Supporting Engineering Productivity for All
Supporting Engineering Productivity for All
In his InfoQ presentation, "Supporting Engineering Productivity for All," Emerson Murphy-Hill shares insights from research on what drives engineering productivity and how to create a more inclusive and effective engineering environment. This post summarizes the key takeaways from his talk.
1. Prioritizing Productivity Drivers
The presentation highlights that not all productivity factors are created equal. The most significant drivers are:
- Employee Engagement: Enthusiasm for the job is a top predictor of self-rated productivity.
- Psychological Safety: A supportive environment where new ideas are encouraged is crucial.
- Autonomy: The freedom to make decisions about methods, time, and judgment boosts productivity.
- Tooling: Seeking out and using the best tools and practices is also a significant factor.
Interestingly, factors like software complexity and email notifications were found to have a less significant impact than often assumed.
2. Bias in Code Reviews
The presentation reveals a significant bias in the code review process:
- Disproportionate Pushback: Engineers from historically marginalized groups (women, Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Asian) and older engineers experience significantly more "high pushback" code reviews.
- Mitigation: Anonymous code reviews can help de-bias the process, leading to more thorough reviews and fewer rollbacks without sacrificing speed or quality.
3. Bias in Technical Documentation
Bias also appears in how technical documentation is perceived:
- Age Bias: The perceived age of an author can influence how seriously their documentation is taken. Articles by older men were rated as more superficial compared to those by younger men.
4. Building Diverse and Inclusive Teams
The presentation emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion for team productivity:
- Diversity Boosts Productivity: Gender and tenure diversity are positive predictors of team productivity.
- Recruiting & Hiring Strategies:
- Hiring managers must proactively take responsibility for diversity.
- Challenge assumptions about ideal candidates to broaden the pool.
- Demonstrate an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion.
- Establish accountability for inclusive hiring practices.
- Developing Technical Allyship:
- Provide growth opportunities for underrepresented engineers.
- Build diverse leadership teams.
- Encourage coworkers to support and praise contributions from underrepresented individuals.
This blog post is a summary of the key points from Emerson Murphy-Hill's InfoQ presentation, "Supporting Engineering Productivity for All".