Talks
Humane Development
Humane Development
by Ernie MillerThe video 'Humane Development' by Ernie Miller, presented at RailsConf 2015, addresses the intersection of human elements and software development methodologies. It emphasizes the messiness of human interaction within technical processes and the pitfalls of dehumanizing team members in pursuit of predictable outcomes.
Key points discussed include:
- Responsibility and Accountability: Ernie Miller, as the Director of Engineering at Invisium, shares the pressure and accountability he feels in his role, acknowledging that workplace issues often lead to employee turnover.
- Humanizing Software Development: The speaker stresses that developers and teams are not just resources or abstractions; they are humans contributing to a collaborative environment. He coined the term 'humane development' to encapsulate the idea that software development should prioritize compassion and understanding.
- Agile Methodology Critique: Miller critiques the common adoption of agile practices without their foundational principles, noting how organizations often revert to old processes despite the agile mindset emphasizing individual interactions over rigid procedures.
- Culture of Urgency: He conveys the dangers of working under constant urgency, urging teams to evaluate the actual importance of deadlines and the potential damage of hurried decision-making.
- Importance of Environment and Autonomy: Stressing the need for a work environment that fosters autonomy, Miller highlights how organizations should trust and empower their teams instead of creating constraints.
Miller's insights are grounded in personal anecdotes about experiences that illustrate the emotional dynamics at play within teams. A significant moment involves a previous CEO’s reductive view of team members as mere resources, highlighting the detrimental effects of such an approach. He underlines the importance of connection, empathy, and dialogue to build a healthier workplace culture.
In conclusion, Miller calls for a reconsideration of methodologies that prioritize human factors, advocating for transparency and trust in teams. He suggests that recognizing our shared humanity can lead to healthier environments conducive to innovation and productivity. The discussion resonates with industry trends where employee well-being is integral to long-term success, urging collective action towards a humane approach in software development.
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My name is Ernie Miller, and I'm on Twitter at @erniemiller. You probably shouldn't follow me unless you'd like to see my most popular tweet.
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Feel free to look it up.
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If you enjoy things like that, go ahead and follow me.
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I work for a company called Invisium, which is an application security consultancy. I’m the director of engineering there.
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However, this role does not come with an awesome chair or a megaphone.
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Instead, it comes with a crippling sense of responsibility.
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In my previous jobs, I often had a great excuse if I was disappointed in how things worked out.
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If I felt let down by my managers, I could always say, 'Well, it’s not my fault.'
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If I wasn’t given free reign, might it be their responsibility?
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It’s not exactly a proud moment to admit such feelings, but it’s the truth.
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I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment.
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In fact, let’s see a show of hands. How many of you have been at your current job for less than a year? Keep your hands up.
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Now, if you’ve been in your job for less than two years, raise your hands.
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Look around the room, and realize that half the people here have not been in their jobs for two years.
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Thank you, you can put your hands down now.
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When we leave jobs, we take ourselves with us. Most likely, none of us thought we were the problem, right?
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Sometimes it feels impossible to fix issues at work, and it becomes easier to simply move on.
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Now, the problem for me as the director of engineering is that I am responsible for the software, the team, and the culture.
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So it all ultimately comes down to it being my fault if something goes wrong.
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This is a lot of pressure, so I began to think about what truly makes me happy in a job.
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What keeps me around, and conversely, what makes me want to leave?
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Allow me to share a true story, although the specific employer isn’t important.
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They may not even still operate that way, or if they do, they won't be around much longer.
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I was brought on to lead a team of technical folks reporting to a CEO.
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Initially, I was concerned that I'd just end up managing people without writing code.
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I really feared that would make me unhappy, so I raised my concerns.
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Fortunately, I was assured that wouldn’t happen.
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Fast forward about six months, and sure enough, I wasn’t spending much time writing code.
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In fact, I was triaging a Kanban board full of more urgent tasks than we had people to handle them.
