Interview with Edward Jordon
We met with Edward Jordon during his recent visit to Moscow, at the Software People conference. Edward is an outstanding developer, consultant, writer (“Kamikaze Path”, “Death March. Complete Guide for Software Developer on Survival in Bad Projects”, “Decline and Fall of an American Programmer”, “Structural Models in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design” ) and a speaker with over 50 years of experience in IT. In June 1997, Iordon was admitted to the Computer Glory Hall, along with IT giants like Charles Babbage, Seymour Cray, James Martin, Grace Hopper, Herald Weinberg and Bill Gates.
Under the cut - an interview that Yordon gave PayOnline after his report "Features and strategies of the best and worst IT companies . "
Edward, is this your first time in Moscow?
')
No, for the first time I visited Moscow in 2008, when I gave several technical presentations on project development methodologies, features of project development and the need to build effective communications in the software development process. And on this trip, I talked about the results of research that I conducted while writing my new book, CIO's at Work.
While I was writing a book, I talked to many CIOs of the world's largest IT companies, such as Google and Microsoft. We discussed how to apply their experience in a third-party work environment, how to use the information they shared, with benefit for other CIOs. And in my Moscow report, I talked about many things: about what makes the IT department a great place to work, about the strategies and practices of the largest companies, and, of course, about what working conditions need to be created for the effective work of employees. And at the master class, I paid special attention to methods and practical tools for assessing the effectiveness of the project, which give managers, developers and architects a clear understanding of those tools that will help them in project management.
I was surprised to find that even after less than two decades my book, Death March, was still quite popular in Russia. I wrote this book in the late 90s and told about how dangerous it is to plunge headlong into hopeless projects. On the other hand, each of us at least once worked in projects with terrible deadlines, limited budgets or an incomplete team of specialists who, nevertheless, were crucial for successful business development. Each specialist should devote all his time, working and free, to work on such a project, and such involvement in a complex project is the “kamikaze path”. But the most important thing in working on such projects is to complete them, while maintaining their health!
Did you notice any peculiarities of thinking, behavior, and attitude to projects while communicating with Russians?
In fact, I did not have the opportunity to work at least some time in a Russian IT company, to understand how business processes are built here, so I can’t say anything about the distinctive features of local IT organizations, but I feel the local energy industry. There are many young and “hungry” entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to become visible in their own business.
Do you know much about the Russian Internet?
I think the Russian Internet has features that correspond to the specifics of the people who create it and use it every day. For a long time I learned a few words in Russian ... but, no, frankly, the Internet is a platform for communications, and I can support full-fledged communications only in English.
What, in your opinion, is the ideal direction for the development of a specialist in programming?
Whatever you are going to do, to plan the use of IT resources within a large company or to engage in web-design in an Internet project, in my opinion, a very important factor will be a quality education - both professional and independent. There are a number of people who did not graduate, such as Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, succeeded and became billionaires, but these people are exceptions. It is not so important whether you study information technology or software engineering. If you get an education in a good university and at the same time have good skills, you will have more opportunities to choose a suitable place of work. But if you received a diploma at an institute that does not provide high-quality professional knowledge, or did not spend time on your education at all, you will have far less opportunities for self-realization, regardless of whether you want to create your own Internet project or join the team large company.
What should a programmer specialize in?
Recently, I discussed current trends with a couple of my friends in Moscow, and they surprised me by saying that robotics is something that should be seriously considered now. They argued that demography in a number of large countries has negative growth rates, which means an aging trend. So we can assume that soon there will be a need for robots that could provide services to the population. So this is a promising area of ​​activity that is worth paying attention to.
One of the trends that will not change in the foreseeable future is the interest in mobile applications and mobile technologies. The competitive advantage of mobile technologies is that they do not require large development costs and have a huge potential client audience - today almost every person has a smartphone, and the cost of developing mobile applications varies depending on the planned functionality and professionalism of the performer. A great example is the UK teenager who recently sold the Summly app to the internet giant Yahoo ... although, again, he hasn't even finished high school, so this is another exception to the rule that requires a good education.
