Better Software - April 2008 - (Page 38)

Figure 1: Overlapping roles and possible opportunities and ask for additional responsibility on a highly visible project. If your goal is to be a developer/ tester, the first step might be to go to the library and check out two or three books on development. If your goal is to earn a college degree, the first step might be to find a program that is a possibility, and then take a single college course. Along the way, your goal might change. You might find that you dislike the pressure of constant delivery, or that college course might lead you to a second career as a journalist. The idea is to do something that moves you in the right direction and then adjust your plan as you go. If you are an “agile” type, you could think of each of these steps as an iteration. Each step provides you with value, feedback, and—because the iterations are frequent—the opportunity to adjust. that can be formed by intersections between testing and non-testing groups. In each of these specialties, we find a real business need that is served by two groups. The non-testing group may not understand or appreciate what your manager needs, or it may not be serving the needs of the testing organization well. Perhaps you just like what that group does and find it interesting. By investing a little bit of time exploring the intersection of testing and other roles, you can find out enough to better fill a need. You may learn enough about the role to fill in when Bob’s sick or to have a backup job in case of a layoff. Once you have identified a specialty, work at it for six months. Get enough experience to have something to list on your annual review. If you really enjoy the work, you might want to think about where that could go in five or ten years and set out some really high-level goals. In order to have a serious ladder, the role will have to carry significant responsibility and be of real value to the company. From concept to Cash Deciding on a field will give you a concrete direction. While having a direc38 BETTER SOFTWARE APRIL 2008 tion is great, do you know your longterm goal or destination? Is it clear and concrete or just warm and fuzzy? One way to develop longer-term career goals is to work backward from an envisioned future—or, in the words of business guru Stephen Covey, “Begin with the end in mind.” For example, imagine that some coworkers and friends are discussing you around the water cooler five or ten years from now. What would you like them to say about you? What role are you in? While “Where do you see yourself in five years?” might be a clichéd interview question, “Where do I want to be in five years?” is a much more serious one. Once you have goals that are specific and realistic, you can time-box them— which is as simple as creating your own deadlines to provide motivation. With time-boxed goals, you can create subgoals, or tactics, that are smaller and smaller until the pieces are manageable enough to accomplish. We do this every day in testing and project management; it really isn’t that hard to apply to career growth. If your goal is to be the go-to guy, you might sit down with your manager www.StickyMinds.com Love The One You’re With If your company doesn’t have a technical career ladder, it is possible to develop one, especially at larger companies with an HR department that employs a compensation analyst. Microsoft, for example, has a defined ladder for every technical role, and the higher levels are well compensated. Alan Page, a test architect in Microsoft’s Software Engineering Excellence group, explains that “The split between management and non-management typically happens around the ‘senior’ level. For example, for software development engineers in test (SDET), we have SDET I, II, senior SDET, and principal SDET. A principal SDET may also go by the title ‘test architect.’ Thus, our newest managers have several years of testing experience, and people who choose to remain technical are given a few more steps on the ladder to climb.” Many companies can stand to benefit from defining detailed career paths. For example, consulting companies can charge a premium by offering higherlevel consultants, who have more perceived value. If you work for a company http://www.StickyMinds.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Better Software - April 2008

Better Software - April 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributions eLightenment Technology Speaking - A Change Would Do You Good Code Craft - A "D" In Programming, Part 1 Test Connection - Learning the Hardware Lessons Management Chronicles - The Art of Persuading Management Cover Story - Incremental and Iterative Development Developers...Start Your Engines Where Do I Go From Here Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About... The Last Word - Software Quality and the Prisoner's Dilemma Ad Index

Better Software - April 2008

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