AVEVA Operations Information Management R&D Culture and Organization

Product and Software Development

The AVEVA Operations Information Management BU includes two primary functional groups that work together to build software: Product Management and Software Development. Each group is led by a Senior Vice President. The Product Management group is responsible for defining the product roadmap, while the Software Development group focuses on core development-related activities. Communication between these groups is essential to ensure we continue to deliver software to our customers in a timely manner that is secure, high in quality and of high value to our customers as they seek to improve their operations and achieve business objectives.

Product Leadership

The Product Management organization is led by a SVP and one or more VPs. For more details on these roles and the Product org in general, see Product Career Track.

Three Pillars of Software Development

Software Development leadership maintains three areas of focus: technical decision making, staffing, and execution. To that end, there are three distinct groups, each responsible for one area of focus.

The Architecture group is comprised of System Architects, Security Architects, Principal Software Developers, and Research Developers. They are charged with setting the technical direction for the department and ensuring software produced by AVEVA Operations Information development teams meets a high standard of design, quality, and security. For more information on Architecture, see the Technical Track page.

The Department Leadership group is focused on staffing for guilds and development teams as well as talent development among the ranks. Each Department Lead works directly with Engineering Managers and Principal Software Developers to ensure all software developers have access to the resources they need to advance their career and that development teams are positioned to become as efficient as possible. For more information on Department Leadership, see the Leadership Track page.

The third pillar of Software Development is Program Management. This group of Engineering Program Managers is the author and guardian of the software development process for AVEVA Operations Information R&D. Additionally, Engineering Program Managers lead development teams in executing programs, coordinating large efforts that involve many parties. For more information, see the Process page.

Software Development Leadership

Within the Software Development group, there are three VPs who report to the R&D SVP. The R&D Vice President, Chief Technologist, Operations Information oversees all technical decisions for the department and works closely with Architects, Principal Software Developers and Staff Software Developers to set our technology roadmap and plan out technical designs for programs. The R&D Vice President, Operations Information Program Management leads a team of Program Managers to develop and document standard development processes and to coordinate the successful completion of programs and software releases for our customers. The R&D Vice President, Operations Information Management focuses on coaching and developing department leaders and ensuring that we are growing the skills of our employees and building high performing software development teams.

Expanded Portfolio

As we continue working on major new capabilities of the PI System, we aim not only to incrementally add to the existing system but to provide major new value and revenue generating components. Some of these capabilities are being delivered as SaaS offerings, some as Enterprise software components and some as OEM offerings at the edge. Along with new delivery patterns come new development, operations and support challenges and responsibilities for the software development organization.

Portfolio Agility

As we continue to grow, it is important to maintain our agility. As technology evolves, markets change, and products mature we need to rebalance our priorities, so we are making smart investments. Instead of slowing down, we can expect the rate of change to increase and we need to be ready to respond effectively.

Standardization and Skill Growth

We believe that a certain level of autonomy for software development teams is healthy. However, some standards must be established to ensure that we can communicate effectively across the department, provide transparency in the work we do, and collect data that applies to the department as a whole. For this reason, we have a shared, agile development process that all teams are expected to align with. There are also standard onboarding plans in addition to team-specific onboarding activities.

When we bring someone into the Operations Information Management R&D organization, they join a team and we expect that they will stay on that team for several years. Over that tenure we expect that they will gradually learn new technical and professional skills and increase their contribution to their team and the department as a whole. Standardization in development tools, onboarding and process, along with a focus on people development in the organization, will help ensure that all software developers have opportunities to grow their skills over time.

Transparency

As our organization continues to grow, we need to maintain an atmosphere of transparency. It is important for employees to understand how or by whom a decision is made and why. We want employees to feel empowered to make decisions and equally, we want them to feel confident that they are making decisions commensurate to their level of perspective. We want to support highly autonomous and creative teams, but we also want to reuse technology and focus on solving new problems.

Opportunity

The Operations Information Management R&D organization needs to develop and deliver the very best products and services. To accomplish this, we need to continue to attract and retain the best talent. Increasingly, this means creating more opportunities for growth within the department. This doesn’t necessarily mean creating titles or hierarchy but rather creating opportunities to learn new skills and taking on roles with well ascribed responsibilities.

Specialization and Communication

As a necessary side effect of scaling the department, some roles in the organization must be specialized. For example, Engineering Managers focus on the development of people and adherence to standard processes. They are not responsible for technical decisions or product strategy. Staff Software Developers are responsible for the technical decisions, designs and implementations of their teams, but they are not responsible for career growth plans or prioritization of customer-facing features. Product Managers help inform the decisions we make about product features and priority of work items because they have the best perspective on the needs and use cases of our customers.

With this type of specialization comes a need to focus on communication, so individuals or groups don’t become isolated or disenfranchised. The Operations Information Management R&D organization uses Shared Understanding Artifacts to broadly share details about how we’re organized, what our product strategy is and how we’re planning to leverage technology to achieve that strategy. We hold regular department meetings to ensure we communicate broadly any new responsibilities and opportunities that arise. We provide several feedback channels and encourage our R&D employees to discuss these Artifacts of Shared Understanding with their team members and raise questions for clarification so that we can ensure everyone in the organization is aligned on our goals and how we function as a group.