1. Engineering for engineers.
Eric Sigler, Engineering Manager - Developer Tools, PagerDuty
I’m here today to convince you that you should invest in developer productivity.
@esigler

2. I was honestly surprised this was only half a million results.
Why is developer productivity important? Odds are, if you have more than one engineer, they have differing opinions on how to deliver software. And probably not enough time to take care of anything other than the critical path.
I was honestly surprised this was only half a million results.
@esigler

3. Manu Cornet / manucornet.net
Over time your organization & software will follow Conway's law. And what happens when one bubble needs to interact with another bubble’s software/service/library?
Manu Cornet / manucornet.net
@esigler

4. This can bite you.
@esigler

5. “We’ll put that on the backlog.”
Over the long term, a DT team provides a group to watch out for a whole set of cross-cutting concerns. A Product Manager's best friend w.r.t. roadmaps.
@esigler

6. My parents told me there are three things I shouldn’t do in public
My parents told me there are three things I shouldn’t do in public. Math is one of them.
Concerted efforts can yield gains that are measurable, and provide outsized returns.
@esigler

7. Engineering Effectiveness Developer Productivity
Developer Tools
Engineering Effectiveness
Developer Productivity
Engineering Infrastructure
Developer Efficiency
Developer Happiness
What should a DevTools team charter be? Anything that will improve engineering efficiency. The engineers are this team’s customers. NOT MANAGEMENT. BTW, don't sweat the team name. You're going to focus on so many areas anyways it won't matter.
@esigler

8. Have engineers tell the story of where they want to be, figure out the pitfalls along the way, then help them get there.
“Docker, docker, docker.” Or not.
@esigler

9. Solve a problem, make it easy, repeat.
Get the basics down solid. Think “top of funnel” for delivering software. Onboarding experience, delivery of software, collaboration - nail these.
@esigler

10. Think outside the CI system
Think outside the CI system. Things like ChatOps can be new avenues to improve things. New Shiny is OK here - as long as it adds value.
@esigler

11. Build empathy early, you’ll need it.
At some point you’re going to have to ask people to change. Best to have paid some karma before then.
@esigler

12. Don't be the fire department.
Beware moral hazard. Some of your customers will want you to be this.
@esigler

13. Don't be the arsonists. @esigler
Don’t change things too fast. Some of your customers will want this too.
@esigler

14. Don't sell out your customers.
There will be metrics that you should be very careful about collecting. No different than any other kind.
@esigler

15. Story time!
@esigler

16. “We’re shipping in 4 weeks.”
@esigler

17. @esigler

18. “It’s like living in the future.”
@esigler

19. gigamonkeys.com/flowers
Invest in developer productivity by dedicating engineers to it.
No seriously go read:
gigamonkeys.com/flowers
- Recap: You should invest in your developer productivity
- You should do this sooner rather than later
- How much you should invest can be calculated
- It's easy to start
@esigler

20. @esigler / eric@pagerduty.com
Thank you!
@esigler /