Tech Lead Handbook
  • 👋Introduction
  • People
    • Space for Growth
    • One on Ones
    • Manage Conflicts
    • Deal with Passive Aggressive
    • Give Feedback
    • Performance Management
    • Manage Up
    • Talent Matrix
  • Engineering
    • Pair Programming
    • DCI Framework
    • Code Ownership
    • ADR
  • Leadership
    • Leadership Competencies
    • The Communication Pyramid
    • Anti Patterns
  • Prioritisation
    • Types of Decisions
    • Pros and Cons
    • Decision Matrix
  • Hiring
    • Hiring Process
    • Prepare a Hiring
    • Position Description
    • Shortlisting
    • Case Study
  • Product
    • Working with Product Managers
    • Assumptions Mapping
    • Decision Making
    • Practice vs Process
    • Nemawashi
    • OKRs
    • Consensus vs Consent
  • Project
    • The Triple Constraint
  • Strategy
    • Tech Strategy
  • Communication
    • Use Positive Language
  • Shortlist
  • ...
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On this page
  • The What
  • The How
  • Prerequisites
  • Create a supportive environment
  • Narrow the ownership when appropriate
  • Exceptions
  • Red Flags
  • Tips
  • Pitfalls
  1. Engineering

Code Ownership

We need a collective and clear code ownership

The What

Code ownership is NOT one person who owns a codebase. Instead, it refers to how we collaborate on a shared codebase.

The How

Prerequisites

  • The team owns the codebase

  • The team works in an agile way

  • The team embraces risk and learns from failure

  • The team doesn’t have a heavy and prescriptive process

Create a supportive environment

  • Recognise the assistance of other team members in achieving their goals

  • Recognise the contributions to improve Dev Experience, even though it isn't visible

  • Recognise the patience to tackle tech debt

  • An appropriate level of autonomy

Narrow the ownership when appropriate

  • In many cases, splitting ownership is not ideal, but it can help you tackle small, maintenance & repeated tasks. e.g.,

  • Upgrade dependencies

  • Bake the duties in the development workflow

  • Keep track of who owns what in a shared document

  • It only works on the known challenge with a certain solution

  • Don’t go too far down the track

  • Code ownership may demotivate the team

  • Recognise desirable behaviours, e.g., refactoring, patching, improving dev experience, tidying up, improving CI/CD pipelines, etc

  • It's quite OK for product managers or stakeholders to be outcome-driven

  • The tech lead should recognise the contributions made on the journey to their goal

  • Simply establishing clear ownership will not help you build a high-performing team

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Last updated 1 year ago

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Exceptions

Red Flags

Tips

Pitfalls

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