I am interested in how leading software engineering teams are assessing and tracking their developers' knowledge of business processes across the organization. Is this something your firm prioritizes? Do you find value in having developers understand the key processes and goals of the business?

It’s really important for developers and business teams to talk often and work closely together. When developers understand what the business is trying to achieve, they can build tools and systems that actually help reach those goals. Without regular communication, it’s easy to miss the mark or waste time building something that doesn’t solve the real problem.

That’s why many companies now make sure their developers learn how the business works. They might hold team meetings, share updates, or even have developers spend time with different departments. At our firm, we’ve seen that when developers know the key business processes and goals, they make better decisions and build smarter solutions. Staying connected makes everything run smoother.

Let me share a small step that I took as a CIO with every development project irrespective of whether the development was done internally or with external partners.

At the start of the project I would get the entire team - including the developers and testers - and give them a brief on what is the project about and how it impacts business outcomes. The BA would explain the rationale and business expectations. We encouraged them to ask questions and clarify as without the context they would use assumptions which led to gaps in the final product.

We also encouraged them to engage with business doers not managers to see what is the ground reality.

This small step brought a better understanding of how what they are doing impacts their end customer.

How do you assess their knowledge? By the number of change requests in UAT or go-live

Hi , We do not see value of developer to understand the business process, the business Analyst role is do that, using tool to monitor the development is essential and the key success factor for developer is to have well structured user story.

That’s a great question. Interestingly, in many leading organisations, the need for developers to understand business processes is well recognised—though ironically, leaders often prefer to hear this assessment confirmed by an external party rather than internally.

The approach that tends to work best with top software engineering teams is to bring in a third-party assessment team. This external group evaluates the team’s knowledge and understanding of the organisation’s key processes.

The assessment exercises create both internal and external accountability, motivating teams to openly share details and learn.

Now, the challenge lies in selecting the right auditors—those who can effectively engage your team, deliver insights at the right cost, and encourage a deeper understanding of business goals and roles.
With the right partner, your developers gain not just knowledge but a heightened sense of ownership and alignment with the business.

In essence, external assessment fosters an environment where learning business processes becomes a priority, driving stronger collaboration and ultimately better outcomes.