When new projects or important updates aren’t progressing as quickly as planned, leaders of software companies may wonder whether their development teams are missing the mark. However, while it’s important to ensure team members have the skills and drive to succeed, leaders should also look for hidden inefficiencies in their software development processes that may be impeding devs’ productivity—not only delaying progress, but also frustrating everyone involved.
Identifying and addressing these roadblocks is essential if a company is to remain competitive in an industry where innovation waits for no one. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share expert, tested tips to help leaders pinpoint and conquer delays and inefficiencies in development processes and free up devs to deliver with dispatch.
1. Run Scrum With Unanimous Point Designation
It cannot be emphasized enough: Run Scrum with unanimous point designation on tasks. This approach has repeatedly helped us distinguish junior engineers from senior ones and high performers from low performers. This is not to say there isn’t a place for everyone on the team when considering cost-based analysis on returns, but this strategy provides transparency regarding the skill sets and abilities of each individual. – Waije collar, Infotracer
2. Show Up For Sprint Reviews
Many software leaders I talk to know there’s something missing that would lead to better outcomes from their teams, but they have a difficult time identifying opportunities. My suggestion? Show up every two weeks at your teams’ sprint reviews to inspect the work of each team individually. Ask questions, understand what they’re going through and figure out how you can help as a servant leader. – Dave Todaro, Ascendle
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3. Leverage AI Process Mining
Tech leaders can use AI-driven process mining and predictive analytics to identify hidden inefficiencies in development. By analyzing workflows and project data, they can visualize bottlenecks, optimize task prioritization and make proactive adjustments to enhance team velocity and foster continuous improvement. – Upendra Kumar, Capital Group
4. Conduct A Thorough Assessment
Conduct a thorough current-state assessment of your development ecosystem. This assessment should include processes, KPIs, tools and frameworks. This strategy will help you identify gaps and address challenges. – Sravanthi Kalapati, Elevance Health
5. Look For Overly Complicated Solutions
Any fool can make something complicated—it takes a genius to make it simple. Learning by doing, getting experience, trying something simple, failing fast and trying again (in a test environment) will help you gain experience. Domain experts often find satisfaction by using their knowledge to come up with complicated solutions and processes that rarely add any value. The one with the simplest solution wins. Add customer value. – Jan Jonsson, Bubbling vpn ab
6. Consider The Long-Term Vision
Tech leaders sometimes prioritize short-term business needs to build MVPs, which can create significant technical debt, which in turn results in long-term inefficiencies. Considering the long-term vision of a project in the initial phases is very important if you’re to move fast over time and stay competitive in the market. – Kasi Rajeev Oduuri
7. Avoid Just Copying Someone Else’s Workflow
I used to get asked about process inefficiency a lot when I was at a workflow automation company. The wrong approach is taking someone else’s workflow and trying to force it into your organization. Instead, model and measure what you already do. Even if your processes are inconsistent, you’ll be able to identify which of your current paths are the most efficient and effective. Then, focus on standardizing those paths and applying automation. – James Blake, Cohesity
8. Use Service Blueprinting
In the past, I have successfully used service blueprinting for end-to-end mapping of complex processes or services to discover inefficiencies and bottlenecks. It is important to consult all key roles and players involved in the process and to map the process exactly as-is. With the big picture in place and all steps involved laid out in their exact order, you can develop the to-be version and a plan for migration. – Cristian Micliuc, Heaven Solutions
9. Establish The Right Balance Of People, Processes And Technology
Maximizing developer efficiency requires the right balance of people, processes and technology. Hiring self-accountable individuals ensures you’ll have a team driven by ownership and productivity. In terms of processes, establish and strictly enforce days with “no unwanted meetings” for developers. On the tech side, integrate GenAI-powered observability tools to analyze commit patterns, PR cycle times and bottlenecks in real time to accelerate team velocity. – Nibedita barral, 2K (Take-Two Interactive)
10. Maintain Clear Documentation
Many teams build great products but lose critical knowledge because they don’t have structured records. Clear documentation streamlines onboarding, debugging and collaboration, reducing inefficiencies. It ensures code maintainability, prevents repeated mistakes and enhances productivity. Integrating documentation into workflows with tools like Confluence or GitHub Wikis helps teams scale efficiently. – Praveen Thopalle, Dell Technologies
11. Establish And Review Weekly Metrics
Start by looking at the development metrics you have every week. If you don’t have any, pick something simple like “number of releases per month.” Looking at data will make you more objective and encourage you to ask questions. Then, you can start seeking answers to narrow the problem down and find the hidden inefficiencies. – Tobin Harris, Pocketworks Mobile Ltd.
