Demonstrating Ownership in the SDLC: A Guide for Engineers

October 22, 2024

As a software engineering manager, one of the key traits I expect from my team is a strong sense of ownership throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Ownership goes beyond simply writing code, delivering features, or hitting deadlines. It’s about taking full responsibility for the success of the product, not just in the short term but also for its ongoing impact, performance, and stability after the software has shipped.

Ownership means being invested in the entire journey of a product, from its conception to how it runs in production, and ultimately, how it affects the end-users. It’s a mindset shift that, especially in the world of SaaS, differentiates teams that just deliver features from teams that drive success.

Ownership Beyond Feature Delivery

In the rush to ship new features, it's easy for engineering teams to fall into the trap of seeing feature completion as the end of the line. But in reality, it’s just the beginning. The true measure of success is not whether the feature has been implemented, but how well it serves users over time. This is where the concept of ownership comes into play.

Owning a product or feature doesn't stop at hitting "deploy." It extends to how it performs in the real world, how scalable it is, how it impacts users, and how it fits into the broader ecosystem. Ownership means being proactive, anticipating problems, continuously improving, and remaining accountable for the long-term quality and sustainability of the product. And I find it is not always an easy mentality for engineers and engineering teams to grasp. Here are some of my suggestions on what can help...

Key Areas to Focus on After Software Delivery

Ownership post-shipping encompasses several crucial aspects:

1. Observability

Once software is in production, it’s vital to know how it's performing. Observability is about having the right metrics, logs, signals and traces in place to gain visibility into system behavior and performance. It ensures that teams can quickly detect, diagnose, and resolve issues before they affect users.

Key questions engineers should ask:

  • Do we have the right monitoring and alerting in place?
  • Are we tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like latency, error rates, or throughput?
  • Can we easily trace user interactions and follow the flow through the system to identify bottlenecks?
  • Is there a plan for incident management in case something goes wrong?
  • Do we know what we should be looking for?

2. Performance and Scalability

Shipping a feature is one thing, but ensuring it scales as traffic grows is another. Engineers who take ownership continuously monitor the performance of their software, keeping an eye on potential slowdowns or points of failure. They also prepare the application to handle growth without sacrificing quality. They think about this early on in the steps of design and implementation.

Key questions engineers should ask:

  • How is our feature performing under various loads? Have we run load tests? Do we know how to load test this?
  • What happens if our user base doubles? Triples?
  • Are there potential bottlenecks in our architecture? Can we spot and fix them before they impact users?
  • Is our cloud infrastructure optimized for both cost and performance?

3. Maintenance and Technical Debt

Owning a product means being vigilant about technical debt and keeping it manageable. Quick fixes and rushed code often come back to haunt teams. Engineers who take ownership proactively address debt, refactor code, and ensure that the software remains maintainable in the long term. I appreciate when I see teams clearly advocate for addressing technical debt and can offer compelling reasons why making this type of investment is worthwhile doing to stakeholders and product owners.

Key questions engineers should ask:

  • Are there areas in our codebase that need refactoring to improve maintainability? Have we written a ticket, task, or note to make this visible?
  • Do we have automated tests in place to ensure future changes don’t break existing functionality? Could we add more tests or have more effective test coverage?
  • Are we documenting our system and decisions for future maintainers? What will the person who works on this code after me think about my documentation?
  • Is there a backlog of technical debt that needs prioritization? Am I current on it, or does it need to be revaluated?

4. Support and Customer Care

Taking ownership means having empathy for the users and being actively involved in support. Engineers should not see support as someone else’s problem. Instead, they should take the initiative to understand user issues, contribute to resolving them, and ensure the product meets user needs.

Key questions engineers should ask:

  • Are we actively listening to feedback from support teams and users?
  • How easy is it for users to report problems, and how quickly can we respond?
  • Can we make changes to improve the user experience based on feedback or support tickets?
  • Are there recurring issues that suggest a need for more robust or flexible features?

5. Customer Success and Impact

Beyond technical excellence, ownership means caring about how the software impacts the business and its customers. Engineers who own their work are involved in understanding how their products contribute to overall business goals, user satisfaction, and long-term success.

Key questions engineers should ask:

  • Are users happy with the new feature? Are they using it as expected? Do we have ways of actually tracking this?
  • What feedback are we receiving from customers, and how can we act on it? Are we timely in doing so?
  • How does this feature contribute to business metrics like retention, conversion, or engagement?
  • Are we regularly revisiting and improving features based on real-world usage?

Encouraging a Culture of Ownership

As a manager, fostering a culture of ownership in your engineering team means creating an environment where engineers feel responsible for the end-to-end success of the product. Here are a few ways to encourage this:

  1. Cross-Functional Involvement: Encourage engineers to work closely with product managers, customer success teams, and support teams. The more they understand the bigger picture, the more they’ll take ownership of the outcomes. I've found that in successful teams the gap between engineers and those working in customer support is small. Conversely, when engineers are distanced from customer support, it is much harder for them to grasp the bigger picture of how the software that they produce is impacting customers.

  2. Post-Mortems and Blameless Culture: After incidents or issues, hold blameless post-mortems to understand what went wrong and how the system can be improved. This reinforces the idea that owning a product means continually improving it.

  3. Reward Ownership Behavior: Recognize and reward engineers who demonstrate ownership, whether that’s through maintaining high-quality systems, resolving issues proactively, or improving observability. Praise goes a long way to letting your team know that you appreciate their demonstration of this quality!

  4. Provide Tools for Success: Equip your team with the tools they need for monitoring, alerting, and automated testing. Good tooling makes ownership easier and more effective.

Conclusion

Ownership is about caring for the product beyond just writing code. It’s about seeing the product through its entire lifecycle, from feature development to post-launch performance, maintenance, and user satisfaction. By instilling a sense of ownership in your team, you build a stronger, more resilient product and ensure long-term success for both your engineering team and your customers.

When engineers think holistically about their work and take responsibility for the software they build, everyone wins. So, the next time a feature ships, ask yourself: what more can we do to ensure this software thrives in production? The answers will often lead to better products, more satisfied users, and a stronger engineering culture.


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Written by Blake Martin Software Engineering Manager You should follow them on Twitter