Chapter 7
Chapter 7 of the book discusses different tools and processes that can be implemented to support the growth of an organization. It starts by addressing the tension between staying out of the details to encourage innovation and staying close to ensure the work aligns with the company’s values. The author offers a playbook of tools to strike this balance and a general framework for rolling out these tools.
The chapter then dives into line management, which becomes important when a team reaches three engineers. It suggests implementing a sprint process to effectively manage the team’s work. The author provides criteria to evaluate whether a team’s sprint works well, such as if the team knows what they should be working on and if stakeholders can learn about the team’s plans. The chapter also includes an org chart for a line manager to visualize the structure.
The next section discusses middle management, where the individual becomes responsible for two to five line managers. The focus shifts from day-to-day execution to giving line managers room to make an impact. The author suggests starting a weekly staff meeting with managers to provide updates and discuss shared topics. As the organization grows, preventable misalignment becomes more common, and the author recommends teams to write vision documents to clarify goals and strategies. Skip-level one-on-ones are also encouraged to ensure open channels of feedback.
The final section of the chapter is about managing an organization at a larger scale. This is when the author suggests using directional metrics and an easily discoverable dashboard to track key performance indicators. The metrics should also make clear the current value, goal value, and trend between them. This helps identify areas that need attention and allows focusing on projects that are exceeding or struggling. The author also recommends team snippets, which provide snapshots of each team’s sprints to promote coordination and communication.
The chapter concludes with a list of books and papers that the author has found useful. The books cover a range of topics, including systems thinking, leadership, and project management. The papers include those that discuss various aspects of distributed systems, such as consensus algorithms, distributed storage, and messaging systems. The author provides a brief explanation of each paper and why it is worth reading.
Overall, this chapter provides valuable insights into the tools and processes that can support the growth and management of an organization. It offers practical advice and recommendations based on the author’s own experiences and observations. The list of books and papers is also a helpful resource for further reading and exploration of relevant topics.
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