Code Ownership
Code Ownership refers to the practice of assigning specific portions of a codebase to individual teams, making them primarily responsible for the development, maintenance, and quality of that code.
Goal
To enhance code quality, facilitate faster issue resolution, and foster a sense of responsibility and accountability among team members.
Context
The Tragedy of the Commons is an allegory that highlights the risks of shared resources being exploited and degraded due to a lack of individual responsibility. Codebases can suffer from similar issues when no one feels accountable for their upkeep. Code Ownership helps mitigate this risk by assigning clear responsibilities and promoting a sense of pride and ownership among developers.
Inputs
| Artifact | Description |
|---|---|
| Bounded Value Streams | Identifies the value streams that will be owned by each Stream Team. |
Outputs
| Artifact | Description | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Code Ownership | Clear assignment of code modules or components to Stream Teams. | Facilitates higher quality code, faster issue resolution, and greater codebase understanding. |
Anti-patterns
- Imbalanced Responsibilities: Failing to balance value streams across Teams, leading to burnout for some and underutilisation of others.
- Knowledge Bottlenecks: Neglecting to rotate people between teams leading to knowledge bottlenecks and a lack of broad codebase familiarity.
- Hierarchical Ownership: Treating code ownership as a hierarchy, where the owner's decisions cannot be questioned or collaborated on. Each Stream Team is still contributing to the product as a whole.