Executing Leadership in Software Engineering Carol Brothers Sr. Manager, ProTax Quality/Test Intuit [email protected]

Executing Leadershipin Software Engineering

Carol Brothers

Sr. Manager, ProTax Quality/TestIntuit

[email protected]

2

Agenda

What does Leadership mean in Software Engineering?

What does good leadership look like? The ProTax Story

– Knowing what’s important– Knowing how you’re doing– Identifying and executing projects to improve

Putting it all together

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ProTax Boiled Frog SyndromeProTax Boiled Frog SyndromeCustomer Percentage Growth by Tax Year

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

00 00 01 02 03 04

Lacerte ProSeries Total ProTax

Revenue Percentage Growth by Tax Year

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

00 00 01 02 03 04

Lacerte ProSeries ProTax

TY01: TAASC Acquisition

ProTax Satisfaction Scores by Year

88%

90%

92%

94%

96%

98%

100%

TY99 TY00 TY01 TY02 TY03

Lacerte ProSeries

Notes: Lacerte for TY99-TY01, Top 2-box on a 5 pt scale. ProSeries for TY99-01, Top 2 box on 5 pt scale for 1040 product. For TY02-TY03 (both), Top 4 box on 11 pt scale.

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What is Leadership?Three basic questions...

What is important?

How are you doing, and how do you know?

What are you doing to improve?

Easy to say… tough to do well…Easy to say… tough to do well…

Operationalizing the Leadership Model

Quantitative & Qualitative Output Metrics: •Employees•Customers•Shareholders

+ProactiveAssessment…how we’re doing

Evaluate Performance

… apply judgment…

red, yellow, green

Time management strategy…delegate

to the driver…they have the lead

to continuouslymonitor

OK

CriticalFew?Apply

J udgment… Screen on impact vs.

true north

NotOK

NoYesAdd to priorities list

Select Priorities… Critical few Initiatives to improve the future: • Growth… Customer• HPO/ GPTW• Infrastructure

Develop DACI and resource…Include progress reviews in operating mechanisms

Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context

“The Right”Big Y(‘s)•Employees•Customers•Shareholders

PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities





red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities

What’s important?

How are you doing?How do you know?


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Start with the most important thing that you do....

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Drill down to what it means Drill down to what it means for your organizationfor your organization

Revolutionize Accountants’ Practice through New Offerings Maximize my practice potential (growth/profitability) Provide me a competitive edge in running my firm (efficiency)

Create a WOW Customer Offering Experience My offering fits the way I work (ease of use) I feel confident of the output... Don’t have to verify (accuracy) My business is not disrupted (reliability, timeliness, performance) My offering meets all my needs (comprehensiveness... Breadth and depth, completeness)

Support Great E2E ProTax Customer Experience Partner with other core and enabling processes to better serve our customers

Deliver for the Current Period... Deliver customer-defined functionality Deliver on-time Adhere to budget Meet customer-defined quality Use disciplined project management process

...Build the Foundation for Long-term Growth Create strategically valuable technology Increase productivity... Reduce complexity

Win Hearts andWin Hearts andMinds of EmployeesMinds of Employees

and Customersand Customers

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Moving the needle – how will you know?

Find the desired business outcomes that show you’re getting better or reaching your goals.

Examples for WOW Customer Experience:– Time to perform critical “jobs” in the product (gets to easy to use)– Tax calculation test coverage, and calculation defects (gets to

accuracy)– 50% reduction in support calls (gets to reliable product,

minimizing disruptions to the accountants’ practice)– IRS and state agency forms coverage (gets to completeness)






red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities





red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities

How are you doing?How do you know?

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Execution = Project Management

90% of execution is managed by project management, and it’s also where 90% of the engineers will be spending their time.

The remaining 10% is making sure we’re still building the right thing against the desired outcomes

Great reading: Software Project Survival Guide by Steve McConnell

Start small, with plans vs. actuals:– Scope / requirements– Size– Effort / cost– Schedule– Quality

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Day-to-day Execution

Project Reviews

Current Previous From To

Yellow Yellow 8/19/2004 8/26/2004

Total Due 0Completed 0Total Over Due 0

Status of FY04 P EF XML - MI SBT Experimentv2

Actual Hours

Productivity

Requirements Change

Status Reporting Period

Defects

Schedule Perf. Index

Feature Test Coverage

Cost Performance Index To-Complete Perf. Index

Earned Value

Risk

Elapsed TimeTask Status

3425

0 10 20 30 40

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Arrival Closure Open Closed

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Passed Failed Total Executed

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0

5

10

15

20

25

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

1

1

1

1

0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00

Probability

Con

sequ

ence

3628.00

1402

0.00 500.00 1000.00 1500.00 2000.00 2500.00 3000.00 3500.00 4000.00

2648

1730

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

0

1

2

0

1

2

0

1

2

Project Dashboards

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data

Qualitative can be much more telling than quantitative data sometimes!

Examples:– Hallway talk about projects engineers hate to work on – is it

because they don’t think it’s important?– Testers can’t figure out how to perform the product jobs in their

test cases – if testers can’t figure it out, how can the customer?– Attendance at tollgates or reviews – are people just doing their

own work without the balance of the greater team?– Developers say they are done, but testers still working diligently –

do the developers feel part of the team and feel like they own the outcome?

– Best engineers aren’t assigned to the most important projects – does everyone agree with what’s most important?

Your gut is telling you more than you think!Your gut is telling you more than you think!

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Continuous Assessment

Don’t forget to assess projects’ impact on the expected business outcomes, too

How much did the needle actually move?






red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities





red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities


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Use data to decide how to improve the future

Do root cause analysis on projects that have less-than-stellar results

Don’t forget about the qualitative data!

Set up improvement projects to make the future better– Architecture– Process improvements– Reuse– Etc.

Explicitly STOP doing things to make resources available to work on long-term improvements

These priorities should be executed as projects, with equal importance as product-related projects

Pointers for How to Get Started





red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities





red, yellow, green




OK

CriticalFew?Apply


true north

NotOK




Execute Day to

DayFramingThe

Context


PriorityExecution

Execute Priorities

• big Y’s and levers• business outcomes defined• resource allocation to priorities

• dashboards for priority items• manage by exception on day-to-day execution• explicit communication mechanisms

We’re all learning… let’s share what we know and “steal shamelessly”

We’re all learning… let’s share what we know and “steal shamelessly”

• projects that move the needle on key business outcomes

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Questions???

Comments????

High Praise?????

Documents

Executing Leadership in Software Engineering Carol Brothers Sr. Manager, ProTax Quality/Test Intuit [email protected]