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This is a glimpse at my actual Kanban board—I'll admit I wasn't very good at it.
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I was trying my best to shelter my team from the wrath of our formerly jovial CEO.
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I approached the CEO to share my concerns and said, 'This isn't what I signed up for.'
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My team is stressed, I'm not writing code, and this isn't the engineering role I expected.
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To which he replied, 'You're thinking of this all wrong.'
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He suggested viewing it as just another development task—my team members were objects in the system.
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He encouraged me to approach this like traditional engineering.
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But instead of aligning with his point of view, I realized exactly why I was unhappy.
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The issue stemmed from my boss being a former engineer himself.
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He wanted to run the company as if it were software, ignoring the human element.
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But in reality, the truth is: people are not objects.
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This realization brought clarity to my misery; I was dehumanizing my employees.
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People were overwhelmed, which led to stress and attrition.
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We were overworked, and hiring new employees became impossible due to boundaries being violated.
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I felt like I was the only one who recognized this dysfunction.
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It felt as if my CEO had a distortion field affecting his perception.
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Of course, I might be a bit more sensitive to these issues.
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I've been involved in volunteer counseling for six years.
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Even prior to that, I've always been a sensitive person.
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This experience was excruciating.
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I repeatedly tried to counsel my CEO about my concerns.
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What I wanted to say was, 'People aren't objects; they are humans.'
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Ultimately, I chose to walk away.
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You might consider my example extreme—and it was.
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But I don't think it's unique. I've seen this pattern before.
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Business values often conflict with what we value.
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It values predictability and measurability, often viewing control as the means to achieve predictability.
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I understand this, as businesses must be able to keep promises.
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Companies often desire things to be neat and organized, and that’s understandable.
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But people are messy, and companies are made of people. This does not diminish their beauty.
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So, how does a company deal with this messy reality? It does so with abstraction layers.
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They abstract away the human part to shape the outcomes they desire.
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Humans are reduced to mere resources, metered and applied to problems.
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For instance, we need a certain number of resources, for a set number of hours, to produce a product.
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Corporations treat humans as resources, even though the essence of a corporation lies within its people.
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This reduction of humans to mere values is problematic.
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In response, I aimed to establish a guiding philosophy for my team.
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It should acknowledge that we are humans working with humans to develop software for the benefit of humans.
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This idea may sound simple, but it's profoundly deep.
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I don’t suggest this is a groundbreaking revelation.
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However, certain implications naturally arise from acknowledging this fact.
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I coined the term 'humane development' to encapsulate these concepts.
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The term 'humane' is defined as having or showing compassion or benevolence.
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It also means inflicting the minimum of pain, which I aspire to see in my workplace.
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This may sometimes conflict with our current methodologies.
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How many of you practice agile methodologies today?
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Great, let’s see how many of you are truly agile.
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There’s a talk by Uncle Bob titled 'The Land That Scrum Forgot', which offers interesting insights.
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He shared a bit of history on the term 'agile' and why it resonates.
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During a meeting with Martin Fowler, they aimed to establish an organization.
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From their discussions, they coined the term 'agile'.
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The idea was to articulate their values without disparaging the old ways.
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They embraced the Agile Manifesto, which many of you might be familiar with.
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It emphasizes individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
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And working software over comprehensive documentation, among other priorities.
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Kent Beck mentioned that if we are to regard this agile methodology as such, it should bridge the gap.
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A connection between business and development should be a goal.
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Shortly thereafter, Ken Schwaber formed the Scrum Alliance.
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He began offering certified scrum master courses, which became quite popular.
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However, it was noted that many attendees were not developers.
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He felt it was silly for project managers to take these courses—just to add 'scrum master' to their LinkedIn profiles.
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These project managers were not truly fulfilling the role of a scrum master.
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The idea was meant to evolve beyond needing a scrum master at all.
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The approach should promote rotating the role among team members.
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What happened was that companies embraced the agile concept but reverted to old habits.
