Signals & Levers: Systems Thinking to Navigate Software Delivery Illusions - Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi

<p>(04:48) Brought to you by SpeechifyAI</p><p>Tired of text-to-speech that sounds robotic or costs too much at scale? SpeechifyAI's new Simba 3.2 model ranks #1 on Artificial Analysis for realness, priced under $10 per million characters. Building something conversational? Check out the Simba Voice Agents API for low-latency, natural back-and-forth interaction. Try it free at <a href="https://speechify.ai/?utm_source=podcast&amp;utm_medium=episode&amp;utm_campaign=techleadjournal" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">speechify.ai</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why do the same software delivery illusions keep fooling smart engineering teams? Elisabeth and Joel show how systems thinking, through signals and levers, helps you spot the illusions of progress, predictability, and control before they cost you.</p><p>In this episode, Elisabeth Hendrickson and Joel Tosi, co-authors of Signals &amp; Levers, share the story behind the book and trace the “software crisis” back to a 1968 NATO conference, arguing it never actually went away. They explain why software delivery is an adaptive sociotechnical system, and why treating it as a simple linear process leads leaders to pull the wrong levers.</p><p>Elisabeth breaks down why proxy metrics like velocity are made-up numbers dressed up as science, and why cycle time tells a truer story. Joel walks through the CREATE framework (capacity, risk, execution, adaptability, trust, and economics), and how it can help leaders spot unintended consequences before they happen. They also dig into the three illusions leaders live under: illusion of progress, predictability, and control.</p><p>The conversation closes with a candid look at where AI fits into all of this, when it amplifies good systems, when it makes bad ones worse, and why optimizing for learning matters more than ever.</p><p>Timestamps:</p><ul><li>(00:00:00) Trailer &amp; Intro</li><li>(00:02:34) The Backstory Behind “Signals &amp; Levers”</li><li>(00:05:55) Why Has the ‘Software Crisis’ Never Actually Gone Away?</li><li>(00:08:41) Why Do the Same Software Development Problems Keep Appearing?</li><li>(00:10:55) What is an Adaptive Sociotechnical System?</li><li>(00:15:09) Why Do Business Executives Fail to Understand Software Development?</li><li>(00:20:03) What Are Signals and Levers in Engineering Leadership?</li><li>(00:24:31) What Makes Proxy Metrics Like Velocity and Lines of Code Dangerous?</li><li>(00:28:23) Are DORA Metrics a Good Proxy for Software Devel