12. Carry Out A Structured Review With The Team
Conduct a process audit to uncover inefficiencies in development workflows. Map each step to identify bottlenecks, redundancies and tech gaps. Engage your team for insights on challenges and improvements. This type of structured review helps eliminate delays, optimize resource allocation and enhance team velocity, ensuring a more efficient and streamlined development process. – Govinda Rao Banothu, Cognizant Technology Solutions
13. Implement Retrospectives
Leaders can identify inefficiencies by implementing retrospectives and continuous feedback loops. By reviewing team workflows regularly, collecting data on bottlenecks and encouraging open communication, they can pinpoint areas for improvement. Using tools like automated testing and CI/CD pipelines further streamlines development, boosting team velocity. – Jay Shah, Caldo Restaurant Technologies
14. Ensure There’s A Mature Execution Plan
A major hurdle to development efficiency is the lack of a mature execution plan that anticipates blockers early instead of addressing them reactively. Issues like ambiguous requirements cause misalignment and rework, while inadequate testing environments delay validation and debugging. Additionally, unclear ownership, dependency mismanagement and last-minute scope changes further hinder progress. – Deepak Yadav, Amazon.com Inc.
15. Bridge The Strategy And Execution Gap
Adopt a planning approach that bridges the strategy and execution gap. Nearly half of digital investment is wasted due to misalignments between business and tech teams. A robust, connected work platform is the “bridge” for real-time visibility into workflows, bottlenecks and inefficiencies. A streamlined digital value chain enables better collaboration and faster decision-making and improves performance. – Razat gaurav, Planview
16. Take Care Of Technical Debt
You must address the elephant in the room: technical debt. If a given product or a large component of it has not been reviewed for technical debt in the last five years, it very likely has evolved and now impedes productivity due to inefficiencies. Roadblocks can stem from its changed use, requirement set, development process, and/or the staffing and training around it. – Boyan Ivanov, Storpool Storage
17. Model Solutions In A Simple Environment
When velocity stalls, encourage teams to step away from the complexities of their product and model the solution that’s slowing them down in a simple environment. Once you have proof-of-concept of a feature, you can add the intricacies required to integrate it into the larger product. Often, we are pleasantly surprised by how quickly we can implement and test a feature when we take this approach. – Daniel Jebaraj, Syncfusion, Inc.
18. Embed An Executive Leader In Dev Teams
A number of prominent tech startups, such as Stripe, embed an executive technical leader into teams to gain firsthand knowledge of practical inefficiencies. For example, the CTO of a 10,000-person tech giant might join a team for six weeks as an individual contributor to deeply understand and gain empathy for that business function. – James Ding, DraftWise
19. Adopt A Shift-Left Approach
I suggest adopting a shift-left approach. This essentially means tackling issues earlier in the development process instead of fixing them later, when they become bigger problems. It includes using approaches like test-driven development, automated code checks and continuous testing to catch bugs, unclear requirements and bottlenecks before they slow things down. – Dzmitry Lubneuski, a1qa
20. Use Value Stream Mapping
Tech leaders can use value stream mapping to identify and address inefficiencies in development processes. Visualizing the entire workflow can help you detect bottlenecks, delays and misaligned tasks. For example, excessive QA delays can be resolved with automated testing. VSM helps optimize workflows, improve team velocity, reduce time to market and foster continuous improvement. – Vlad Malanin, SpeedSize
