How Technical Problems Cause Organizational Friction • Adam Tornhill • GOTO 2023

This presentation was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2023. #GOTOcon #GOTOcph https://gotocph.com Adam Tornhill - Founder & CTO at CodeScene; Programmer, Psychologist, Lisp Hacker, Speaker & Author of "Your Code as a Crime Scene" @adamtornhill2546 ORIGINAL TALK TITLE Socio-Technical Smells: How Technical Problems Cause Organizational Friction RESOURCES https://twitter.com/AdamTornhill https://github.com/adamtornhill https://linkedin.com/in/adam-tornhill-71759b48 http://www.adamtornhill.com Links https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04374 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.11636 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.08239 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-influence-of-organizational-structure-on-software-quality-an-empirical-case-study https://codescene.com ABSTRACT Successful software development requires that you keep code and people in balance so that one supports the other. It's a hard challenge since a piece of code doesn't reveal anything about its socio-technical context. Enter behavioral code analysis, an approach which combines code level metrics with data on how teams interact within the code. Armed with these techniques, we look to reduce organizational friction by focusing on a set of common challenges: • Identify architectural coordination bottlenecks and understand the technical root causes. • Visualize implicit dependencies between teams, act to decouple teams. • Discover knowledge risks by measuring the Truck Factor. Learn how to mitigate it. • Communicate the scaling risks inherent in Brooks's Law by showing data on how it impacts your delivery. • Go beyond technical impact by knowing how bad code causes unhappiness, low morale, and increased attrition. All techniques are demonstrated with examples from real-world codebases. If you are a senior developer, software architect, or technical lead, this presentation will change how you view code. So join in to learn why technical decisions are never merely technical, and how you can stay a step ahead by preventing socio-technical smells. [...] TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 01:40 1. The overcrowded system 08:58 2. Coordination bottlenecks in the code 21:04 3. A propagating cost of change 31:42 4. Dependent work crossing team boundaries 33:05 5. Unhealthy code with a low Truck Factor 42:25 Summary 44:32 Outro Download slides and read the full abstract here: https://gotocph.com/2023/sessions/2956 RECOMMENDED BOOKS Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene, 2nd Ed. • https://amzn.to/44khqgE Adam Tornhill • Software Design X-Rays • https://amzn.to/3DEeEnI Adam Tornhill • Your Code as a Crime Scene • https://amzn.to/3FI5E2V Adam Tornhill • Lisp for the Web • https://leanpub.com/lispweb Adam Tornhill • Patterns in C • https://leanpub.com/patternsinc Caitlin Sadowski & Thomas Zimmermann • Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering • https://amzn.to/41ztwjs Fred Brooks Jr. • The Mythical Man-Month • https://amzn.to/31NJc5C https://twitter.com/GOTOcon https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.instagram.com/goto_con https://www.facebook.com/GOTOConferences #SocioTechnicalSmells #BehavioralCodeAnalysis #TruckFactor #CodeScene #CodeAsACrimeScene #AdamTornhill #TechnicalDebt #Legacy #LegacyCode #DeveloperProductivity #CodeComplexity #Complexity #CodeSmells #RedCode #GreenCode #CodeQuality #CodeHealth Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech Sign up for updates and specials at https://gotopia.tech/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences/?sub_confirmation=1