agile career development from the trenches - xp 2013 vienna

Agile Career Developmentfrom the trenches

Ionel Condor (@ionel_condor)

development manager

Thursday, July 11, 13

About me

Work Jr Dev Mid/Sr Dev

Dev Lead

Jr PM PM PM

Jr Dev

ManaDev Man

Dev Man

Dev Dev Dev

Life

Jr Husband and Father

Thursday, July 11, 13

The objective of this presentation

Are these Diamonds or just shards of glass? One of these can be

YOUR Career !

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Some recent data about us and our jobs

Thursday, July 11, 13

Some recent data about us and our jobs

http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-to-lose-your-best-it-employees/232900608

Thursday, July 11, 13

Some recent data about us and our jobs

http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-to-lose-your-best-it-employees/232900608

Thursday, July 11, 13

Recognize what motivates people

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Hygiene factors vs Motivators (Hertzberg)

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An observation from the past

EVERYBODY WANTSTO CHANGE THE

WORLDBUT NOBODY WANTS

TO CHANGE

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An agile approach toCareer Development

If you want something you have never had, you will have to do something

you have never done

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the

renewing of your mind.“(Holly Bible, Romans 12:2, NIV)

Hire for attitude, train for skills

Career is a work in progress !!!

Inspect & Adapt

Remember:

“What Got You Here Won’t Get

You There”

Experiments in a given context

My recipes

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Some immediate confirmations I saw

They learn faster when they have

self-direction

They did not loosed focus if the

learning was based on real challenges we

have in the company

They are motivated to learn if we plan based on their needs

and shared interests

They expect feedback (and sometimes some reminders :))

They expect you to see and value differences in competence, style of learning, availability and speed

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Career Development

...let’s first do some history

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Career Development some generations ago

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Career Development -how it all started

Our parentswere asked this:

“Where you will be in 10-20 years ?”

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Career Development -small company

The myth of busy Manager

YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN - pick what you

feel is rightThursday, July 11, 13

Career Development - Corporate

The myth of HR Trainings

You are still on your own, but you have even more

options

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Career Development - facilitated by a consultant

What about ...

Follow up ?Metrics ?

Feedback ?Up to date ?

Real ?Personalizations ?

Scale ?Continuous

Improvements ?

Comprehensive,great plan for skill

acquisition

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Career Development meets new trends

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Thinking of Career nowadays

YOU

THECOMPANY

THEUNIVERSITY

THEGOVERNMENT

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• We need to support our career• Get busy living or get busy dying• Stay agile and experiment, always in a

permanent beta• Follow the cheese (where is the cheese ?)• Adaptability creates Stability • Analyze your n years of experience • Watch out the arrogance that comes from success• Watch out your predisposition toward effort that offer

immediate gratification

Agile Career Values - What I keep saying to my colleagues

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IF IT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU,YOU WILL FIND A WAY.

IF NOT, YOU ‘LL FIND AN EXCUSE.

How can you still have a Career ?

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I start each Career Development planning with this

Good at Love doing it

Askedto do at work

learn & practice

look for an opportunity to practice it

routine !!!

?Thursday, July 11, 13

... then I explain this

But how do I get to know me better?

Factors for success: Drive & PassionLeadershipNetworkingIntegrityLuck & TimingIntellectTaking risksPlanning

Inhibitors of success:

Lack of belief in self

Fear of Risk

Poor Communication

Procrastination Lack of Passion Greed and ego

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... I always suggest this SWOT Analysis

NegativePositive

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

• List them here • List them here

• List them here • List them here

Internal factors

Externalfactors

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SWOT - an example in my team

STRENGTHS

W EAKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

• Independence• Minimal management • RIsk mitigation • Measure my progress • Reliable • Code quality •

• Too proud • Aggressive • Do not consider other points

of view • Not open to other teams• Not exposed to many of our

technologies • UI technologies

• Develop my soft skills • Improve my communication

skills• Up to date on our

technologies

• Departments that are not aligned

• Infrastructure people are not that fast

• Teams that do not push back when too much pressure on

deliverables

Negative

Internal factors

Externalfactors

Positive

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Or a simple one

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Or a an example in my team I have to do : work on maintenance develop my leadership skills work on java 6maintain Memcachedrelease every month mitigate risks and take some risks combine up front planningwith adaptive use some UMLattend a conference inspect & adapt satisfy/delight the clients

I like to do :

develop my technical skills move to java 7 replace Memcached with Redis release when ready mitigate all the risks adaptive is enough sketches are just fine attend a conference be consistent no pressure, let me architect in my way

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...then during my 1:1 meetingsI have a continuous activity

Ask each colleague some powerful questions about her/his

career

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Powerful questions

What am I selling so special? First, Faster, Only, Better, Cheaper than others

Is it Skills, Energy, Passion, Adaptability to Change,Quick decision maker, Risk taking,

Communication skills, Networking, Good planning, High quality, …, …. ?

Thursday, July 11, 13

Powerful questions

When thousands of low cost people overseas can do my job, why I am so special?

First, Faster, Only, Better, Cheaper than others Is it Skills, Energy, Passion, Adaptability to Change,

Quick decision maker, Risk taking,Communication skills, Networking, Good planning,

High quality, …, …. ?

Thursday, July 11, 13

Powerful questions

I am in Top 100 in my profession in my town because I am the

First, Faster, Only, Better, Cheaper than others Is it Skills, Energy, Passion, Adaptability to Change,

Quick decision maker, Risk taking,Communication skills, Networking, Good planning,

High quality, …, …. ?

