What makes a successful software engineering organization?

What are the simple quantitative outcomes? What are the harder-to-measure qualitative outcomes?

Does successful software engineering help companies make more money?

What’s the exprience of working in a successful versus failing software engineering organization?

Are the engineers happier? Do they work harder or more hours? Do they get more done with less effort?

These are essential questions to answer on the way to improving a software engineering organization and the teams that comprise them.

As Stephen Covey reminds us in The 7 Habits, “Begin with the end in mind”.

So before optimizing for success, we must define it.