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/

1. The Strategic Developer
Paul Walk, UKOLN
with input from Amber Thomas, JISC and Mahendra Mahey, UKOLN
Paul Walk
Director, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
ALT-C September 2012 p.walk@ukoln.ac.uk
@paulwalk

2. context
(c) KRUPP, CC BY
http://www.flickr.com/photo
krupptastic/4988425044/
Paul Walk
Director, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
p.walk@ukoln.ac.uk
@paulwalk
From Hacking the University
http://hackingtheuniversity.net/interviews/

3. Local, connected, strategic
Paul Walk
Director, Innovation Support Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
p.walk@ukoln.ac.uk
@paulwalk

4. the local developer

5. 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
5

6. 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

7. 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!”

8. 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”

9. the connected developer

10. DevCSI
• 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
10

11. 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/
11

12. 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’
12

13. 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
13

14. the strategic developer

15. strategic local development when the
outlook is ‘cloudy’
15

16. 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....
16

17. the case of the missing career path....
17

18. "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

19. The Strategic Developer
http://devcsi.ukoln.ac.uk/local-developer-impact/