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Beyond Developer

Beyond Developer

When I started in IT the roles were clearly separated. Business Analysts wrote requirements, Systems Analysts designed systems, Architects designed them, Programmers wrote the code and then spent weeks of their life engaged in the soul-crushing activity known as integration. In some organisations Testers would test the software and write reports. Cross-disciplined Analyst-Programmers were a rare and valuable commodity.

Over the last decade or so we have seen a shift towards “generalising specialists”, programmers who, as well as designing and building great software, can understand a business domain, design a user interface, participate in and automate some of the testing and deployment activities, and who are sometimes even responsible for the health and wellbeing of their own systems in production.

To succeed in this new world requires more than “3 years of C# programming”. The modern lead developer needs to be constantly reinventing themselves, learning, and helping others to do the same. In this session, Dan explores some of the skills and characteristics of the modern lead developer, and suggests some ways you can grow them for yourself.

Daniel Terhorst-North

September 11, 2015
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Transcript

  1. @tastapod There are Commandments… You shall have a Business Requirements

    Document You shall have a Functional Specification You shall program in the manner of the Specification You shall have no other Specification before me Analysts shall analyse, Architects shall architect Programmers shall program, Testers shall test
  2. @tastapod And more Commandments… You shall complete a Formal Change

    Request You shall provide Release Documentation You shall not release to Production yourself, lest you incur the wrath of the Release Manager You shall not hack on that which is in Production* 
 * more of a guideline really
  3. @tastapod The Agile Manifesto We are uncovering better ways… Individuals

    and interactions over processes and tools 
 Working software over comprehensive documentation 
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
 Responding to change over following a plan Then comes a new Covenant… 2001: Programmers drafting the Agile Manifesto, Utah
  4. @tastapod Beyond Developer I am …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  5. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  6. @tastapod …a developer learns the language learns the libraries monitors

    the alternatives learns the toolchain engages with the community
  7. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  8. @tastapod …in a team understands the process understands the roles

    collaborates with others …all the others! attends to the team’s health
  9. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  10. @tastapod …building a product understands the business objective studies the

    domain knows the stakeholders …all the stakeholders! contributes to the product
  11. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  12. @tastapod …on a platform understands the technical landscape understands the

    path to production cares about runtime concerns values automation …not all the automation! contributes to the platform
  13. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  14. @tastapod …in a department understands the wider context makes local

    trade-offs shares their knowledge across teams …all their knowledge! contributes to the department influences across the organisation
  15. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  16. @tastapod …in an organisation. projects the organisation’s values cares about

    organisation’s reputation shares their knowledge externally …not all their knowledge! contributes to the organisation
  17. @tastapod Beyond Developer You are …a developer …building a product

    …on a platform …in a department …in an organisation. …in a team
  18. –African proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone.

    If you want to go far, go together”