Thursday, July 11, 13

Powerful questions

What is a day in the life of my companywhen I am not there and I do not add value ?

Do they miss my Skills, Energy, Passion, Adaptability to Change,

Quick decision maker, Risk taking,Communication skills, Networking, Good planning,

High quality, …, …. ?

Thursday, July 11, 13

NoviceNeeds

recipes, monitoring

and first successes

Advanced Beginner

Needs simple,

controlled simulations

Competent Needs real

world exposure, Process Oriented

Proficient Needs

practice that is not obstructed and the big

general picture, System Oriented

ExpertNeeds to be

put in a context that favors his

intuition and creativity

I trust some models Dreyfus model of skill acquisition

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I explain what it takes to succeed

10 years of effort

EnvTasks

So how do I become an Expert ?

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And why it is not easy

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I always explain these dilemmas

specialist or generalist ?

what is my next milestone ? (senior developer, lead, architect, development manager, project manager, business roles (product), entrepreneur,QA roles, consultant, upper management, ... etc)

Peter’s principle

layer vs. feature driven teams and architectures

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Specialist / Generalist

Specialist

Depth of expertise

Breadth of knowldge

Generalist

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What is my next milestone ?It’s all about my dreams and the context,

while keeping my options open

Good at Love doing

Askedto do

Where is your passion Where is your ideal fit

Code Sr Dev / Architect

$ (....just kidding here :) ) Specialist in a niche

Security zone Generalist / jack of all

Process Project Manager

Product Product role (PO, PM, BA,...)

Code&People&Process Team Lead / Dev Manager

Strategy & Corporate Politics Upper Management

Your own agenda Consultant / Coach

Business ideas & Discipline Entrepreneur

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Peter’s principle Every employee tends

to rise to his level of incompetence

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Layer vs. feature driven teams and architectures

Common Platform

Middleware 1 Middleware 2

App1 App2 App3

API 1 API 2

web GUI 1 iOS 1 Android iOS Win

feature team

component team

http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2013/01/managing-the-stream-of-features-in-a-program.htmlThursday, July 11, 13

Well knows traps for my career

Thursday, July 11, 13

A trap for my career: Sheep Dip

http://www.flickr.com/photos/llgc/3423926674/

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A trap for my career: Time constraints

http://pathfindersoftware.com/2011/04/not-enough-time-to-design-try-a-time-boxed-workshop/

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A trap for my career: Lack of coaches and mentors

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A trap for my career: Inadequate use of resources

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A trap for my career: wrong expectations

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A trap for my career: Brain bugs

“Use it or loose it“

You have biases (self-serving or the need for

certainty )

Hawthorne effect (metrics)

Generations

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A trap for my career: Lack of practice

“if you think you are standing firm,be careful that you don't fall!” (The Holy Bible)

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More career traps:Most people are and will remain as Advanced Beginners

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More career traps:Do not use the power of my network

IWeThursday, July 11, 13

More career traps: How the whole business is run

Do not treatthem equally,treat them all

fair.

Thursday, July 11, 13

More career traps:Team dysfunctions

Credits to The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

“The Five Dysfunctions of

a Team” by Patrick Lencioni

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Try & Error lessons from my experience

The following are just random samples from a very comprehensive list of modules and experiments built

over the years

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A part of my tactics for the teams

Daily

Safari Books

Work with a coach & mentor

Weekly

Individual & Group Study

Presentations

Video trainings

Monday morning study

Friday eveningworkshops

Monthly

Enlightening talks

Sessions of pair programming

Coding Dojo

A pet project /experimental

Retrospectives

3-6 Months

Revisit Career Objectives

Identify needs & coaches

Inspect & Adapt

6-12 Months

Certification plans

Global planning

Conferences

Leadership trainings

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Applying skill acquisition in practice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Novice

Expert

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Skill acquisition - a sampleA visualization of where we are as a cross functional team and where we plan to be in N months

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Learn by doing

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A sample of a group study calendar

TECH: CoP in front-end, web server side, backend, dev tools and languages, design principles, qa automations, sw architecture, ...

Q, SP, ...: common career development set through objectives

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A workshop

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Soft skillsone of the suggested modules

Accept change and deal with change

How to be effective

Team work

Time Management

Risk Management for Agile

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Becoming a great developer

Some other Career Development tracks

Built-in quality

Architectural principles and patterns

Agile and Lean principles and practices

Delivering value - how to speak and do business

Leadership & Management

Project Management Thursday, July 11, 13

Experiments - back in 2011

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Experiments - back in 2012

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A sample of a SMART objective

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A sample of a SMART objective

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The hardest part: to change things

Do not be afraid: bad decisions

make good stories

http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/

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Along the journey ...

§ Books§ Podcasts

§ User Groups§ Public or Private/In house Conferences§ Blog posts - use your judgement

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Key books

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Key books

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Key books

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Key books

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Recommended readings

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Recommended readings

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Recommended readings

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Keep your career in a permanent beta,

embracing change and being comfortable with uncertainty

If you will only rememberone thing from this presentation

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MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU

…and let’s keep our career in a permanent beta !!!

Blog: http://ionelcondor.wordpress.com/Twitter: @ionel_condorEmail: ionel_condor@yahoo.com

Thank You for your patience

Thursday, July 11, 13

Bibliography

• Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha: “The Start-up of You”• Sam LightStone: “Making it Big in Software: Get the

Job. Work the Org. Become Great”• Andy Hunt: “Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor

Your Wetware”• various public images taken from Facebook • https://www.facebook.com/OReilly

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Thursday, July 11, 13