If I were to design the perfect software engineering work environment, in matters of leadership, teamwork, compensation, physical environment, etc, what would be most important? - QUORA compillation

What matters most to software engineers in the workplace?
Backlog of prioritised tasks
Make sure that there's a clear roadmap which everybody understands with worthwhile milestones along the way. This is also a very productive way to run a team. It's fine to change your mind and re-prioritise activities, but do avoid interrupting an ongoing task as long as possible.

State of flow
Silence in the workplace, including a well enforced rule of zero phone noises or other repetitive noises, will make them focus for keep doing coding without much breaks. The vast majority will be happiest and most productive if they have a quiet, pleasant, and distraction-free place to work, and lot of uninterrupted hours in a row every day to get into a state of flow.

Compensation based on accomplishments
Compensation and bonus should be focus on accomplishments as opposed to number of hours worked.

Work space
Let them configure their personal desktop environment however they want, and let them work from home on days when there's no big reason for them to come in to work. Two large displays, 16 gigabytes of memory, quiet place to work,

Freedom to solve the problem in the way that seems best, as opposed to being told how by people who only think they know best

Flexibility in working hours & Ability to work from home

It is of utmost importance is to listen to the developers' "remarks and complaints" and try to do something constructive about them. Ideally on an individual level, since different people want/need different things.


Clear Responsibilities
Most people love to have clear responsibilities and want to know who's responsible for what. Both among their peers and other functions in the company. Ensure that they know what they are responsible for, but also try to explain that for some activities there is no one in particular who's responsible for it. Developers also love to know what is NOT their responsibility, like running operations or speaking with end-users and deployment of production code is NOT their responsibility.

Hologram vs. Silo
From my experience, it’s a shift in consciousness that needs to come to people before they see the connection - click. A change in the mindset. A whole new bird-view perspective. In many businesses, upper managers struggle with effectiveness and focus on the details of the business that are dysfunctional, rather than see the whole big picture.