How employers can inspire software developers

Software developers are in demand. Those with extensive experience in this profession and the latest qualifications are in a position to choose the jobs they want. This makes it necessary for companies to position themselves as an attractive employer. They must be “developer-friendly” because software development is not a traditional 9-to-5 job. An ideal working environment for this is based on three pillars: autonomy, collaboration and agility.  

Autonomy: The basis for innovation 

Autonomy is the essential element of a company that wants to create a developer-friendly work environment by expanding the scope and responsibility of employees. It can thus very easily promote creative potential and increase motivation and sense of responsibility. 

That is why, in addition to providing a place of work where trust is the foundation and offering such perks as flexible schedules, allowing decision-making autonomy is particularly important. This means that each employee can make important decisions without getting mired in bureaucracy. 

Anyone who has a good idea for a new function in the software, who thinks they have discovered a profitable gap in the market or who wants to test a new algorithm can simply do so. There are only two basic requirements: 

• The project proposal must be aligned with the company’s goals and strategies 
• It must be discussed with and approved by all the relevant stakeholders 

The scope of the discussion depends on the scope of the decision. The more important a decision, the more comprehensive the discussion must be. This practice promotes well-founded decisions that incorporate a wide range of perspectives. Transparency plays a key role here: Decisions must be documented and clearly communicated to ensure accountability. This avoids misunderstandings and creates a culture of open communication. 

This shows that autonomy does not mean the wild west; arbitrary decisions are out of the question. The decision-making process is not necessarily easier than in conventional hierarchies. The first step is to convince the most important stakeholders. 

The big advantage of this approach is that the person who has the idea drives it forward as their own project and convinces all the people who are affected by it. On the other hand, the review of the project by stakeholders ensures that all perspectives are incorporated into the decision-making process. 

Collaboration: Cross-departmental cooperation as a success factor 

In addition to autonomy, collaboration plays a central role in creating an optimal working environment for developers. This is because they rarely work in isolation. Rather, they benefit from the expertise and perspectives of other team members. Modern organizations therefore rely on cross-functional and even international teams to solve complex problems more efficiently and holistically. 

Such teams are sometimes referred to as value creation teams and consist of members from different national subsidiaries, departments and disciplines. This ensures a broad spectrum of expertise and skills for developing innovative solutions. 

Global companies in particular benefit from these international teams, where developers from different cultures come together, for example, after an M&A. Here, developers need space to work together to adapt their own processes or to bring together the best of both worlds. 

Combining two work cultures 

One example of the integration of an international team is my company’s acquisition of the Israeli start-up Rookout. This acquisition aimed to expand the existing infrastructure to include powerful debugging and observability functions for developers, thereby creating a development environment that is adapted to the requirements of global, cloud-native applications. 

A key success factor in the acquisition was to integrate the Israeli team into the existing structures without compromising their autonomy and creative way of working. Management achieved this by creating dedicated spaces where the Rookout team could operate independently while also gaining access to the resources and support needed to work seamlessly with the global developer and IT teams. 

Centralized tools and communication platforms were customized to allow the Rookout team to maintain most of their work processes, while clearly defined coordination points ensured that their expertise was immediately incorporated into the overall strategy. 

This hybrid integration model made it possible to maintain the Rookout team’s innovative strength and agility while making optimal use of the strengths of the existing development infrastructure. This created an environment in which management deliberately encouraged autonomy and teamwork, which sustainably increased both productivity and satisfaction for everyone involved. 

Value creation teams: Distribution according to individual strengths 

Generally speaking, responsibilities within the teams should be allocated not only according to formal roles and functions but also based on the individual strengths and experiences of the team members. Each person contributes their specific skills to develop solutions together and enable effective collaboration. 

The precise definition of the tasks of a value creation team plays a central role in this. A specific document defines clear, measurable goals and ensures that the team works towards them. This clarity prevents a team from wasting resources and at the same time strengthens the sense of responsibility of the team members. 

Depending on their tasks and the heterogeneity of their members, value creation teams have a certain size, but this is not necessary for every task. Therefore, it makes sense to create specialized teams to complement them. For example, they work autonomously on redesigning or improving functions. 

Agility: Adaptability as the key to success 

The exchange of knowledge is an important foundation for the ability to react quickly and flexibly to changes and new requirements — for agility. This refers to an open and iterative way of working that prioritizes continuous improvement and collaboration. 

Projects are therefore divided into smaller, more manageable units that a team works on in short iterations. A central component of these methods is to react quickly to customer feedback. Since employees develop new functions in short cycles, they can react better to market demands or customer requirements. 

Agile methods such as scrum or kanban are an important factor for many development teams. They provide clear structures and processes for high efficiency, while also leaving enough room for experimentation. Agile teams also benefit from clearly defined goals and measurable target achievement. They act similarly to startups within the company: they pursue a business goal, deliver measurable results and react flexibly to new requirements. 

However, agility is not just about quick adaptation, but also about structures and processes. An in-house handbook or playbook — for example, a value creation guide (VCG) — helps teams to standardize collaboration within a company without compromising flexibility. The VCG provides clear guidelines on how teams work together and make decisions, while also allowing enough room for individual adjustments. 

Florian Ortner is Senior Vice President, Product at Dynatrace. He is a trained engineer and tech enthusiast who fell in love with product management two decades ago. Florian is passionate about products that make users badass and likes to reduce-to-the-max. He enjoys competing, is interested in economics and loves to cook.