If you are lucky enough to have a developer – or a number of developers – that consistently turn in high-quality work week in and week out, don’t be afraid to celebrate them. Also, figure out how they do what they do, and see if you can replicate that across your team.
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What is a High-Quality Performer?
High-quality performers tend to have these traits or metrics in common:
- They organize their day to remove distractions
- Their daily activity is often above-average
- Their impact on projects or the areas they are working on is high and consistently so
- Their pull requests are timely and not over-sized
- They embrace and participate in reviews
- They have lower than average churn
Recognize It as a Pattern
When it comes to zeroing in on high-quality work, to get the most out of it for the benefit of the team, you’ll need to depersonalize the qualities and try to present them as a pattern. While teams can’t emulate people, they can adopt patterns, and, as a team lead or manager, that’s ideally what you want.
Software development is all about endurance. That means having teams that show up every day to produce quality work. Building a team that does this takes time, but studying your high-quality performers can give you some insights into how to get there faster.
…and Replicate it!
The first thing a great manager can do is publicly recognize the pattern and point out the people delivering on it. You can do this in both standups and one-on-ones. Really drive home how impressive the consistency is and remind the entire team that great code isn’t built over a single sprint.
Consider ways to publicly reward those delivering on consistency (maybe some sort of reward for whoever can deliver four, six, or eight weeks of daily consistent code commits). Find ways you can point out, reinforce, and reward those consistent players and build bridges for other team members to get there too.
The best thing you can do as a manager to help your team “get in the zone” is to help members remove distractions and organize their day or time around how they can best work, according to their approach to coding. While some may need to fully block out distractions, others may prefer to break up their day into work/reward chunks of time. Some may require “ambient chatter,” while others need complete silence. Help each team member figure out how they can get in the zone and what elements of a day take them out of being fully productive, and see what you can do to mitigate distractions.
Conclusion: Learn and Mirror
Even if you just have one consistent developer, study their healthy work patterns and move towards having other team members emulate their success. While each individual will have a different approach, by showing your team an aspirational, real-world example of consistency and then helping them to nurture their own innate capabilities to do the same, you’ll be building a stronger, more robust team.
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