{"id":14438,"date":"2020-02-10T18:59:29","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T13:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cigniti.com\/blog\/?p=14438"},"modified":"2020-02-10T19:09:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T13:39:24","slug":"high-performance-engineering-teams-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigniti.com\/blog\/high-performance-engineering-teams-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating and running high-performance engineering teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a\u00a0<\/span>German\u00a0<\/span>proverb\u00a0<\/span>that says, \u201cTo aim is not enough, you must hit!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>One might aim for\u00a0<\/span>excellence, but hitting the target is a whole another story.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally,\u00a0<\/span>teams measure their performance against the metric of speed. As a matter of fact,<\/span>\u00a0speed is one of the key factors causing the widespread adoption of Agile and DevOps. Gargantuan projects run on waterfall used to stretch for years, often going over<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>budget and failing to deliver on time. Therefore, to improve performance and to resolve these issues, speed or velocity emerged as the obvious non-functional requirement. The faster the releases are done,\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>better the performance, right?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, wrong!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Often, the\u00a0<\/span>need for speed<\/span><\/i>\u00a0seems to dominate the\u00a0<\/span>essentiality of quality<\/span><\/i>\u00a0in a software. The software development teams compromise with the overall quality of the release only to match the determined criteria for speed. Doing releases in the desired timeframe might appear to be a qualified metric for performance assessment, but in reality, it is highly superficial. If the quality is not up to the expectations, it will<\/span>\u00a0create<\/span>\u00a0negative customer experience<\/span>s and consequently,\u00a0<\/span>impacts<\/span>\u00a0business reputation.\u00a0<\/span>Speed could be an appropriate metric to measure maturity but falls short when it comes to\u00a0<\/span>determining the value it offers to the end<\/span>–<\/span>users.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Forrester, in their latest report on \u201c<\/span>Predictions 2020: DevOps<\/span><\/a>\u201d, emphasized that business value will overtake velocity as the preferred metric among the DevOps teams.\u00a0<\/span>Now, it will no longer be about how fast you are delivering. It will be about how well you are delivering.<\/span>\u00a0The analyst predicts<\/span>, \u201cDevOps teams will increasingly prefer outside-in metrics such as improved sales, revenue, client retention, and customer satisfaction to the inside-out measure of velocity.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a critical shift awakens, rather necessitates embracing a performance engineering approach to ensure greater value to all the stakeholders. For creating high-performance<\/span>\u00a0software applications, high<\/span>–<\/span>performance engineering teams are required.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u00a0<\/span><\/b>is a high-performance<\/span><\/b>\u00a0engineering<\/span><\/b>\u00a0team?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Leigh Thompson defines a team as \u201ca<\/span>\u00a0group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, knowledge<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal<\/span>.<\/span>“<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>performance engineering approach<\/span>\u00a0in software development shifts the focus on continuous quality.\u00a0<\/span>Performance engineering teams test the software applications proactively and pre-emptively. They make sure that a software\u00a0<\/span>application\u00a0<\/span>perform<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0high against the non-functional requirements.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are some differentiating and defining characteristics which separate a general team from a high-performing team:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n