Developers know software. If we had to pick a single set of individuals inside any given enterprise that will know the organization’s software stack best, it will logically always be the software application development team, obviously. But equally and conversely, users know software too i.e. they ‘know’ it because they are the ones demanding functionality out of applications, which of course connects directly back to the developers, architects and data science teams building the apps in the first place.
Although the software team will (arguably) never really be able to truly meet the (stereotypically irrational and occasionally misplaced) functionality demands of users who want apps do ‘work like this or that’, they have to take user requirements into consideration at project outset and indeed throughout the inevitable subsequent iterations of an application’s codebase as new releases are developed and deployed.
Fusion teams
This reality has led to the creation of terms like ‘fusion teams’ composed of professionals from more than one line of business, more than one department, more than one world office location, more than one domain specialism and more than one core professional skillset. While the term fusion teams may suit the sharp-suited management consultants with their painfully inflated hourly charges, we could just call these work units cross-functional teams.
Cross-functional collaboration is an advantage for organizations as a whole. It stems from a strong ‘sharing’ culture within a business and helps express what its priorities are. It also helps express and clarify the levels of communication throughout the organizational hierarchy inside any given enterprise and across teams. This is the opinion of Stefan Sigg in his role as chief product officer at Software AG.
“Functional collaboration across teams allows for differing perspectives and approaches to the same problem, ensuring all bases are covered. Collaboration between all the stakeholders in the development process – i.e, developers, designers and product managers – also means that the overall product strategy incorporates developer experience as a consideration throughout the process,” said Sigg.
If we take that core functional collaborative element and add cross-functional collaboration outside of the software engineering team, then that’s also a good thing… but there are caveats and checks that we need to implement to ensure that we retain the right level of balance.
Sigg suggests that these actions should be balanced with ensuring only the right team members are inputting to these projects. The age-old adage of too many cooks being in the kitchen applies to developer teams – and that rule holds true when businesspeople are brought into the team. He says that additional external perspectives are ‘always welcomed but not always necessary’, so finding the right mix of stakeholders to guide developer teams without creating a hectic environment of context switching is paramount.
Generative AI in the team
“Where increased demand meets scarcity of resources, innovation is found. In this current developer renaissance, the utilization of new technologies, such as generative AI, is beginning to bear fruit in the developer space,” commented Sigg, extending this discussion to perhaps also include collaborative input from new ‘people’ that take the form of virtual machine brains powered by AI.
“Once an integration between applications has been recorded across the web, it is then accessible and replicable through AI tools like ChatGPT. New tools are being created to focus on this area: using generative AI connectors, conversational platforms can suggest and implement Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that will allow developer teams to focus on programming and coding, instead of working on integrations which have already been done and recorded,” explained Sigg.
The Software AG team tell us that it is imperative to consider developer and user experience across a fully cross-functional transept when embarking on any new software project. As businesses look to leverage data in new ways, developer teams will inevitably bear the strain of creating and integrating applications, but everyone in an organization (whose opinion is worthy of inclusion) is worth bringing into the mix.
“The freedom to make choices and influence processes enables developers to accomplish their goals efficiently while ensuring the highest quality of execution. Businesses can then reap the rewards of improved end-user experience and higher return on investment,” said Software AG’s Sigg.
As technologies like AI begin to apply to this field, Sigg suggests that the developer’s workflow and experience is set to improve as we alleviate the need to replicate integration pathways and create code from scratch. While this will help developer’s day-to-day workloads, improving this factor is rooted in improving the whole company culture and ensuring collaboration is centered in all processes to achieve business goals.
Automation nation
“When we think about successful AI-powered automations, it’s not just about what you’re automating, but who can automate. It’s no longer only finance and IT teams, for example, who are running automations. AI-powered automation is becoming essential across all functions – including marketing, HR and software development and testing,” said Graham Sheldon, chief product officer at UiPath.
Sheldon says his team are seeing automation teams grow as demand rises for more AI and automation to enable how work gets done. Inside UiPath, we see the company bringing to market solutions designed to enhance automation creation for software application developers by providing a user-friendly experience and leveraging generative AI to make it accessible to those without programming experience.
“Today, developers can create powerful automations from simple natural language prompts. This will extend to any user who wants to contribute to automation creation. Collaboration between developers and colleagues in other areas of the business will flourish, resulting in accelerated AI-powered automation deployments,” added UiPath’s Sheldon.
A UiPath survey of automation professionals found that 88% of respondents believe their organization will hire for more automation roles in the next year. The survey also found 96% of developers believe AI will be important for their careers, while some 69% of organizations are already automating customer requests.
Cacophony vs. meritocracy
There are some core truisms here i.e. the need to broaden teams and embrace an inclusive approach to all an organization’s stakeholders. But there are also some more clinically and mathematically governed measures that we must also put in place to make sure that cross-functional collaborative involvement doesn’t become a cacophonous white noise without any guiding level of meritocracy to ensure that the best ideas always surface first.
The next cross-functional collaboration team meeting is in ten minutes.
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