Agile Career Development. The slides of my presentation for XP 2013 Agile Conference in Vienna.

1. Agile Career
Development
from the trenches
Ionel Condor
(@ionel_condor)
development manager
Thursday, July 11, 13

2. About me
Work
Jr Dev
Mid/Sr
Dev
Dev
Lead
Jr PM PM PM
Jr
Dev
Mana
Dev
Man
Dev
Man
Dev Dev Dev
Life
Jr Husband
and Father
Thursday, July 11, 13

3. The objective of this presentation
Are these Diamonds or
just shards of glass?
One of these can be
YOUR Career !
Thursday, July 11, 13

4. Some recent data about us and
our jobs
Thursday, July 11, 13

5. 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

6. 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

7. Recognize what motivates
people
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Hygiene factors
vs Motivators (Hertzberg)
Thursday, July 11, 13

8. An observation from the past
EVERYBODY WANTS
TO CHANGE THE
WORLD
BUT NOBODY WANTS
TO CHANGE
Thursday, July 11, 13

9. An agile approach to
Career 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

10. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

11. Career Development
...let’s first do some history
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12. Career Development
some generations ago
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13. Career Development -
how it all started
Our parents
were asked this:
“Where you will be in
10-20 years ?”
Thursday, July 11, 13

14. Career Development -
small company
The myth of busy
Manager
YOU ARE ON YOUR
OWN - pick what you
feel is right
Thursday, July 11, 13

15. Career Development - Corporate
The myth of HR Trainings
You are still on your own,
but you have even more
options
Thursday, July 11, 13

16. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

17. Career Development meets new
trends
Thursday, July 11, 13

18. Thinking of Career nowadays
YOU
THE
COMPANY
THE
UNIVERSITY
THE
GOVERNMENT
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19. • 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

20. 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 ?
Thursday, July 11, 13

21. I start each Career Development
planning with this
Good at Love doing it
Asked
to do at work
learn & practice
look for an
opportunity to practice it
routine !!!
?
Thursday, July 11, 13

22. ... then I explain this
But how do I get to know me better?
Factors for success:
Drive & Passion
Leadership
Networking
Integrity
Luck & Timing
Intellect
Taking risks
Planning
Inhibitors of success:
Lack of belief in self
Fear of Risk
Poor Communication
Procrastination
Lack of Passion
Greed and ego
Thursday, July 11, 13

23. ... I always suggest this SWOT
Analysis
NegativePositive
S
TRENGTHS
W
EAKNESSES
O
PPORTUNITIES
T
HREATS
• List them here • List them here
• List them here • List them here
Internal
factors
External
factors
Thursday, July 11, 13

24. SWOT - an example in my team
S
TRENGTHS
W
EAKNESSES
O
PPORTUNITIES
T
HREATS
• 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
External
factors
Positive
Thursday, July 11, 13

25. Or a simple one
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26. Or a an example in my team
I have to do :
work on maintenance
develop my leadership skills
work on java 6
maintain Memcached
release every month
mitigate risks and take some risks
combine up front planning
with adaptive
use some UML
attend 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

27. ...then during my 1:1 meetings
I have a continuous activity
Ask each colleague some
powerful questions about her/his
career
Thursday, July 11, 13

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Powerful questions
What is a day in the life of my company
when 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

32. Novice
Needs
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
Expert
Needs to be
put in a
context that
favors his
intuition and
creativity
I trust some models
Dreyfus model of skill acquisition
Thursday, July 11, 13

33. I explain what it takes to succeed
10 years of effort
EnvTasks
So how do I become an Expert ?
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34. And why it is not easy
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35. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

36. Specialist / Generalist
S
p
e
c
i
a
l
i
s
t
Depth of expertise
Breadth of
knowldge
Generalist
Thursday, July 11, 13

37. What is my next milestone ?
It’s all about my dreams and the context,
while keeping my options open
Good at Love doing
Asked
to 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

38. Peter’s principle
Every employee tends
to rise to his level of incompetence
Thursday, July 11, 13

39. 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.html
Thursday, July 11, 13

40. Well knows traps for my career
Thursday, July 11, 13

41. A trap for my career:
Sheep Dip
http://www.flickr.com/photos/llgc/3423926674/
Thursday, July 11, 13

42. A trap for my career:
Time constraints
http://pathfindersoftware.com/2011/04/not-enough-time-to-design-try-a-time-boxed-workshop/
Thursday, July 11, 13

43. A trap for my career:
Lack of coaches and mentors
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44. A trap for my career:
Inadequate use of resources
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45. A trap for my career:
wrong expectations
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46. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

47. 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)
Thursday, July 11, 13

48. More career traps:
Most people are and will remain
as Advanced Beginners
Thursday, July 11, 13

49. More career traps:
Do not use the power
of my network
IWe
Thursday, July 11, 13

50. More career traps:
How the whole business is run
Do not treat
them equally,
treat them all
fair.
Thursday, July 11, 13

51. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

52. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

53. 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
evening
workshops
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
Thursday, July 11, 13

54. Applying skill acquisition
in practice
Advanced
Beginner
Competent
Proficient
Novice
Expert
Thursday, July 11, 13

55. Skill acquisition - a sample
A visualization of where we are
as a cross functional team
and where we plan to be in N
months
Thursday, July 11, 13

56. Learn by doing
Thursday, July 11, 13

57. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

58. A workshop
Thursday, July 11, 13

59. Soft skills
one of the suggested modules
Accept
change
and deal
with
change
How to
be
effective
Team
work
Time
Manage
ment
Risk
Manage
ment for
Agile
Thursday, July 11, 13

60. 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

61. Experiments - back in 2011
Thursday, July 11, 13

62. Experiments - back in 2012
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63. A sample of a SMART objective
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64. A sample of a SMART objective
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65. 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/
Thursday, July 11, 13

66. Along the journey ...
§ Books
§ Podcasts
§ User Groups
§ Public or Private/In house Conferences
§ Blog posts - use your judgement
Thursday, July 11, 13

67. Key books
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68. Key books
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69. Key books
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70. Key books
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71. Recommended readings
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72. Recommended readings
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73. Recommended readings
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74. Keep your career
in a permanent beta,
embracing change and being
comfortable with uncertainty
If you will only remember
one thing from this presentation
Thursday, July 11, 13

75. 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_condor
Email: ionel_condor@yahoo.com
Thank You for your patience
Thursday, July 11, 13

76. 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
Thursday, July 11, 13

77. Thursday, July 11, 13