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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.
