Engineering Manager Questions - Team Related

Question 1

How do you measure team success in an engineering team?

Answer 1

PRODUCTIVITY
1. Velocity: Tracking the amount of work completed each sprint or iteration. I track how this changes over time to ensure what factors are affecting our work and then we can look into the ways of minimizing them.
2. Lead Time: How much time it takes for a task to be finished, it helps us to understand the efficiency of our team.

QUALITY OF WORK
1. Defect Rate: The number of bugs or issues reported after a release.
2. Code Review Metrics: The number of comments and interactions important ro measure knowledge sharing.
3. Technical Debt: Measure progress on refactoring and modernization.

CUSTOMER HAPPINESS
1. Customer Satisfaction: Tracking user feedback and ratings for features.
2. Code Review Metrics: The number of comments and interactions important ro measure knowledge sharing.

TEAM COLLABORATION & CREATIVITY:
1. Team Health: Regular surveys and conversations about team morale and engagement.
2. Innovation: New ideas proposed and implemented
3. Individual Growth: Monitoring progress on individual growth.

Question 2

How do you do estimation as an engineering manager when you are new into a codebase?

Answer 2

1. Consult with experienced team members
2. Review historical data on other projects
3. Break down the project into smaller tasks
4. Account for unknowns and be transparent about areas of uncertainty
5. Discuss with stakeholders