Direction

Project goals and requirements are easy to understand.

Why clear direction matters?

Clear direction is foundational to developer experience and productivity. When engineers understand what they're building and why, they can work with purpose and autonomy. Conversely, when direction is unclear, teams waste time, morale suffers, and delivery quality declines.

How can we tell if our teams truly understand project goals and requirements?

While many leaders assume their teams have clarity, the reality is often different. Here are effective ways to assess understanding:

Measure it directly: The DevEx survey question on direction provides an unfiltered view of how developers perceive goal clarity. Low scores here are a reliable early warning system.

Look for behavioral indicators: Teams with unclear direction typically exhibit:

• Frequent scope changes mid-sprint
• Questions that revisit fundamental assumptions
• Inconsistent implementations across team members
• Reluctance to make decisions without escalation

Conduct requirement walkthroughs: Ask team members to explain project goals in their own words. Discrepancies reveal gaps in shared understanding.

What are the most common reasons project goals and requirements become unclear?

Our research reveals several recurring patterns:

Implicit assumptions: Leaders often believe goals are clear because they're obvious to them, failing to recognize their contextual advantage.

"I believe what's often missing is the 'why' behind our work. What's our purpose? Without that distant flag to guide us, we can end up just chasing metrics and getting good numbers without making real progress."

Principal Technical Program Manager at Software Development Company

Changing priorities: Frequent pivots without clear explanation erode confidence in direction.

"Developer experience suffers when we never complete what we start. With constant change requests coming in, developers rarely get to experience the satisfaction of delivering something and feeling that rush of accomplishment."

Principal Technical Program Manager at Software Development Company

Terminology confusion: Inconsistent language creates barriers to understanding.

"Business analysts often fail to express requirements clearly. They frequently use different terms for the same concept or use undefined or ambiguous terminology, which inevitably leads to rework."

Chief API Officer at Digital Banking Software Provider

Disconnection from value: When teams can't connect their work to customer or business outcomes, direction feels arbitrary.

"The challenge is connecting our work to actual value. There's often a disconnect between effectiveness and value. Teams can appear productive on paper while still facing significant struggles in reality."

Principal Technical Program Manager at Software Development Company

How can engineering leaders improve clarity of direction?

Based on our research with high-performing teams, these practices consistently improve direction clarity:

Structure the strategic process: Create clear frameworks that answer fundamental questions about the work.

"A good strategy answers three key questions: our audience, our message, and our channels. We focus on transforming these elements into concrete, actionable specifics."

Owner at Advertising Services Company

Focus on predictability over speed: Make direction clear enough that teams can reliably plan and execute.

"In my view, predictability is our greatest challenge. With a predictable system, even a slower one, we can properly queue work so users receive value consistently. Predictability remains the primary pain point for every delivery department."

Engineering Director at Software Development Company

Narrow scope, don't expand it: Help teams focus on the most important work rather than trying to cover everything.

"Our approach is to select what we believe is truly important work for our team and focus on narrowing its scope rather than expanding it."

Staff Software Engineer at Software Development Company

Connect goals to measurable outcomes: Make sure teams understand how their work impacts business metrics.

"To me, quality means ensuring the overall product quality is coherent. When we translate product quality into customer metrics, it primarily affects churn. Higher quality leads to lower churn rates, which ultimately preserves more revenue."

Director of Engineering at Software Development Company

How do DevEx surveys help diagnose and improve direction clarity?

The Network Perspective DevEx survey provides specific benefits for understanding direction clarity:

Objective measurement: The direction question provides a clear baseline that cuts through management assumptions.

Comparative insights: Benchmarking against other teams or industry standards reveals whether direction issues are local or systemic.

"We face this challenge specifically in the Direction area, but it's consistent throughout our engineering department. This provides insights into whether teams are motivated to work on particular initiatives."

Software Development Director at IT Services Company

Correlation with other factors: The survey shows how direction clarity connects to other developer experience issues.

"We're seeing that direction and clarity consistently receive the lowest scores, and these issues correlate strongly with the lowest satisfaction and empowerment ratings as well."

Deputy Head of Development at Financial Trading Software Provider

Targeted intervention guidance: Survey results help prioritize specific improvements for maximum impact.

"Trying to address everything simultaneously can be overwhelming. The developer assessment provided us with a more focused starting point."

Key Account Manager at Software Development Company

What are practical first steps to improve direction clarity when survey scores are low?

These targeted interventions have proven effective in organizations we've studied:

Implement structured requirement templates that ensure consistent information capture and presentation.

Establish a shared glossary of terms to eliminate ambiguity in language.

"We attempt to implement domain-driven design, but business analysts often skip crucial steps like defining a ubiquitous language and consistent terminology. Instead, they frequently use different terms to describe the same concept."

Chief API Officer at Digital Banking Software Provider

Create project vision statements that clearly articulate the "why" behind the work.

"Without that guiding vision in the distance, we risk simply manipulating metrics to show good numbers while making no real progress."

Principal Technical Program Manager at Software Development Company

Institute regular alignment checks through lightweight ceremonies like: - 5-minute daily goal reminders at standup - Mid-sprint "direction check" retrospectives - Requirement walkthrough sessions

Measure twice, cut once: Invest more time in requirement clarity before development begins.

"I believe the challenge remains the same as always: understanding requirements. This has consistently been our primary obstacle."

Engineering Manager at Digital Credit Solutions Provider

How can we balance clarity of direction with agility and autonomy?

Clarity doesn't mean rigidity. The most effective teams maintain clear direction while preserving adaptability through:

Outcome-focused requirements: Define what success looks like rather than prescribing exact implementation.

Decision boundaries: Clarify where teams have autonomy versus where they need alignment.

Continuous refinement: Build feedback loops that allow direction to evolve based on learning.

Explicit constraints: Articulate what teams must work within (budget, timelines, technical limitations) while leaving space for creative solutions.

Conclusion

Clear direction is not a luxury—it's a fundamental requirement for effective engineering teams. Regular measurement through DevEx surveys provides the visibility needed to identify and address direction issues before they impact productivity and morale.

By focusing on making project goals and requirements easy to understand, engineering leaders create the conditions for teams to work with purpose, autonomy, and satisfaction.