A Healthy Software Development Team

Reflecting on my own experience from past and present teams, and what (subjectively) motivates me, I've collected a list of eight core principles that I feel produce a healthy and productive development group that is focused on the long-term.

My ideal environment is where:

1. People feel like they are doing the best work they are capable of
2. Engineering decisions are owned through a chain of engineering peers
3. Experienced developers are experts on specific domains or technologies; those with less experience have a roadmap to become an expert
4. There is space to work with domain experts to design the right solution
5. There are engineering-specific philosophies that all develpoers understand and use to evaluate technical decisions
6. Projects are designed and spoken of in terms of real-world domains and not how they fit within an existing implementation
7. There is a commitment to a vision for what the long-term platform looks like, and an evergreen roadmap of how to get there
8. There are clear role models for junior team members that are championed by the org and make time to participate with the wider internal development community