Two Questions That Build Elite Software Teams

Beyond what makes a good team in general, what makes a great team in software development?

I keep it simple. I ask two questions every day — and the answers can elevate any team to elite status.

Both questions are grounded in the DORA metrics — the industry’s most validated framework for predicting team performance.

Did you deploy to production yesterday?

This simple question, asked every morning, cuts to the heart of the matter like no other. Data shows that teams who release code to production at least once per day are statistically better in most ways that actually matter: better business, happier customers, happier developers.

Do we have any bugs that we know about?

Known bugs in the system are like gravel in your engine. They disrupt flow and grind you down every time you read or write code near them.

Each known bug creates three kinds of drag: Someone - a customer, a colleague, maybe even you - is annoyed. Developers waste time coding around the bug instead of building forward. Testers can’t assume the system works - they have to tiptoe.

So stop dragging bugs like anchors behind you. When a bug is reported, wrap up what you are doing, and then fix the bug before moving on. Do not accumulate debt and pretend it is progress - it is not. For more on that, see Stop Managing Bugs, Start Focusing on Quality!

Why these two questions?

These two questions are aligned with the four DORA metrics:

• Deployment frequency.
• Mean lead time for changes.
• Mean time to recover.
• Change failure rate.

Deploying every day keeps your lead time for new features and bug fixes in check, while fixing bugs reduces the risk of severe failures that are hard to recover from.

What else matters?

While delivery metrics are crucial, they are not the whole story.

Research consistently shows that healthy teams are more productive. I recommend Susan Wheelan’s model for team development as a powerful tool for diagnosing and improving team dynamics.

As a leader, what you choose to do - and choose not to do - is everything. See my thoughts on that here.