DevOps
The DevEx evolution: aligning delivery with direction
Unlock developer experience best practices with our comprehensive playbook. Designed for senior engineering leaders, this guide provides actionable strategies to enhance DevEx, align software development with business goals, and empower engineering teams for increased productivity and innovation.
Improve developer experience & user satisfaction: get the tools, metrics, and feedback loops your engineering teams need
As part of a collaboration between Adaptavist and Network Perspective, this playbook is unmissable reading for senior engineering leaders. A robust developer experience (DevEx) is critical for software development success – and this guide explains how to understand and improve yours.
Inside, you’ll find personal experiences and insights pulled from a series of webinars hosted by Anita Zbieg, CEO of Network Perspective, featuring Jon Kern from Adaptavist, co-author of the Agile Manifesto, in dialogue with leading software engineering heads and senior managers.
From understanding how teams experience work by including real perspectives rather than just metrics to navigating complexities with strategies that foster a culture of iterative improvement, there’s plenty to kickstart discussions and put into practice.
In this playbook, we cover:
- Understanding the developer experience–the balancing act between ensuring internal interconnectivity and being able to meet users’ ever-evolving needs.
- The key challenges in software delivery–how DevEx surveys go further than DORA and FLOW metrics to help you understand them and make improvements.
- What to do with all that data–how to move beyond metrics to optimise user experiences and drive developer productivity.
- How to empower your developers–giving them the data, alignment, and time they need to make improvements.
- The importance of an iterative approach–how to make incremental progress despite common blockers and just get started!
- The role of leadership in improving your DevEx–fostering an environment where dev teams are empowered to adapt and evolve.
- The future of DevEx–focusing on unlocking human potential by leveraging data to understand users’ and developers’ experiences.
Packed with over 30 insights from tech leaders, survey data from over 50 industry experts, and six real-world tech cases that showcase the transformative power of DevEx, this playbook should inspire you to reimagine your approach, sparking ideas and experiments that drive meaningful change in your organisation.
Key takeaways
Prioritise people in your software development
DevEx puts your engineering teams and their experiences first, driving innovation and proactive problem-solving.
Streamline user experience measurement
Focus on the 5 most critical DevEx metrics to align your team's efforts and improve software delivery efficiency.
Adapt to evolving software experiences
Implement robust DevEx measurement tools and feedback loops to continuously optimise and respond to user and developer needs.
Elevate software quality beyond technicalities
While code quality is crucial, flawless software must also meet user needs and business objectives for true success.
Leverage expert insights alongside data
Don't underestimate the value of experienced team members' perspectives—their estimates can be highly accurate and provide valuable context to metrics.
Gain a holistic view with DevEx surveys
Supplement passive metrics with developer sentiment surveys to understand the underlying factors influencing your development process.
Foster deep work and collaboration for developer success
Create an environment that promotes focused work and teamwork to maximise engineer effectiveness and job satisfaction.
Integrate leadership into the DevEx strategy
Empower development teams by incorporating user data and a "measure-act-learn" cycle into leadership goals.
Expert contributors
Anita Zbieg
CEO of Network Perspective
Jon Kern
Jon Kern, a co-author of the Agile Manifesto, and consultant at Adaptavist
Chas Mastin
Senior Engineering Manager at YouTube
Ben Darfler
Chief of Staff (Director of Strategy and Operations) at Honeycomb.io
Benjamin Kitt
Senior Software Development Manager at Lob
About Network Perspective
Network Perspective specialises in measuring and maximising developer experience to help you deliver better software. Their tools, which leverage developer-centric data, insights, and learning cycles, assist teams in identifying friction points, prioritising improvements, and tracking progress. The Developer Experience Survey tool helps teams pinpoint blockers, implement practical actions, and measure results. WorkSmart AI enhances deep work and collaboration by syncing with your collaboration tools via API, ensuring 100% individual privacy, and providing real-time data and AI-driven refinements to save 2 deep work hours per engineer per week. Startups, scale-ups, and enterprises with over 20,000 tech professionals use their solutions, which scale from 1 to 1,000 teams.
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