This is a continuation of the post started here – for any enthusiastic pet-friendly development managers, dev project managers and team leaders on our network.
Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. I have not replied to all of you yet, I’ll wait until the newsletter has finished sending so I can speak to everyone at once. Meanwhile, we’ve gotten some answers from the previous post so we can proceed.
SOLUTION 1
The elegant solution to the first problem is to hire the Lead Developer off-scene and have him or her manage a team of enthusiastic on-scene devs from our network. Thanks to everyone who brainstormed that with me.
CHALLENGE 2
I’ve had emails offering help from around 20 developers already. I did not even ask for devs to get in touch yet. That is how enthusiastic some of our on-scene devs are 🙂
I will be asking any interested developers to get in touch soon. We could potentially end up with a few – 10, 20 or so devs stepping up to help. That’s a lot of developers for any 1 Lead to handle. We might not end up with that many, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared because other people tend to appear.
It’s probably sensible to have another level of management on the on-scene side, some Group Leaders. Then the Lead Developer can liaise with the Group Leader(s), and they in turn can have a small team of on-scene devs under them. So next we are looking for those Group Leaders. We might not have Members who exactly fit the bill, but close enough to work with, or if you do exactly fit the bill it’d be great to hear from you.
DEV GROUP LEADERS PLEASE
Development Group Leader for our network will be quite a ranking position. We need to be careful who we select, for the reasons explained in the previous post. The best way to know if someone is good to work with, is to work with them. So next I’m looking for a few potential Group Leaders, to help me get all this set up and running properly. Ideally Members with solid experience in managing development teams, tools, processes etc. Members who understand the proposed setup and have ideas on how best to make it happen.
Also understanding:
- that network developers will be volunteering their time and skills, and will need the right kind of management and leadership
- that we may have developers from many different countries and cultures
- that we may have a lot of personalities with different views, so the ability to stay calm and constructive is important
Sufficient technical skill to know what you are doing of course – and strong English is a must. Members with the necessary time available, responsible, committed, enthusiastic and awesome.
We generally use SCRUM methodology, it’s easy to learn, lean and efficient and gets the job done. I don’t mind changing if there’s a better option.
Someone finding our stuff on your laptop is probably not great for anyone – so an understanding of personal OpSec, encrypting your drives etc, all the usual sensible stuff.
I value elegant solutions – I don’t want to be setting up and learning 30 unnecessary new tools when the right 2 tools will suffice. If you’ve learned from experience, the value of not overcomplicating things, that will be a big plus.
If you’d like to join us on this project, and if you fit the bill, please get in touch.
HOW TO APPLY
Please drop us a mail, and give a brief outline of how you would set up and organize the proposed dream team. What tools you’d use, and any potential obstacles you foresee with this plan. 1 or 2 paragraphs should be enough, more if you like.
A couple of sentences about who you are, and your skills/experience would be good.
A short paragraph about why you’d like to help, and what you would hope to get in return for your help so it’s a rewarding experience for everyone involved.
That all seems like a good place to start, so please get in touch and let’s get the ball rolling.
I don’t need to tell you, all applications and communications are handled with complete discretion so no need to fret.
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Can you imagine what we could build with 20 enthusiastic developers managed well? I saw a couple of Members mailed who are app developers, we could do our own app. With the right team, I reckon we could do just about anything.
All of this is not an overnight process, I’ll need to go out and hire the right Lead for one thing. We need a clear plan first so please don’t expect to be cutting code immediately. We have a lot of years of rushing through things in a mad panic, this time let’s do it right.
Thanks for reading, hope to hear from some potential Managers – and I will catch up with everyone who’s mailed shortly. Stay tuned 🙂