Interview with Brad Quirk – CEO, Dependency Mapper [2023]

Hi, thanks for having me! I’m an Agile Coach by trade, helping businesses unlock better ways to service their customers. Having worked in dozens of different environments that were dealing with similar sets of issues, I created Quirk Consulting to help other companies visualize and understand their internal complexities.

Having worked on the non-technical side of software delivery for several years, one of the common problems I observed from my clients was that senior management didn’t realize just how difficult it was to get a piece of working software in front of the customer.

Specifically, they didn’t know how many handoffs each work item went through, and the subsequent idle time that came with it. I want to help bring this hidden problem to life through the Dependency Mapper for Jira.

Many Jira users will be familiar with the search language JQL that is used to query issues based on set criteria. The Dependency Mapper for Jira uses the same principles to query a JQL input, extract the underlying dependencies and then create a suite of actionable charts off the back of that dataset.

We’ve received a bunch of positive feedback that our user experience is very similar to the base Jira product, so it’s easy to get started!

Each dependency (or issue link) we identify in the tool is accompanied by a set of metadata to help the user understand more about that relationship. Starting with the issue itself, you can get a better understanding of when the dependency was raised, when it was kicked off when it is due, etc.

We also aggregate this data to show relationships between projects, sprints, epics, etc. to show where the strongest relationships are, how many relationships each group has, and much more!

At the end of the day, dependency visualization highlights the need for proper cross-functional team design. The Dependency Mapper tool will show you where the bottlenecks are in your system so you can step in and re-architect the team and minimize those handoffs. Fewer handoffs mean less idle time, less complexity, and more opportunities to succeed.

I’ve been fortunate in that I was able to establish my company throughout the various COVID lockdowns of 2020/21 and use that time to engage customers that were more willing to invest in digital platforms.

We’re also expecting our first child in a month’s time, so although that will inevitably mean a more chaotic schedule I feel confident that we have the processes and automation in place to make that a seamless transition for the end customer.

I’m a big believer in flexible working policies and fostering an environment where others feel comfortable working autonomously towards a shared set of objectives. The ‘how’ and ‘when’ is not as important as the ‘what’ and ‘why’.

I’m really interested in any tools and platforms that help further the conversation on asynchronous work practices and digital collaboration. Tools like Jira, Slack, Miro, and Zoom have been pioneers in this space but we are yet to hit the ‘golden age’ which I’ll be looking forward to.

One of the major benefits of Jira, and most of the Atlassian stack in general, is that they offer a high degree of integration and customization. Even if you don’t use Jira in isolation as a collaboration tool there are many opportunities to connect it to your preferred working tools.

I’m a firm believer that an app should do one thing, and one thing well. I want the Dependency Mapper for Jira tool to mature into a holistic dependency visualization solution, but I don’t want to take it beyond that. Once we hit that point of maturity over the next few years I’d like to be focusing apps on other purposes.

We are currently testing the feasibility of other problem spaces like backlog management, delivery optimization, and more, but those will be distinct offerings separate from the Dependency Mapper tool.