfaction, better salary and a promotion? That is a question you need to reply by yourself.

Photo from kaboompics