An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

by Will Larson

One of my coworkers, Davin Bogan,1 likes to say that “shipping is a habit,” and a well-run sprint both helps teams establish that habit and serves as a mechanism that creates visibility within a team that hasn’t quite gotten there yet.

The other mechanism I’ve found to be exceptionally useful at this point is team snippets. These come out every two to four weeks and give snapshots of each team’s sprints: what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what they’re planning to do next. These are valuable for you to retain a sense of what your teams are working on, but they are invaluable for decentralizing coordination and communication between teams in your organization, as you become increasingly ineffective in that role.