Techlead Conference: how to evolve in IT?
On March 9 and 10, 2023, the TechLead Conference. An entirely online event focused on the development of professional careers in IT, advice on becoming a Tech Lead and gaining maturity in the world of Tech. The Techlead Conference brought together 19 speakers: engineers, managers and human resources managers working in recognized companies in our field. They thus offer different points of view on the management of technical projects. In this article, I have chosen to come back to the two conferences that excited me the most, namely Zan Markan's Dev Rel and Octave Rimbault's Pair Programming.
Focus on Zan Markan's "Dev Rel" conference (UK)
Opening conference on a rapidly expanding role in companies: DevRel. The "Developer Relations" is a role, carried by one or more people within a project. It consists of creating a community around a company's developers, making it possible to bridge communication gaps and ensure optimal project coordination. There is a beneficial rapprochement between IT and business. The role of developers is expanding and becoming more and more complex. The developer must now be in contact and collaborate with all the project stakeholders and be integrated into the decision-making process. This creates a framework of trust for the professional development of developers. Although there are different names for community admins, such as "Developer Advocate", "Developer Evangelist", etc., the purpose behind remains the same.
Back to the Techlead conferences Conference on “Pair Programming” by Octave Rimbault (FR) and Mo Khazali (UK)
What is Pair Programming?
Then, I had the pleasure of discovering Octave Rimbault, a former Peaksian for an analysis of "Pair Programming", a technique for developing software in pairs. Often subject to debate because considered expensive by management, it is nevertheless acclaimed by developers. To begin, Octave discussed the benefits of this practice:
- More robust code. Indeed, having another person with you makes it possible to fill in any omissions that you might have
- Improved team skills
- Better morale
- A gain in productivity
Disadvantage Tracking:
- There is a development cost (+15% according to a study by Alistair Cockburn and Laurie Williams in the 2000s). However, this cost will most likely be recovered in the future, whether during the review, tests, bugs (an outside view helps to trace potential anomalies) and especially in the maintenance of the code (known by the two protagonists) .
- Incompatibilities between developers (too different working methods…)
When and how to use Pair programming?
The rest of his speech focused on when and how to use “Pair Programming”. For example, it is a method that is best applied when working on complex tasks, when wanting to share knowledge or even when integrating a new member into the team.
To do so, it is essential to put yourself in the right conditions. First, it's important to find the right partner who has complementary skills to yours and who you can easily communicate with. Then you have to choose the right tool to work together. Whether through a shared text editor, a video call or simply working on the same computer.
It is also recommended to remember to regularly reverse the roles between the driver and the observer. This makes it possible to maintain a high level of involvement of both parties and to avoid fatigue. Finally, it is important to set clear goals and work together to achieve them.
Octave is not the only one to have tackled this subject. Mo Khazali (UK) presented to us his method for carrying out technical tests in his company using “Pair Programming”.
Technical tests with Pair Programming
According to him, traditional technical interviews that often go through platforms (such as Coding Game, LeetCode, etc.) do not allow a real exchange with the candidate. To remedy this, he suggests setting up a test environment such as this:
- Create a project in which the candidate can add new features, fix bugs, add tests,…
- Give the objectives to be achieved during the interview on this project (which may vary according to the expected technical level)
- Reverse the roles of observer and driver several times to create a real exchange
- Once the objectives have been achieved, discuss with the candidate to find out if he is thinking of possible improvements to the code
- Obtain feedback on the session that has just taken place in order to potentially improve during a future interview
This method has many advantages, even if it requires a lot of preparatory work. Mainly, it puts the candidate in good conditions, to reassure him and to accompany him in his reflection, sometimes obstructed by the stress that an interview represents. In addition, it makes it possible to discover the personality of the candidate, where technical tests through the platforms do not allow it. An interesting alternative to traditional methods, it allows recruiters to better assess the skills and personality of candidates.
To conclude, the Techlead Conference really allowed participants to discover innovative practices that unfortunately I was not able to explore all of them in this article. We were able to exchange ideas on the best ways to improve productivity and quality in the field of IT development. I can't wait to discover the next edition and I recommend that lead developers take part.
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