© 2010 Building the Next Generation of Technical Leaders
© 2010 Housekeeping
© 2010 Our Journey
© 2010 Introductions What is Technical Leadership? Our problem What we can do about it
© 2010 Who am I?
© 2010 Who are you?
© 2010 Introductions What is Technical Leadership? Our problem What we can do about it
© 2010 Ubiquitous Language!
© 2010 Define… A leader who spends at least 30% of their time coding with the team (our definition for today) Technical Leader Coding with the team Leadership activities
© 2010
Why do we have Technical Leaders?
© 2010 GOAL
© 2010 “The unspoken truth about managing geeks” Source: By Jeff Ello via Computer World -
© 2010 Software systems PeopleTools TechnologyProcess Leadership
© 2010 Introductions What is Technical Leadership? Our problem What we can do about it
© 2010 Why do IT projects fail?
© 2010 Fail ure
© 2010 Software systems PeopleTools TechnologyProcess Leadership
© 2010 “A bad system will beat a good person every time” W. Edwards Deming PeopleTools Technology Process Leadership
© 2010 Examples of damaging behaviour…
© 2010 Early morning refactor (late evening)
© 2010 Code
© 2010 ? ? ? ? Code
© 2010 “Benevolent” Dictator
© 2010 DIY (always)
© 2010 “The hard problems are mine”
© 2010 Our current system does not create effective Technical Leaders Problem Statement
© 2010 Software systems PeopleTools TechnologyProcess Leadership
© 2010 Should we be worried?
© 2010 Net Negative Producing Programmer
© 2010 Define… (noun) [a person] who insert enough spoilage to exceed the value of their production “The Net Negative Producing Programmer” by G. Gordon Schulmeyer Net Negative Producing Programmer
© 2010 *If you can measure productivity Net producing programmer Productivity* Better WorseSame Net neutral producing programmer Net negative producing programmer
© 2010
Net Negative Producing Programmer Technical Leader
© 2010
But how did they get there?
© 2010 It’s all perfectly logical…
© 2010
“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence” “The Peter Principle” (1969) by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull
© 2010 Development Leadership Implementing new functionality Changing existing behaviour Writing tests Clean code Challenging assumptions Offering alternative solutions Ensuring everyone works towards a vision Growing talent Creating a healthy team environment Responsible for delivery Empowering everyone to make decisions Resolving conflict Story telling
© 2010 Introductions What is Technical Leadership? Our problem What we can do about it
© 2010 Step 1:Recognise the different skillset
© 2010 Development Leadership Implementing new functionality Changing existing behaviour Writing tests Clean code Challenging assumptions Offering alternative solutions Ensuring everyone works towards a vision Growing talent Creating a healthy team environment Responsible for delivery Empowering everyone to make decisions Resolving conflict Story telling
© 2010 Developing Technical Leadership Coaching Managing Facilitating Mentoring Teaching
© 2010 Step 1:Recognise the different skillset Step 2:Develop competence
© 2010 Dreyfus model of skills acquisition
© 2010 Dreyfus Affair
© 2010 Richard Dreyfus
© 2010 Julie Louis- Dreyfus
© 2010 Stuart Dreyfus
© 2010 Paper: A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition
© 2010 Novice Advanced Beginner Competent Proficient Expert
© 2010 Novice in control Don’t put a
© 2010 Developmen t Leadership Remember this?
© 2010 Pair Programming ing
© :1s
© 2010 Shadowing
© 2010 Safe environments
© 2010 Step 1:Recognise the different skillset Step 2:Develop competence Step 4:Profit! (really)
© 2010 Learning as a team
© 2010 Celebrate success
© 2010 Opportunities to contribute
© 2010 Everyone is safe to fail (lead by humility)
© 2010 Conflicts resolved openly
© 2010 Introductions What is Technical Leadership? Our problem What we can do about it
© 2010 Software systems PeopleTools TechnologyProcess Leadership
© 2010
Closing notes…
© 2010 “…it is critical to acknowledge the impact of individuals and teams on end results” Source: QCon London recursive reference
© 2010
Questions?