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Things gradually shifted back in favor of old methodologies.
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The focused values of agility became diluted.
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Many organizations appreciate the term 'agile' because it connotes speed.
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Speed sounds great, and it’s often associated with the concept of hustle.
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However, I don't particularly enjoy the term 'hustle.'
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It's often connected to the idea of frantically working toward success.
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But let’s entertain a different perspective about what hustle truly means.
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For one, it implies forcing someone to work hurriedly, which isn't admirable.
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This should not be a virtue, but in startup culture, it often is.
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The motto 'move fast and break things' is commonly embraced.
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It's important to note that this phrase originated from Facebook.
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However, I argue that this philosophy leads to negative outcomes.
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We've transformed hustle into a virtue, but it is a damaging meme in today’s software development.
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We use estimating points to showcase velocity because we embrace hopping from one sprint to another.
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After each sprint, we take time to rest and recover.
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While I may not be an avid sprinter, I often engage in high-intensity interval training.
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This method uses short bursts of intense effort followed by brief recovery.
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However, sprinting is not designed for sustainability.
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Instead, marathons focus on maintaining a steady, sustainable pace.
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In a marathon, the finish line is an abstract concept for a long time.
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The key is to keep moving sustainably.
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Rushing toward a finish line can jeopardize future races.
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It's vital to share the big picture with coworkers.
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Understanding our shared goals allows for sustainable pacing.
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A focus only on immediate goals may lead to overexertion.
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How can we plan for sustainability without a clear idea of the end goal?
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This brings us to the importance of estimates.
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A recent snowstorm provided a perfect metaphor.
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I estimated shoveling my driveway would take about an hour.
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However, after two and a half hours, I realized my estimate was significantly off.
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If I can't accurately estimate something familiar like snow shoveling, how can I estimate abstract software projects?
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Most deadlines are essentially lies too.
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If we miss an estimate, we just move the deadline.
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So, why establish a deadline if we keep changing it?
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Most urgent tasks aren't really urgent, which leads to a critical question: why?
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The simple question 'why?' can transform requirements into meaningful rationale.
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It's essential to challenge urgency.
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When something is urgent, understanding the underlying reason is needed.
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Urgency shouldn't lead us to overlook our responsibilities.
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While down systems generate urgency, it’s vital to assess the risks associated with it.
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Understanding what value is lost is crucial.
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You may remember from a previous talk how sharing stories about personal experiences enhances learning.
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While working as a sysadmin, I made a catastrophic mistake due to urgency.
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In an effort to resolve an email issue, I mistakenly deleted critical directories.
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I learned that haste often results in irreversible consequences.
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It’s essential to assess and mitigate impacts when acting with urgency.
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Moving towards deadlines can produce cascading failures.
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Nonetheless, defining effective deadlines is crucial.
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Noting that urgency can lead to unclear tasks is vital.
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Consequently, we need to interrogate urgency and deadlines.
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Understand that success cannot be solely measured by progress.
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Remember, a divide exists—a lie we create; it's crucial we recognize it.
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This recognition fosters empathy towards coworkers and stakeholders.
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True understanding requires connection with both business and programming.
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Openness and visibility lead to pathways for creating a shared understanding.
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Defining that bridge helps avoid arbitrary deadlines.
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Investing emotionally and professionally in team dynamics yields important results.
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When asking why, we should expect rigorous and genuine responses.
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This honesty encourages equitable decision-making among teams.
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Creating honest situations fosters better systems and processes.
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Adhering to dubious deadlines promotes smoke and mirrors implementations.
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These result in unmet expectations, even if we hit our milestones.
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Many companies might ultimately fail if they don't recognize and embrace these realities.
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Furthermore, companies often resort to crunch modes.
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Employees cram all necessary work into shorter time frames—it’s a reaction to high pressure.
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However, this should be considered an exceptional measure, not the standard.
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Much like how we handle code exceptions, we need to analyze the aftermath of crunch times.
