Introduction

After spending over 11 years in the IT field and being part of various teams, including Full-stack web development, Machine learning, Business intelligence, and Operations, I've observed recurring issues that hinder team productivity and success. As I compiled these observations, I identified nine fundamental challenges. I hope this list proves useful!

What this post is NOT about

While building a successful team involves numerous factors such as methodologies, specific technologies, and people and culture, this post delves into low-level fundamentals. It focuses on aspects that, if overlooked, can lead to a significant waste of human effort and motivation.

The 9 key moves

1. Understand your value proposition and your clients
   Ensure that every team member understands the problem they are solving for clients. Emphasize delivering value rather than writing code for its own sake. Overemphasis on complicated architectures and addressing nonexistent problems can divert focus from real-life software usage.

2. Prevent emergencies
   While emergencies are inevitable, efforts should be made to minimize them. Set up alarms for critical client problems, analyze the root cause, and document preventive measures. Consider creating guides for smooth issue resolution and anticipate potential problems.

3. Understand your infrastructure
   Document and visualize all infrastructure components, understanding their contributions to value delivery. Regularly challenge their purpose, aiming for simplicity. Map software development and issues to known components for clarity.

4. Clean unused code
   Regularly remove dead, unreachable, or non-production-deployed code. Eliminate entire modules that don't contribute to solving client problems. Deletion is the best thing you can do for your codebase. This enhances efficiency and clarity.

5. Repository health
   Keep your code repositories in good shape. Regularly check the size of your repository; review for unnecessary files. Monitor the number of branches — more than double the number of developers might indicate unused branches that need cleaning. Analyze each branch to understand its purpose and whether it should be kept or deleted. This proactive management ensures a clean and efficient repository, preventing potential issues. Think of your repositories as evolving with your project, aligning each component with your project goals. This disciplined approach contributes to the overall health and sustainability of your software development process.

6. Don’t automate/document everything; enable automation/documentation for what is important
   Striving for perfection in documentation and automation is not practical. Instead, focus on establishing a robust automation framework and promoting thoughtful documentation. Encourage the team to prioritize what truly matters in terms of automation and documentation, avoiding unnecessary efforts that may hinder productivity. It's crucial to recognize that not everything can or should be automated, and documentation should serve as a practical resource rather than an exhaustive manual. Emphasize efficiency in problem-solving and encourage team members to evaluate what aspects benefit the most from automation and documentation. When it comes to documentation, aim for usefulness rather than perfection. Ask the question, 'If I were new to this project, what information would be most valuable to me?' This approach ensures that documentation remains relevant, accessible, and a valuable asset to the team's workflow.

7. Evaluate how much your team costs
   Consider the full cost of your team, including salaries, licenses, and server expenses. Evaluate whether these costs align with business goals. Ensure expenses are justifiable if you were the business owner.

8. Control your dependencies and versions
   Keep an eye on the tools and software your team relies on. Things like the operating system, frameworks, libraries, and other tools are crucial. Decide how often you want to update them. Sometimes it's good to have the latest and greatest, but other times it's safer to wait until a new version has been around for a while. Regularly updating prevents sudden, forced updates or the need to figure out complex software puzzles later on. Also, be careful when adding new tools – think twice about it. Lastly, make sure all the tools you use are referenced properly, and not just downloaded without thought.

9. Remove all passwords/keys from repositories
   Prioritize security by regularly checking your codebase to ensure no passwords, keys, or credentials are stored in it. Automated checks can help in this regard. Failing to address this basic security practice leaves your codebase vulnerable. Take a proactive stance: if you don't secure your code, security issues will find their way to you. This straightforward measure significantly contributes to maintaining the integrity and security of your codebase.

These key moves are purposefully ordered, as understanding the software's value sets the foundation for addressing emergencies, infrastructure, code cleanliness, and repository health. Prioritizing these steps contributes to an effective and successful team.

Conclusion

If you feel pressed for time, remember: neglecting these fundamentals can significantly slow your progress. Taking care of them might seem like a burden, but it's an investment in long-term productivity and success. Even if forced to address them later, the lack of a plan can lead to further complications.

Don't find these relevant?

While some points may not apply in specific cases, such as projects without infrastructure, most are universally valid. Surprisingly, many developers find themselves working on tasks unrelated to client needs or unnecessary code refactoring.

Already took care of them?

If you've addressed all these points, congratulations! By doing so, you've not only eliminated potential surprises but also laid the groundwork for a productive and successful team.

Positive impact

Beyond the immediate benefits, addressing these nine steps fosters a broader perspective among team members. They start caring more about the overall health of the software they're working on, contributing to a positive and collaborative team culture.