Company Culture determines Product Quality

You have probably heard the claim that improving developer experience and company culture will lead to higher product quality and satisfied customers.

• But is this true?
• How are company culture and product quality related?
• Are product quality and customer satisfaction side effects of a great company culture?

While it would most likely go too far to call customer satisfaction a side effect of great company culture, the connection between company culture and product quality is more substantial than you might expect.

Before we dive into this surprising connection, let’s briefly define both terms: quality and culture.

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What is Great Company Culture?

Definitions of company culture vary among individuals. Company culture encompasses shared values, attitudes, interactions, behaviors, and standards.

Key attributes of a great company culture:

• Safety for individuals to express themselves and voice concerns.
• Clear, aligned values with a shared understanding of company vision, purpose, and goals.
• Emphasis on knowledge sharing, mutual support, and trust.
• Open collaboration and communication, including cross-team and departmental interactions.
• Empowerment for all members to shape and influence their work environment.

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What is Quality?

Quality doesn't have an absolute high or low benchmark. Definitions of quality can vary widely. A concise definition:

Quality = Performance upon expectations.

Quality issues in software arise due to:

• Differing expectations.
• Incomplete communication of expectations.
• Misunderstandings about expectations.
• Inability to match expectations.

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Expectations: A moving target

Achieving high perceived quality means meeting stakeholders' evolving expectations.

Three prerequisites for success:

• Identifying stakeholders.
• Understanding their clear expectations.
• Accurately interpreting these expectations.

Even with clear initial expectations, software projects often evolve. Our interpretation of expectations may only sometimes align with stakeholders' true intent. Stakeholders consider not just software functionality but also aspects like maintainability and costs.

Continuous two-way communication is essential to align with stakeholders. In software engineering, the aim isn't first-shot perfection but continuous improvement facilitated by methods like Agile and Continuous Deployments.

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Product Quality = System Changeability x Ability to Communication

Product quality emerges from ongoing efforts to understand and meet expectations. It's not just built initially but refined over time.

Quality is influenced by two main factors:

1. Effective communication (speed, frequency, accuracy).
2. System changeability (speed, frequency, accuracy)

Both factors, communication and changeability, shape the perceived quality and cost, assuming constant team size and other conditions.

Key takeaway: Companies solving complex problems should prioritize system changeability and effective communication.

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How to increase changeability?

Changeability is not only a property of the software product itself but also of the company building it. When considering Conway’s Law and Brooks’ Corollary on its implications for management, an organization’s communication structures must match the system structure. This is where great culture comes into play.

??Read more on system changeability in the full version.

How to improve communication?

Communication is difficult. It becomes even more difficult if we cannot speak openly, have secret motives, or assume that other people might follow a hidden agenda. Trust and psychological safety increase the likelihood of successful communication dramatically. In addition, having a shared truth and knowing what this truth is helps to work through almost all disagreements or misunderstandings.

??Read more on effective communication in the full version.

Conclusion

• System changeability and communication are strongly tied to company culture.
• Enhancing company culture promotes flexibility, better communication, and a deeper understanding.
• A company with a robust culture showcases its values externally, impacting customer relations.
• There exist external factors, like unrealistic customer expectations, that company culture can't control.
• A strong company culture boosts the likelihood of superior product quality and happy customers.

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Tobi’s Top Reads of the Week

• “A ‘nice’ workplace culture may be more toxic than you think, says this NYU professor” by Goh Chiew Tong is a reminder that great cultures aim for “kind and candid”, not “nice”.
• “TBM 240: The Ultimate Guide to Developer Counter-Productivity” by John Cutler gives a different perspective on developer productivity by focusing on activities that slow people down.

Question of the Week

What are your thoughts on the influence of company culture on product quality?

I'd love to hear what I have missed or what you would like to add.

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