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> At least, building a new project within a company should be easier than starting from scratch, but my hunch is that many companies fail that test. This obser

> At least, building a new project within a company should be easier than starting from scratch, but my hunch is that many companies fail that test. This observation seems both true and important.

MattGaiser 6y ago
I have yet to find an organization that has figured out how to effectively transfer learned lessons to other projects/employees without retaining those specific people for long periods. Add in high levels of turnover and unless the specific person who learned the lesson is also on the project, there isn't a clear wrong way to prevent a wrong turn. I am part of a new team at a startup and everyone on the new team is a relatively new hire. As far as I know, we haven't taken any meaningful learnings. Despite the company existing for years, we have done everything from scratch.
- pdelgallego 6y ago
  I help often customers understanding technical debt, and code quality. Most people focus of code metrics, but they tend to forget organizational metrics, and how that impact the software. There are several studies on this. I particularly like one from Microsoft [1]. One of the metrics that I use address your point: Number of Ex-Engineers (NOEE): This is the total number of unique engineers who have touched a code and have left the company as of the release date of the software system Implications: This measure deals with knowledge transfer. If the employee(s) who worked on a piece of code leaves the company then there is a likelihood that the new person taking over might not be familiar with the design rationale, the reasoning behind certain bug fixes, and information about other stake holders in the code. A large loss of team members affects the knowledge retention and thus quality. [1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/tr-2008-11.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    > Number of Ex-Engineers (NOEE): This is the total number of unique engineers who have touched a code and have left the company as of the release date of the software system I have been on a project where I arrived after the first guy's replacement was replaced. So three people had used my desk before for that project. So much knowledge was lost.
- watwut 6y ago
  High levels of turnover typical suggest high dysfunction of some kind. Also, the way to disseminate knowledge is by talking about problems. As in, if you manage to create culture where people do that, you will occasionally hear "team x tried that and had peoblems, lets ask them".

> At least, building a new project within a company should be easier than starting from scratch, but my hunch is that many companies fail that test. This observation seems both true and important.

MattGaiser 6y ago

I have yet to find an organization that has figured out how to effectively transfer learned lessons to other projects/employees without retaining those specific people for long periods. Add in high levels of turnover and unless the specific person who learned the lesson is also on the project, there isn't a clear wrong way to prevent a wrong turn. I am part of a new team at a startup and everyone on the new team is a relatively new hire. As far as I know, we haven't taken any meaningful learnings. Despite the company existing for years, we have done everything from scratch.

pdelgallego 6y ago
I help often customers understanding technical debt, and code quality. Most people focus of code metrics, but they tend to forget organizational metrics, and how that impact the software. There are several studies on this. I particularly like one from Microsoft [1]. One of the metrics that I use address your point: Number of Ex-Engineers (NOEE): This is the total number of unique engineers who have touched a code and have left the company as of the release date of the software system Implications: This measure deals with knowledge transfer. If the employee(s) who worked on a piece of code leaves the company then there is a likelihood that the new person taking over might not be familiar with the design rationale, the reasoning behind certain bug fixes, and information about other stake holders in the code. A large loss of team members affects the knowledge retention and thus quality. [1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/tr-2008-11.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  > Number of Ex-Engineers (NOEE): This is the total number of unique engineers who have touched a code and have left the company as of the release date of the software system I have been on a project where I arrived after the first guy's replacement was replaced. So three people had used my desk before for that project. So much knowledge was lost.
watwut 6y ago
High levels of turnover typical suggest high dysfunction of some kind. Also, the way to disseminate knowledge is by talking about problems. As in, if you manage to create culture where people do that, you will occasionally hear "team x tried that and had peoblems, lets ask them".