Interfaces — How it helps manage expectations at work?

“Interface” is an interesting concept of Object Oriented Programming.

I am fascinated by the 2 (the ones that I like most) important tenets of an interface:

* Interface exposes the behaviour i.e. what is expected out of the function call if you pass the defined parameters? It does not expose the implementation. In Fact it is designed to abstract the implementation. It is a contract with the external world.

* Interface enforces the implementer to think through contract of the exposed functions and handle them well. It ensures that whoever implements it, need not reinvent the contract everytime. Removes the communication overhead that comes with change of contracts.

As Recruiterbox is growing and more people have started contributing at various levels, the 2 tenets are helping me to think about how I can work well with them.

* I am treating each function (engineering, ops, product, design, marketing, sales) as an interface. I know exactly what every function is expected to do — “Defined by outcomes”. But I do not have to worry about how it is done (curiosity may still exist).

* Within each function, the team understands the promised outcome and designs ways of achieving the outcomes. There is a conscious evaluation of the contract and implementation that works well for that team’s current strength. This is defined by the “Rituals” (I prefer this term over process — details in another post) followed by the function.

PS:

Reference : What is Interface? — http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3355408/explaining-interfaces-to-students

Originally published at dino.xyz/Recruiterbox