When you get the necessary knowledge and practical skills, when you have at least a few lucrative job offers, you can decide which career you want to choose. You can choose a company to work in which you will be pleasant and interesting, or one in which you will have the opportunity to participate in the development of modern interesting technologies, and perhaps you will choose a grand, exhausting, complex project and challenge yourself. For an IT specialist, wages are less important than interest in the project he is working on day after day. Of course, the majority of IT specialists consider that the payment for their work should be fair, and when they receive the salary, which they consider fair, as part of a project, which they consider interesting, they are happy. In general, the salary is not the main reason for choosing a job, although it is certainly important. But more important is the social and intellectual reward that you get - this is what we call work satisfaction. And it really is not related to your salary directly.
What is the reputation of Russian outsourcing in the global market?
The attitude to attracting specialists at outsourcing from Russia has changed significantly in recent years. Previously, it was widely believed that in Russia it is possible not just to get a cheap code, but to assemble a team of super doctors of science at the price of one programmer from the USA. However, now the cost of Russian outsourcers has increased, and they are being caught up by earlier cheap programmers from India and China.
Now the actual trend of project management and recruitment in IT projects is the creation of a high-quality communication environment in a team, regardless of the geography of the project participants, where all experts speak English equally well and can live even in America, even in China, even in Russia . What matters is not where the specialist lives, but how well his skills and professional level correspond to the needs of the project, and how well the communications within the team are built up.
I worked for some time with one Indian outsourcing company, so I have little experience in this area. The market for outsourced software development is now dominated by tough international competition, in which there is a very strong position of Chinese programmers. But the real need of customers for outsourcing services and project managers who form their teams in this way consists not only in significant performance of high-quality code, but also in building and maintaining effective communication between the project team and the customer, whether external or internal.
In your opinion, is there really a trend towards the total transformation of companies in various business sectors into an IT company?
If we take the automobile industry as an example, traditionally one of the fastest growing industries over the past 100 years, it can be noted that people who are responsible for shaping a development strategy are quite conservative. Despite the fact that they have robots on the assembly line, and cars are stuffed with millions of lines of code, they still perceive their business as a technical production of cars, and not as the production of computer applications on wheels. And if they look at the GPRS system, it seems to them to be one of the most complex and confusing interfaces ever created. It will take a lot of time for any industry and for any public organization to understand how vital modern information technologies have become vital for their quality work.
Moreover, the availability of fast and cheap data processing systems, along with fast and cheap communication tools, gives rise to such opportunities that we could only dream of earlier. I recently spoke with the CIO of the US government - there really is such a person - and he told me how he organized an open competition among government officials to develop an iPhone application. The reward was $ 50,000 and thousands of application projects were presented at the competition. There were many ideas of creating access to data, which hardly anyone even suspected, of obtaining information on tax payments, providing a simple opportunity to contact departments and receive information support for citizens. Of course, the real value of the competition was to put all these ideas at will and understand how the government can truly become more open and provide the highest level of service to citizens.
In general, investment in IT projects in the public sector, aimed at increasing the transparency of relations between citizens and the state, at increasing the number of open state and municipal data for citizens, is a double-edged sword. This is really useful for all civilized countries, but in any country the launch of such projects causes stiff resistance. What data is considered secret, for whom it can be made open, and how will this affect workflows? Here are the main questions facing the state - and which each state will have to answer.
Under the cut - an interview that Yordon gave PayOnline after his report "Features and strategies of the best and worst IT companies . "
Edward, is this your first time in Moscow?
')
No, for the first time I visited Moscow in 2008, when I gave several technical presentations on project development methodologies, features of project development and the need to build effective communications in the software development process. And on this trip, I talked about the results of research that I conducted while writing my new book, CIO's at Work.
While I was writing a book, I talked to many CIOs of the world's largest IT companies, such as Google and Microsoft. We discussed how to apply their experience in a third-party work environment, how to use the information they shared, with benefit for other CIOs. And in my Moscow report, I talked about many things: about what makes the IT department a great place to work, about the strategies and practices of the largest companies, and, of course, about what working conditions need to be created for the effective work of employees. And at the master class, I paid special attention to methods and practical tools for assessing the effectiveness of the project, which give managers, developers and architects a clear understanding of those tools that will help them in project management.
