Software teams are a lot like pastries.

When one is preparing a recipe, there is a list of ingredients to follow along with instructions on how to use those ingredients to produce a composed dish on the other side. That part is obvious. What might be less obvious, is that adding an ingredient or taking one away fundamentally changes the recipe. It’s not that it’s the dish but different. It is no longer the same dish. The difference between exquisite pâte à choux and down home southern biscuits is simply adding eggs. They are 90%+ the exact same elements, but they produce vastly different products on the other side.

It’s the same with software teams as well. So many times we think adding a person, removing a team member, or moving someone around will create minimal chaos, but the reality is that the entire chemistry of the team changes when that happens. When you add an ingredient to a recipe, you have to adjust the steps to alter the product or you’ll end up with a mess (trust me, I’ve experimented in the kitchen enough to know this is true!). Likewise, when team chemistry changes workflows have to be adapted, expectations have to be adjusted, knowledge gaps have to be filled, and so on. Fundamentally the graph of responsibilty and relationship has changed within the group of people on the team. It’s up to you as a manager to recognize this, and put the work in to rebalance everything.

The great thing is that these changes can present opportunities for positive transformation. Composition dictates capability. Ending up with “better” or more cohesive “ingredients” on the other side can present the opportunity to turn a janky biscuit recipe into perfect puff pastry. Take advantage of it!