There is plenty to read about continuous delivery in terms of rolling out code. In my journey to be a better leader and manager, I have realized there is something we are doing badly. While we are continuously integrating, testing, and deploying code to production, we are not reliably delivering a product for our client. I use client loosely here. The client for the development team at dealnews is the company itself. With every project however, there are people interested in its progress. We were (still are some) underserving those people. Those interested often have no clue of when something will be done. Sometimes things would are done and they do not know it. So, how do we solve this problem?

There was a time when we were a team of two people. If some server issue popped up, it totally derailed whatever project was being worked on. So, we grew accustomed to missing deadlines out of necessity. Now that we are a real team, that excuse is no longer valid.

Part of the problem also lies in the team’s (i.e. me) OSS roots. I really got started doing web development by writing Phorum. In fact, my first job when I was hired full time for, then, dealmac.com was to update the Phorum software to scale better. Banner ads were at an all time high in the late 90s. We made a lot of money off those page views. In OSS, the answer to “When will X be done?” is often “it’s done when it’s done”. Blizzard Entertainment, creators of World of Warcraft, have been quoted as saying that about their products.

Telling someone it will be done when it is done sounds really cool. I feel like a bad ass. It’s art! It’s not about a timeline. I can’t be bothered with your pesky expectations. Except, that is bullshit. In reality, there are people depending on me and my team to get work done. So, that was one of the first things I wanted to change. We have gotten better. Here are some things I have learned.

Think before speaking. If I am in a meeting and talking about a new task or project, I try not to throw out a time frame for completion. I tell them I will get back to them. I try and tell them when I will get back with them. I then gather anyone on the team that needs to have input and evaluate the changes. Once I have a solid answer, I report back to the other department. Very often I worry people will be mad when I say “two weeks” so I say “one week” and hope for a miracle. But if it is going to be two weeks, I need to tell them that. That may be too late. Or it may be not worth it to them to take that much of our time. Of course not all tasks need this kind of time commitment to deciding a time frame. Deciding which do and which don’t is tough sometimes.

I wanted to start communicating deadlines to our developers. We had never had a ticketing system that supported due dates. We had the “done when done” philosophy. I was really worried about adding them. I didn’t want people to feel like they were being micro-managed. After a couple of months, everyone is much happier. Turns out developers really like knowing when things are expected to be done. It also helps to prioritize different tasks. If a developer has 5 things assigned to them, they can look at the due dates to decide which is more important. Because, you know, they are all marked “highest” priority. Developers have the freedom to speak up and say “there is no way I can finish this by that date”. It’s possible I completely misjudged the scale of the change. It is also possible I wrote a horrible ticket and the developer is confused by my 2AM stream of consciousness.

There is another hurdle for me. I have gotten better at managing expectations of other departments and helping developers know what is expected of them. It is better. It is not perfect. It may never be. I am still struggling with doing the same with my own development tasks. I catch myself thinking “Well, that is just how it is when I have to manage and develop.” But that is a total excuse and a cop out. I have to learn to do that better. Managing my own time may be the toughest of all. If and when I figure something out, I will write about it.