Are Developers An Extension Of Your Business Or Just A Robotic Disposable Resource?

The answer to this question is not only important for the success of your project, but also for the success of your company. The developer that you hire will be working with you to build out solutions and grow your business. They will be responsible for creating a unique user experience that solves real problems in an innovative way. They are essentially building the backbone of your organization, so it’s crucial that they understand exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish before agreeing on any timelines or deadlines.

When we talk about programmers and software developers as an extension of the business, we are really acknowledging the fact that they are an important part of our organization and an integral part of its success. But even though we say we understand this when managing these teams, we still sometimes fail to recognize how important they are and do not always provide feedback or support in a way that unites us.

Managing Developers

The following is a list of ways that you can improve your team’s performance by recognizing these individual efforts:

  • Recognize the individual efforts of your developers. The best way to do this is to recognize them in private, not during a team meeting or in front of their peers. This will help avoid any embarrassment or awkwardness, and it will also make sure that they know they are appreciated by their manager on an individual basis.

  • Give your developers raises and bonuses when appropriate. Raises should be given on a regular basis (usually once per year), but bonuses should only be given when someone has done something exceptional for the company (e.g., hitting an important sales target).

  • Empower developers to be creative and suggest solutions by tasking them with building solutions organically. The practice of rushing to third-party outsourcing or assigning all the "fun" type of activities to temporary resources is a recipe for low morale and high turnover ("The Great Resignation"). More importantly, while the primary objective is met, no retention of intellectual capital is achieved as developers will be handed someone else's design which is typically full of short cuts and bad design as quality was cut in order to merely meet a deadline.

Techno-Functional Resource

It can be said that traditionally programmers and software developers have been labeled as introverts lacking the social skills to understand and comprehend typical business functions. While this stigma might have been prevalent some 30 years ago, it no longer exists today, and thus it should be every technology focused organization's goal to form a symbiotic relationship between software development and those functional areas (accounting, finance, engineering, logistics, human resources, etc.). The collaboration that results of these relationships gives rise to the Techno-Functional resource which results in creativity and innovation that sets your organization apart from your competitors.  


The Techno-Functional resource will have been exposed to the challenging areas of your business and will not only have vast knowledge of technological concepts to address such but be able to deliver the solution as well. Imagine a full-time resource that can understand the debits and credits vernacular of your accountants, talk design approach with fellow software developers, and most important see data patterns that when coupled with some data science can suggest even more "next-level" features that ultimately reduce cost and/or increase revenue.

A couple real-life examples of Techno-Functional resource utilization:
  • Working with the accounts receivable team it was observed that some customers pay in a timely manner while others do not and thus how to prioritize collection efforts.  The Techno-Functional resource investigated this further and identified some patterns in customer profiles, market trends, and payment history that acted as a predictor of a timely payment or not. With access to the data, the Techno-Functional resource developed a probability model that predicted a timely payment and integrated some visual indicators into the application. With such indicators in place, team was able to prioritize and collect revenue sooner than later, leading to enhanced cash flow.
  • A full-time Techno-Functional resource working closely with the asset maintenance team identified abnormal fuel consumption of diesel generators working in the oil and gas space. After analyzing the data, a correlation of seasonality and a specific region was established in determining that in times of extreme heat and drought coupled with high winds resulted in air filters restricting air flow causing an increase in fuel consumption.  The Techno-Functional resource was able to identify an IoT device to measure air flow programmatically and when appended to the main air intake was able to determine when air filters needed replacement or cleaning in real-time improving performance, increasing fuel efficiency, and ultimately reducing overhead costs.

Conclusion

As always it comes down to a matter of identity, are you an organization that is so conservative and a laggard that falls into the naive mindset that will base its business strategy on what purchased software (COTS) will allow, or perhaps are you more progressive and always looking to improve your performance constantly challenging the status quo.  If you are the latter, then incorporating software developers into your strategy discussions and treating them as a first-class asset of the organization is paramount, otherwise do the bare minimum and become beholden to whatever your third-party's secret agendas entail and watch them steal and share your trade secrets.

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