Google is a data-driven company. We back up most of our products and design decisions with hard data. The culture of data-driven decision making, using appropriate metrics, has some drawbacks, but overall, relying on data tends to make most decisions objective rather than subjective, which is often a good thing. Collecting and analyzing data on the human side of things, however, has its own challenges. Specifically, within software engineering, Google has found that having a team of specialists focus on engineering productivity itself to be very valuable and important as the company scales and can leverage insights from such a team.
In 'The art of engineering team focus: less is more', authors Jakub Oleksy and Matt Nigh discuss the importance of prioritising visibility and limiting work in progress to enhance productivity within engineering teams. They emphasize that doing less at once can result in shipping more valuable outputs.
In his article, Manuel Kießling discusses how seasoned developers can leverage their experience to achieve better results with AI-powered coding tools. He emphasizes the importance of well-structured requirements, tool-based guard rails, and file-based keyframing in utilizing these technologies effectively, while contrasting his positive experiences with the feedback from some developers who struggle with AI tools.
Software Engineering at Google
The art of engineering team focus: less is more - GitHub Resources
Senior Developer Skills in the AI Age: Leveraging Experience for Better Results • Manuel Kießling