Platform On-Boarding

This talk discusses low-commitment, high-impact strategies for on-boarding new developers and perpetuating a culture of learning within the workplace.

Transcript

1. DEVELOPER ON-BOARDING How do we support the newest members of our team and perpetuate a culture of learning?
2. WHY FORMALIZE ON-BOARDING?
3. BACKWARDS PLANNING (UBD) „ What are 2-3 things that you think a developer on this team should be able to do within his or her first few months? „ What information or resources were helpful for you (or do you think would be helpful) in becoming familiar with the platform as a whole?
4. LEARNING CORES: • Technical Aptitude • Platform Knowledge • Team Development
5. TECHNICAL APTITUDE: •  You down with OOP? (Yeah, you know me!) •  Practice TDD with RSpec and Cucumber •  Git Comfortable •  DIY Gems (and “mining” others) •  SQL like a boss •  Ruby Deep Dive (e.g. understanding the Enumerable module)
6. KNOW YOUR APP: •  Identify the different endpoints of the API •  Trace the path the API takes in order to render the local JSON files •  Follow the path of a provider through the ETL •  Understand the transformations and the SOLR/Mongo loading process •  Understand ELI mapping in SOLR •  Explain SSO and the transformations associated with user authorization •  Run and trace SOLR queries •  Trace the ELI through the DM (i.e. find a professional_id with a particular facet type code using SQL queries) •  Configure and run apps locally with Vagrant •  Deploy client environments (and do other fun stuff) with Dradis •  Find information about a particular client environment (e.g. SSH into a hcsc qa box to check auth status) •  Comfortably write/update specs and cukes for current or new code
7. TEAM DEVELOPMENT: •  Make a PR that follows the team PR protocol •  Comfortably pair with the other members of the team •  Defend his or her choices on PRs (i.e. FIGHT to the DEATH) •  Explain what Vitals does as a company •  Use key acronyms used in the Vitals community
8. NOW WHAT? Keep up with the awesome stuff we’re already doing! + Other low-stakes, high-impact strategies: 1.  Document It (show the API Wiki some love!) 2.  Team Tutorial 3.  LunchCast 4.  Formal Mentoring 5.  Vitals Tech Community Presence
9. TEAM TUTORIAL 30 - 60 minute one-on- one conversation with the newest member of the team: •  Get to know each other •  Introduce a portion of the application
10. LUNCHCAST
11. TAKE A CRUISE ON THE MENTORSHIP Mentor Responsibilities: •  Ensure and set the pace for the onboarding process •  Meet weekly to establish goals and track progress during first 30-60 days •  Identify knowledge gaps and help to build a learning plan •  Assist in assigning tickets of increasing complexity •  Review mentee’s code and provide feedback
12. TAKE A CRUISE ON THE MENTORSHIP Mentee Responsibilities: •  Identify weaknesses and develop achievable goals •  Track progress through self- assessment •  Come prepared to mentoring sessions with problems and/or questions •  Become a mentor!
13. VITALS & THE TECH COMMUNITY •  Attend events as a team •  Give talks •  Organize and host an event @Vitals (???)
14. IT’S CHATTIN’ TIME! „ How feasible is it to implement the following strategies, given our current workload? „ Increased Documentation „ Team Tutorial „ LunchCasts „ Formal Mentoring „ Tech Community Participation & Outreach „ Are there other low-commitment strategies that we can implement to help acclimate new developers and/or further a culture of learning? „ Questions? Comments? Concerns?