{"id":4270014,"date":"2020-03-14T18:24:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T16:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dept.global\/insight\/what-happens-when-you-lack-senior-engineering-leadership\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:44:31","slug":"what-happens-when-you-lack-senior-engineering-leadership","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.dept.global\/en-au\/insight\/what-happens-when-you-lack-senior-engineering-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when you lack senior engineering leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/a>\n\t\tWhat happens when you lack senior engineering leadership\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tKelsey Anderson\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t14 March 2020\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\tA single \u201cperfect\u201d organizational structure doesn’t exist.\t<\/h2><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Every company has different needs and therefore has different talent requirements. Some team structures are flat, some are deep.

No matter how you set up your technical team, if there are processes for shared ownership of the product, you can succeed.

However, there is one position that every company\/team should prioritize:

Senior engineers<\/strong>

No matter your industry, size, or tech stack, you need senior engineering leadership to guide your software products and internal processes. Without this senior leadership, unfortunate things can happen, some more damaging than others.

Here are some of the most common occurrences that can happen when you lack senior engineering leadership.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tSoftware is most useful when it accurately models the world, and the world is decidedly messy.\t<\/h2>\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\n\t\tFall Into a Rewrite Trap\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t20 years ago, Joel Spolsky wrote an excellent article that I still refer people to today. It highlights one of the worst decisions a software company team can make: rewriting code from scratch.

While I recommend reading\u00a0the full post<\/a>, the general concept is this.

All engineers have a desire to throw out their predecessor\u2019s code and build something shiny and new. Generally speaking, when engineers are first introduced to another developer\u2019s code, they think they can write something better.

Senior engineers can relate to this, but from their years of experience, they realize that this isn\u2019t a good idea.

They understand that a codebase might be \u201cmessy.\u201d

But software is most useful when it accurately models the world, and the world is decidedly messy.

Some of that code may be ugly because it needs to capture the essential complexity of the domain.
In the words of Joel, \u201cThe idea that new code is better than old is patently absurd. Old code has been used. It has been tested. Lots of bugs have been found, and they\u2019ve been fixed.\u201d

Your senior engineers understand this concept and can reel in junior developers who, while talented, sometimes lack this discipline.\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t