@pa t k u a

TECH LEAD SKILLS FOR DEVELOPERS

WHY DO WE NEED A TECH LEAD?

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THINK THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN IN THE REAL WORLD?

Julianboot@thejayfields: I had ten guys on my last project, all of them had opinions and all of them were expressed in the code base #speakerconf

Source: http://twitter.com/julianboot/status/232830267822309376

A SIMPLE TEST FOR AN EFFECTIVE TECH LEAD...

Does the codebase look like it was written by a single person?

Yes No

WHAT DOES A GOOD TECH LEAD FOCUS ON?

ProgrammingP

PeopleP

ProcessP

Programming

People

Process

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

Do effective Technical Leaders need to code?

DEFINITELY

Do effective Technical Leaders need to code?

DEFINITELY

At least 30% of the time with the team

PROGRAMMING

...respect is the currency of the realm

PROGRAMMING

The amount of respect an IT pro pays someone is a measure of how tolerable that person is when it comes to getting things done...

http://bit.ly/15Rm4z

Consistency over Cleverness

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

There are more important topics to spend time on...

Team Culture

PROGRAMMING

Team Culture

How long does the build stay broken? Do people avoid

conflict?

Do people offer new ideas?

Do people flag when they need help?Do people feel okay to

admit being wrong?

PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING

Vision

PEOPLE

PEOPLE

Strength in Diversity

PEOPLE

Fortune 500 companies with 3 or more women on the Board gain a significant performance advantage over those with the fewest

PEOPLE

Return on Sales

73%

Return on Equity Return on Invested Capital

83%112%

Source: Catalyst (2007) http://bit.ly/nEEfGX

“...over the past six years, companies with at least some female board representation outperformed those with no women on the board in terms of share price performance.”

PEOPLE

Return on Equity

12% 16%

Return on Equity

Source: Credit Suisse Research Institute (August 2012) http://bit.ly/Oozuvl

Collective Accuracy = Average Accuracy + Diversity*

PEOPLE

* Requires ability to integrate

TRUST ISN’T BUILT IN ONE DAY

https://www.flickr.com/photos/create-learning/3676366324/sizes/o/

PEOPLE

Growing People

PEOPLE

Skill/AbilityLOW HIGH

Chal

leng

eH

IGH

LOW

Source: Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1990)

PEOPLE

Skill/AbilityLOW HIGH

Chal

leng

eH

IGH

LOW

Anxiety

Source: Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1990)

PEOPLE

Skill/AbilityLOW HIGH

Chal

leng

eH

IGH

LOW

Source: Csikszentmihalyi, Flow (1990)

Boredom

PEOPLE

Skill/AbilityLOW HIGH

Chal

leng

eH

IGH

LOW

Anxiety

Boredom

Csikszentmihalyi, "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" (1990)

Flow

PEOPLE

Maximising Potential

PEOPLE

39

Skills

PEOPLE

40

Skills

Strengths

PEOPLE

41

Skills

StrengthsGoals

PEOPLE

42

Skills

StrengthsGoals

Interests

PEOPLE

43

Skills

StrengthsGoals

Interests

Sweet Spot

PEOPLE

44

Skills

StrengthsGoals

Interests

PEOPLE

Learning Activities

Brown Bag sessions

Spike Showcases

Team code reviews

Technical Retrospectives

Pair Programming

Video/Book Club

PEOPLE

“Bad Is Stronger Than Good” (2001) Baumeister et al

Beware the bad apple

PROCESS

PROCESS

Is it okay to tell people what to do?

YES

but only sometimes

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

HighDirecting BehaviourLow

High

Supp

ortin

g Be

havi

our

Supp

ortin

g CoachingDirecting

Delega

ting

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

HighDirecting BehaviourLow

High

Supp

ortin

g Be

havi

our

Supp

ortin

g CoachingDirecting

Delega

ting

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL

Dev

elop

ing

Development level of an individual

Dev

elop

ed Low competence

High commitment

Low-some competence

Low commitmentVariable commitment

Moderate-high competence

High commitment

High competence

PROCESS

Tuckman’s Model

TUCKMAN’S STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

PROCESS

Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.

—George E. P. Box

PROCESS

Make time for you

56http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbeo52/5062096969/sizes/l/

57https://www.flickr.com/photos/sushicam/5584789234/sizes/o/

PROCESS

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

9AM

6PM

Email Time

Planning Time

Email Time

1:1s

Email Time

Planning Time

Next week planning

Email Time

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

For questions: PATRICK KUA

@patkua

THANK YOU