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We don't want to rely on heroes in our teams; we should target prevention.
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I want to showcase my best code ever, and I’m quite proud of it.
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It's the kind of code that has 100% test coverage and requires no maintenance.
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Yet we laugh about it because we understand that not writing code can be the best scenario.
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Processes, by nature, have maintenance requirements too.
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We need to be skeptical of our processes as we would with someone else’s code.
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Adapting processes means ensuring they fit well without overwhelming the team.
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Processes should never replace trust; they should enhance collaboration.
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It's crucial to analyze mistakes and address their root causes.
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Defining a process becomes a last resort.
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Abandoning processes just because someone made a mistake isn't productive.
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Processes may become legacy traps, distorting definitions over time.
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In programming, legacy code often is maintained without questioning why it exists.
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Although we can rationalize our methodologies, they’re often set without context.
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What I’m calling process meta programming can help here.
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My friend, Glenn Vanderburgh, illustrated this ideology with a remarkable analogy.
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He recounted how his father taught him driving from a handbook.
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The key takeaway was to drive in such a way that everyone understood your next move.
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Emphasizing rationale helps elucidate the minutiae and guidelines.
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If organizations drown in formalized processes, they drown in complexity.
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This leads to tool development to follow said processes.
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These tools often shift from reflecting processes to defining them.
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When new hires enter the organization, they learn the wrongly defined processes.
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As a consequence, any alteration in processes must begin with tool revisions.
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Tools should serve as useful instruments and not define the team's future.
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Small tools allow us the flexibility to adapt without overwhelming the organization.
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It's integral to empower team members with options.
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Dr. Martin Seligman—the father of positive psychology—conducted studies on happiness.
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He demonstrated how people thrive when given choices.
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However, some environments stripped them of autonomy, often leading to despair.
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People in power tend to impose restrictions, assuming everyone's fine with that.
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But autonomy is vital—not merely under the threat of leaving.
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I’ve seen financial and emotional barriers prevent many from leaving toxic situations.
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Thus, optionality is essential for individual contentment.
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When I had to leave, it felt like I was abandoning close relationships.
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Regrettably, my CEO made me feel guilty for my departure.
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Often, it’s sad to witness coworkers in distress due to overbearing management.
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Developers have the potential for flexibility, working in various formats and patterns.
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The truth is that empathy, honesty, and trust are interrelated.
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Each one leads us towards greater autonomy.
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Ultimately, autonomy cultivates the environment for thriving developers.
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Object-oriented programming emphasizes communication; processes need to encourage efficiency.
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It’s paramount to lift programmers’ spirits rather than constrain with geographical demands.
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Increased communication enhances collaborative capabilities, even from a distance.
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If we can communicate effectively, we can fix shared misunderstandings.
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And ultimately, if miscommunication persists, coding becomes convoluted.
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Being transparent leads to successful outcomes and fosters healthier environments.
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You will observe burnout among those always on call, fearing to miss messages.
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So keeping boundaries clear helps in preserving mental stamina.
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Most heroes arise from negative organizational environments.
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Consider the reality: we need to experience pain in order to change.
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People should confront the discomfort that pushes change.
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It’s crucial to embrace challenges with foresight.
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Yet, we risk falling back into old habits.
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Evaluating our work methods leads to a thoughtful investigation.
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Ultimately, we excel when we lean into constructive feedback.
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Reinforcing trust within teams counters misunderstandings.
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We have the responsibility to create suitable work-life balances.
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When we effectively manage dynamics, we improve overall productivity.
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Encouraging team autonomy is essential for a thriving environment.
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With this insight in mind, let’s encourage dialogue on humane development.
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This is about fostering healthy environments where people flourish.
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I believe we can pursue these objectives collaboratively.
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Thank you all for your time, and if you’re interested, I have stickers.
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Feel free to come up for a humane development sticker or any other questions.
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Just remember, our industry thrives when we remember the values of humanity.
