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SELLING PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENTTECHNIQUES AT A
HOSTILE SHOP
Terrence Ryan
www.numtopia.com/terry
#SA1D, Process & Tools
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Introduction
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About The Pro
blem
Accept StatusQuo Find a new job
Change your
organization
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About Me
Terrence Ryan
Formerly Manager of
WebApplication
Environment for theWharton School
Responsible for
hardware, server
configuration, code
review process, best
practices,
boilerplates etc.
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About My Emp
loyer
Wharton School of Business #1 business school in the world
Use technology as our competitive advantage Have won Adobe MAX awards
Still have these issues from time to time
Your organization isnt lost just because
you have these issues
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About My Emp
loyer
Wharton School of Business #1 business school in the world
Use technology as our competitive advantage Have won Adobe MAX awards
Still have these issues from time to time
Your organization isnt lost just because
you have these issues
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Two Notes
Before we get started, there are
two things to acknowledge
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I
t is NOT Hostility
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I
t is NOT a technicalpro
blem
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The Techniques
Just what do you mean by ProfessionalDevelopment Techniques?
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Short Definition
Anything you would
find mentioned in
The Pragmatic
Programmer
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Longer Definition
Any technique that
speeds up coding,
reduces bugs,
standardizes code,etc.
Company WideStandards
Source Control
Object OrientedCoding
Design Patterns
Code Generation
Frameworks Unit Testing
Automation
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How difficult are they to sell?
Easier Source Control
Company Wide Standards
Middle of the Road OO Design Patterns
Code Generation
Automation
Frameworks Code Reviews
Hardest Unit Testing
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The Process
How do you do this thing?
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Overview of the Process
1. Identify the Cast of Personas
2. Match Personas to Tactics
3. Apply tactics in broader Strategy
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The Personas
Who are the people in your
neighb
orhood?
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Personas
The Uniformed
The Herd
The Healthy Cynic
The Time Crunched
The Burned
The Boss
The Hostile
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The Uninformed
Symptoms
Dont know
Cause
Never came across it
Prognosis
Easy to change
Initia
lchange
like
ly to
be other persona
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The Herd
Symptoms No one told us to use
the technique.
Are we allowed to do
that?
Cause Look to a strong leader
to tell them what to do
Prognosis Easiest to change
You have to be willing tolead
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The Healthy Cynic
Symptoms Have not tried technique
Question effectiveness
Question degree ofeffectiveness
Cause Do not believe
Doubt without proof.
Prognosis They can be converted
with miles and miles ofproof
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The Burned Symptoms
Had past failures withtechnique.
Cause
Umm Past failures Prognosis
Hard to change
Can be done if youprove previous
implementation was misapplied
flawed
deficient
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The Time-Crunched
Symptoms
I dont have time for it
Cause
Do not believe they canafford the time to learn
and implement
Prognosis
They canbe converted ifyou prove that technique
will save them time
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The Boss (Management)
Symptoms
Dont care about this
level of detail
Cause Not really their
bailiwick
Prognosis
Hit or miss
Make your solution a
fix to their problems
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The Hostile Symptoms
Aggressively fight any attemptsto introduce method
Hides as another type
Brings up objections that dontconform with previous behavior
Cause internal politics
control issue
interpersonal problems.
Yourbest guess
Prognosis
Cannot be reasoned with,cannot be bargained with, andthey absolutely will not stop untilyour excitement is dead.
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The Converted
Symptoms
Nod vigorously when
you suggest something
Cause Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
Prognosis Will definitely roll d20
Might evolve into
glowing energy beings
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The Tactics
What do we focus on?
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Focus on Self
Use these techniques for yourself
Dont wait for your organization
Gain an expertise not just a familiarity
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Focus on Self - Example
Tim wanted his team to use source control.They refused, so he did it for himself andhimself only. The shared development server
suffered a disk failure and had to be restoredfrom a backup. At the response meeting thenext day everyone reported they were a daybehind due to the failure - except Tim.
People started asking Tim about this sourcecontrol thing.
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Focus on Self - Personas
Effective on:
Uninformed
Herd
Healthy Cynic
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Focus on Delivery
Be passionate
Dont be zealous
Have you tried vs You should
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Focus on Delivery - Example
Patrick uses CFUnit. Upon discoveringPatrick used CFUnit, John launched into adiatribe about how CFCUnit is so muchbetter, and he thinks CFUnits code baseis inferior and etc
Patrick resisted using CFCUnit for months.When forced to because of a client, itturned out he much preferred it.
