# 💎 Growth & Development
We use the Engineering Growth Framework as a tool for growth and development, this helps us evaluate where we are and how to progress, build goals and development objectives, and ensure consistency in our approach to this.
This framework will act as a guideline and evolve over time as we get more familiar with it, please feel free to contribute with comments and improvements.
guideline [noun]: a general rule, principle, or piece of advice
# 🚀 Delivery & Approach
Our growth framework is split into two sections; Delivery and Approach. This balances:
- What is necessary for a team to deliver on their specified purpose
- To what extent an individual can impact the team’s delivery
By thinking about Delivery and Approach and taking into account feedback throughout the last year on our current growth framework, we've been able to redefine and make a lot of expectations clearer, while making big improvements 🙌.
However, you'll see most of the Delivery and Approach categories are similar to Actions and Abilities, but with some additions and combinations.
# Categories
# Delivery
Delivery: Engineer 📦
Delivery: Engineering Manager 📦
Coding & Testing 💻🔬
Design & Architecture 📐
Debugging & Troubleshooting 🐛🔫
Documentation 📜
Hiring & Reputation 🌟
Developer Experience ⚒
# Approach
Communication 💬
Leadership ⚖️
Accountability 🗒️
Commerciality 🏢
Problem Solving 🤔
# 🔀 Engineering Tracks
There are different engineering tracks available. This allows you to choose how you can make the most impact possible within Engineering and in which track you'd like to progress.
We acknowledge that one track and route of progression does not suit everybody and impact comes from a variety of responsibilities.
Engineer
This is the default track that most Engineers will feel at home in. Those who progress along the Engineering track will typically be expert coders, they understand deeply the business context and problem space they're working in and may have a seat across more than one squad. They make significant contributions directly to our OKRs or drive chapter work that improves our ability to deliver. They possess and build on a deep level of technical capability and domain knowledge, whilst being accountable for upskilling others and distributing knowledge across the whole engineering team and wider company.
Engineering Management
Engineering Managers own and lead on all aspects of people management for engineers in a squad, as well as setting technical direction and engineering guardrails. Engineering Managers are also a driver of consistent high-quality, robust, and mission-driven engineering delivery.
The skills you can develop and the impact you create as an Engineering Manager is quite different to other roles in engineering, therefore a separate growth framework exists and can be found here:
Engineering Management Growth Framework
# 📈️ Levels
# 🔭 Scope
When looking at the various Delivery and Approach levels, it's important to recognise at which scope each level applies to.
Level 1 - Small pieces of well-defined work within a squad, with the assistance of others
Level 2 - Independently works on small tasks within a squad
Level 3 - Feature / deliverable
Level 4 - Squad
Level 5 - Squad and chapter
Level 6 - Across more than one squad and chapter
Level 7 - Across the whole company
# 🗒️ Reviews
Between you and your manager, you agree on where you are on the growth framework. But the more inputs you have into this the more accurate and fairer this will be, that's where peer review comes in.
In Q1/Q3 we do an 'on/off track review' while in Q2/Q4 we do a 'Career Growth Review'. See below for more details on the difference between these review types.
During the Career Growth Review phase, engineering managers review the growth framework level changes to ensure they are calibrated across teams.
# 🧠 Things to Remember
This framework acts a guideline, not a box ticking exercise. You can progress without meeting every single ability and action in a level.
Some flexibility will be required when using this, since we cannot eliminate all ambiguity from career progression in Engineering.
There are improvements to be made! Please give your feedback.
# 🔍 Framework
Engineering Growth Framework - v2.3