When I’m a member of a software team, I want to help establish an environment where anyone at any level of experience dares to contribute ideas and be open about what they don’t know or understand.

In our profession as software makers, knowledge and experience are central to one’s status. In this field we are still struggling with what it takes to succeed with projects, to deliver things of quality at a competitive pace.

So being seen as someone who is experienced and knows a lot makes you attractive and in the end determines your value.

Sometimes there’s a lot of pressure on a team. The organisation might not be happy about what the team delivers or how long it takes.

If you as a member of the team are struggling to meet the estimates, often this makes you less likely to ask for help, so having a culture on the team where it’s safe to do so is important, for the individuals as well as for the team.

For a member of a team to ask for help, to say that they are confused about something, or worried that they might not be able to do fulfil a task, they must see other team mates do so. So one factor that discourages this is that it seldom happens.

Another factor is that organisations often have a poor understanding of what it means to make software.

We desperately want things to be predictable, that it will be possible to find a way to have an idea and carry it out exactly as envisioned, with as much effort we thought it would be.

Making software means being in a state of constant exploration. We can’t be certain about anything. And when we don’t recognise this openly, we also contribute to a culture where there’s great risk in being open about being uncertain.