altc strategicdeveloper walkthomas
DESCRIPTION
The value of in-house technology expertise within colleges and universities. Slides from a session at ALT-C 2012. Paul Walk and Amber Thomas. Session Notes: http://infteam.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2012/10/01/strategicdev_altc2012/TRANSCRIPT
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Paul WalkDirector, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
[email protected]@paulwalk
The Strategic Developer
Paul Walk, UKOLNwith input from Amber Thomas, JISC and Mahendra Mahey, UKOLN
ALT-C September 2012
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Paul WalkDirector, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
[email protected]@paulwalk
(c) KRUPP, CC BYhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/
krupptastic/4988425044/
From Hacking the Universityhttp://hackingtheuniversity.net/interviews/
context
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Paul WalkDirector, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
[email protected]@paulwalk
Local, connected, strategic
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the local developer
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the perceived value of local developers
• DevCSI conducted a stakeholder survey:
• 495 respondents including developers, their managers, IT directors, vendors, funders, users (academics, librarians, researchers)
• 75%+ agreement that local developers understand the local context and act as a bridge between remote service providers, open source communities, and local end users, and add value by integrating into local contexts
• 75% agreement that local developers work closely with end users to deliver innovation (more work needed though)
• 70% agreement that local developers are undervalued as evidenced by short term contracts, lack of professional development or career opportunities and poor management
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the value of the local developer
• can understand local conditions better than an external supplier
• is more accessible - especially when adopting agile development techniques
• with DevCSI, is now backed by a thriving and growing community of peer developers working elsewhere in HE
• through web APIs, can tailor remote services to idiosyncratic local needs - can make cheap services into good services
• can engage the technical people in an external supplier - not just the pre-sales people!
• can engage with and exploit available open source developments
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Example - MidKent College
• implemented the PLP modules for Moodle• took an existing open-source component and adapted it to local
needs• worked very closely with local users, adopting the Scrum
methodology for Agile development
• “They love it that we listened to what they said, went away and came up with a solution, and it worked!”
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Example - Lincoln University
• Student as Producer
• sourced developer effort and skills from the student cohort
• “demonstrated to us that students can have the requisite skills, enthusiasm and experience to enable us to innovate rapidly”
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the connected developer
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• JISC-funded project in the UK
• managed by Mahendra Mahey of the Innovation Support Centre at UKOLN
• in our 4th year of funding
•http://devcsi.ukoln.ac.uk
DevCSI
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events for developers - building capacity
• many smaller events• networking• co-development• hackdays• consultancy• training & learning
• David Flanders’s Hierarchy of Developer Needs (with apologies to Abraham Maslow)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dff1978/3044660630/
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dev8D
• major annual community event for developers, primarily working in HE in the UK (but does draw international developers)
• 3-4 days
• ~250 attendees this year
• ‘lightening talks’, ‘code dojos’, demonstrations, challenges, ad hoc collaborations, development!
• peer-peer training:• one year we valued this training - £80,000 worth of training
delivered to the sector, by the sector (this was more than the entire cost of the event)
• much of the organising done by volunteer developers
• brings some brave users into a ‘developer-space’
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challenges and ‘bounties’
• annual Developer Challenge at Open Repositories• this year in Edinburgh, sponsored by Microsoft Research
• last year’s Open Repositories Developer Challenge:• I found it incredibly valuable. It enabled me to make interesting and
valuable technical contacts that I wouldn’t have made otherwise, both directly (in the developer suite) and indirectly (as a result of my and others’ challenge presentations). I’m very much looking forward to next year’s.
• developers benefit from networking, collaborating & testing ideas. Suppliers & sponsors benefit from having their APIs tested and developed against
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the strategic developer
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strategic local development when the outlook is ‘cloudy’
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the strategic developer
• is experienced, both technically and in the ‘business’ of Higher Education• is probably disguised as a manager....
• has good local (sometimes tacit) knowledge - such as the real business processes of the institution
• has moved beyond ‘problem solving’ as the extent of their perspective
• can align technical planning and interventions to strategic goals - has an institutional perspective
• gives a technical-development dimension to strategic planning
• offers leadership, beyond project-management and can identify new ICT-based opportunities to innovate
• does not really exist as a role, yet, but if it did....
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the case of the missing career path....
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"If the UK's creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning. Take a lead from the Victorians [...]: bring engineers into your company at all levels, including the top." Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google
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The Strategic Developer
http://devcsi.ukoln.ac.uk/local-developer-impact/