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Focus on Delivery - Personas
Effective on:
Uninformed
Healthy Cynic
Hostile
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Focus on the Problem
Abandon specific solutions
Examine problem in context of your
environment
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Focus on the Problem - Example
Group needed Source Control
Andy had his heart set on using Subversion
The rest of the group resisted After some digging Andy discovered that
most of his team had experience with VisualStudio
Andy tried recommending VSS Group took to it
Group is now using Source Control
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Focus on the Problem - Personas
Effective on:
Healthy Cynic
Burned
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Focus on Demonstration
Show, dont tell
Write an application in a weekend
Solve a group problem
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Focus on Demonstration - Example
Ed had created a code generation scheme thatallowed him to whip up applications lightning fast.
His boss never supported his efforts to develop it.
One Friday, Eds boss floated an idea about aninternal application past him. Ed created it overthe weekend with his code creation tool, whilewatching a Law & Order marathon.
On Monday, Ed showed his boss the newapplication. He was stunned.
Eds boss no longer questions Ed spending timeon his code generator
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Focus on Demonstration - Personas
Effective on:
Uninformed
Herd
Time Crunched
Healthy Cynic
Burned
Management
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Focus on Compromise
Remove restrictions in return for using
technique
Especially if technique obviates restriction
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Focus on Compromise - Example
Joe discovered and fell in love with Reactor.
Joes company had that pesky storedprocedure rule. It was due to issues with
SQL injection they had a few years ago. Joe suggested that they drop the stored
procedure only rule for projects usingReactor, since under the covers it uses
cfqueryparam which delivers the samebenefits.
Joes happy using Reactor, as are developerswho hated writing stored procedures
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Focus on Compromise - Personas
Effective on:
Time Crunched
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Focus on Synergy
Connect implementing your technique with
a larger concern
Security Regulations Compliance
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Focus on Synergy - example
Bob was trying to encourage the use ofColdspring
A new edict came down that all databasereads and writes in a particular applicationhad to be logged.
Bob convinced people to accomplish this
through the Aspect Oriented Programmingside of ColdSpring instead of re-writingentire application
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Focus on Synergy - Personas
Effective on:
Management
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Focus on Pressure
Network Externalities
Electronic peer pressure
Create a solution that people really need thatrelies on your technique
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Focus on Pressure - Example
Charles used SVN + ANT for his builds but
no one else would.
He developed a killer set of components forlaying out a site according to the company
template
People wanted to use it.
Charles let them, as long as they pulled down
the changes from SVN. Oh and by the way,
this ANT script makes this really easy.
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Focus on Pressure - Personas
Effective on:
Uninformed
Herd Time Crunched
Healthy Cynic
Burned
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Focus on Bridging
Create something enticing that is halfway
between where you are and where you
want tobe
Bridging Framework
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Focus on Bridging - Example
I wanted to use ModelGlue 2 for scaffolding.
I got a lot of resistance
I built Squidhead Same Scaffolding
DAO/Gateways
Different Not MVC
Stored Procedures
Foreign Keys
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Focus on Bridging - Personas
Effective on:
Time-Crunched
Herd
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Focus on Publicity
Get your code reviewed
Open Source your solution
Apply for awards
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Focus on Publicity - Example
Jim wasnt getting any traction internally for
his bug tracking system.
He open sourced it. The small subset of users around the world
that wanted to track bugs like Jim used it,
loved it, and blogged about it
When word got back to management that
Jims solution was being used world-wide the
question was - why werent they using it.
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Focus on Publicity - Personas
Effective on:
Uninformed
Healthy Cynic Burned
Management
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Strategy
What do we do big picture?
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Simple, not Easy
Ignore the Hostile
Target the Willing
Harness the Converted Sell to Management
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Ignore the Hostile
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Target the willing
Easiest to convert
Uninformed
Herd
Next group
Time Crunched
Cynical
Burned Finally
Management
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Harness the Converted
Steal attention from non converts
Repeat the story
Get converts to repeat the story Tie their successes to your methods
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Sell to Management
Focus on cost benefit
Focus on personnelbenefits
Provide case studies Get mandate
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Final Thoughts
Where do you go from here
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The Process in Review
1. Identify the Cast of Personas
2. Match Personas to Tactics
3. Apply tactics in broader Strategy
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Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Progress is iterative
and slow
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Be prepared to start again
Every advancement begins with all players
at uninformed.
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Final Thought
You might not get the perfect shop where
your fellow developers run a one click ANT
script that pulls down your frameworkdriven application for code review before
pushing it out to a production server...
But between where you are and where
you want to be there are many, many
better places.
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Questions
Terrence Ryan
http://www.numtopia.com/terry