Presentation: What Does Speed Mean in Software Product Delivery?

Jason: My focus right now is helping the organization with the rapid rate of growth. So whatever that means in terms of how to maintain or improve in effectiveness, and that tends to be a random set of problems. Netflix calls it the paved road. We establish a paved road of sorts where you can do what you want to, but if you go off that road, you have certain things that you have to now deliver, because you're no longer on that paved road. The infrastructure, the observability, the different things that are required for a service to be called a service—you've got to do yourself now, because you're off that road. You can do it, but you have to accept the responsibility that you've got to do the additional stuff.

Jason: The idea of how to improve organizational speed is something we've been talking about for at least a year. How can we strategically maintain speed, improve speed, understand the true nature of speed, and know how fast are we. I have noticed that a distinction that many people miss, is that there's a difference between when feeling fast and actually being fast from an organizational, systemic perspective. Those two factors don't always line up. Some people are acting off a feeling, as opposed to taking a deeper look and learning what actually makes a difference in their organization. I think it's an important point for any team looking at speed to understand there's this distinction, and then learn the tactics that fall under each umbrella for your particular context.

Jason: I want to show my concept so when people come to addressing the question of how to be faster, they understand the distinctions and the specific techniques or tools available to them. I'd like people to come away from the talk and have ideas that they can directly apply to their context. I also want to convey that I think it's still important that things don't feel slow—there are methods to help change that feeling. I want to show how people can engage in these sort of efforts more effectively in general.

Jason: There will be some simple things like mundane keyboard shortcuts, and then more complicated things like backup options on risky decisions. I’ll talk about how to take risks intelligently, so even if you have to throw it away, you'll know it was still worth the shot.

Jason: From a purely technology perspective I'm generally of the school of “you learn whatever is necessary to deal with the problem you're facing”. So, all technologies and tools are things you use to solve problems. So I’d say adaptability is the strongest thing from a techniques perspective to focus on—which is also related to organizational speed.