In his early career, Ascendle’s Founder and CEO, Dave Todaro, developed software for businesses with razor-thin profit margins. He later transitioned to creating construction estimating software for roads and bridges, managing projects with budgets reaching up to a billion dollars and beyond. Even with these large budgets, “If we were off even by a few dollars, that would be a really big deal,” he told Michael Cinquino in this episode of Ascendle Unscripted.
Dave’s experience helped build the effective software development approach that Ascendle offers today. In a world where McKinsey’s industry surveys show that a third of software design projects overshoot their time to market, and two-thirds of enterprise software projects experience cost overruns, getting things done on time and within budgets is the only way to drive continuous improvement and innovation, and achieve success.
Why can’t your organization get sh*t done? Watch this episode of Ascendle Unscripted to learn what Dave believes are the reasons why, and what to do about it.
Understanding Productivity Challenges
Few developers go to work wanting to do a poor job and miss deadlines. What Dave has learned over his many years in the business is that “It’s not about technology. It’s about what problem we are actively solving.” Productivity can decline when the people working on a problem don’t understand what the problem really is.
Dave suggests three themes of productivity challenges:
- Building the right product
- Building the product predictably
- Delivering the right level of quality
Understanding the challenges in productivity is the first step in successfully overcoming them.
The Impact of Low Productivity
Low productivity has a high cost, not just in monetary terms but in terms of product quality, missed deadlines, and low morale. If productivity falls too much, teams can repeatedly fail to deliver satisfactory work and failure may become the business and project’s default mode.
It’s essential to tie money that is being spent on projects to a business ROI. If projects don’t accomplish business goals and achieve identifiable objectives, they can’t provide a return on investment. Slow, ineffective, and misguided projects can’t deliver a good ROI.
Encourage Leaders to Diagnose Root Causes
Leadership from key stakeholders plays an incredibly important role in getting projects on-track and improving productivity. Dave recalls the story of one CEO he worked with. Dave sat down and told him, “There’s one critical success factor … if you don’t do this, it’s highly likely this project will go off the rails.”
What was the critical success factor? It was “showing up to [sprint] reviews every two weeks.” The CEO began showing up regularly. As a result, over the two-year project, they gained insight into root causes for barriers faced by the development team. This strengthened not only the project, but also enriched the CEO’s knowledge, and ultimately strengthened the overall business and organization.
Software Development Approaches for Improvement
One of the top strategies for improvement, in addition to attending project meetings with the development and product team every two weeks, is to keep asking questions and seeking answers. Senior stakeholders should also use the software as it’s being developed. It doesn’t have to be every day, but if they are able to use it at least once between meetings, they can gain valuable insights into how the product is coming together and head problems off before they become entrenched.
Showing up, asking questions, and participating builds trust. It also provides valuable insights for understanding realistic timelines and getting products to market on-time and within budget.
Actionable Takeaways
Watch this episode of Ascendle Unscripted to hear actionable takeaways from Ascendle’s CEO Dave Todaro, and discuss it with your team. Access more resources and software development best practices including Dave Todaro’s 20 practical ways to boost tech team unity and ways leaders can foster innovation.
Whether you’re a CEO, CTO, or other stakeholder, you’ve probably been experiencing the impact of the AI revolution. Want to learn more about how to use AI to your advantage? Check out our Ascendle Unscripted episode, “The AI Impact, A Revolution Worth Your Attention?“
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