I was surprised to find that even after less than two decades my book, Death March, was still quite popular in Russia. I wrote this book in the late 90s and told about how dangerous it is to plunge headlong into hopeless projects. On the other hand, each of us at least once worked in projects with terrible deadlines, limited budgets or an incomplete team of specialists who, nevertheless, were crucial for successful business development. Each specialist should devote all his time, working and free, to work on such a project, and such involvement in a complex project is the “kamikaze path”. But the most important thing in working on such projects is to complete them, while maintaining their health!
Did you notice any peculiarities of thinking, behavior, and attitude to projects while communicating with Russians?
In fact, I did not have the opportunity to work at least some time in a Russian IT company, to understand how business processes are built here, so I can’t say anything about the distinctive features of local IT organizations, but I feel the local energy industry. There are many young and “hungry” entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to become visible in their own business.
Do you know much about the Russian Internet?
I think the Russian Internet has features that correspond to the specifics of the people who create it and use it every day. For a long time I learned a few words in Russian ... but, no, frankly, the Internet is a platform for communications, and I can support full-fledged communications only in English.
What, in your opinion, is the ideal direction for the development of a specialist in programming?
Whatever you are going to do, to plan the use of IT resources within a large company or to engage in web-design in an Internet project, in my opinion, a very important factor will be a quality education - both professional and independent. There are a number of people who did not graduate, such as Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, succeeded and became billionaires, but these people are exceptions. It is not so important whether you study information technology or software engineering. If you get an education in a good university and at the same time have good skills, you will have more opportunities to choose a suitable place of work. But if you received a diploma at an institute that does not provide high-quality professional knowledge, or did not spend time on your education at all, you will have far less opportunities for self-realization, regardless of whether you want to create your own Internet project or join the team large company.
What should a programmer specialize in?
Recently, I discussed current trends with a couple of my friends in Moscow, and they surprised me by saying that robotics is something that should be seriously considered now. They argued that demography in a number of large countries has negative growth rates, which means an aging trend. So we can assume that soon there will be a need for robots that could provide services to the population. So this is a promising area of ​​activity that is worth paying attention to.
One of the trends that will not change in the foreseeable future is the interest in mobile applications and mobile technologies. The competitive advantage of mobile technologies is that they do not require large development costs and have a huge potential client audience - today almost every person has a smartphone, and the cost of developing mobile applications varies depending on the planned functionality and professionalism of the performer. A great example is the UK teenager who recently sold the Summly app to the internet giant Yahoo ... although, again, he hasn't even finished high school, so this is another exception to the rule that requires a good education.
When you get the necessary knowledge and practical skills, when you have at least a few lucrative job offers, you can decide which career you want to choose. You can choose a company to work in which you will be pleasant and interesting, or one in which you will have the opportunity to participate in the development of modern interesting technologies, and perhaps you will choose a grand, exhausting, complex project and challenge yourself. For an IT specialist, wages are less important than interest in the project he is working on day after day. Of course, the majority of IT specialists consider that the payment for their work should be fair, and when they receive the salary, which they consider fair, as part of a project, which they consider interesting, they are happy. In general, the salary is not the main reason for choosing a job, although it is certainly important. But more important is the social and intellectual reward that you get - this is what we call work satisfaction. And it really is not related to your salary directly.
What is the reputation of Russian outsourcing in the global market?
The attitude to attracting specialists at outsourcing from Russia has changed significantly in recent years. Previously, it was widely believed that in Russia it is possible not just to get a cheap code, but to assemble a team of super doctors of science at the price of one programmer from the USA. However, now the cost of Russian outsourcers has increased, and they are being caught up by earlier cheap programmers from India and China.
Now the actual trend of project management and recruitment in IT projects is the creation of a high-quality communication environment in a team, regardless of the geography of the project participants, where all experts speak English equally well and can live even in America, even in China, even in Russia . What matters is not where the specialist lives, but how well his skills and professional level correspond to the needs of the project, and how well the communications within the team are built up.
I worked for some time with one Indian outsourcing company, so I have little experience in this area. The market for outsourced software development is now dominated by tough international competition, in which there is a very strong position of Chinese programmers. But the real need of customers for outsourcing services and project managers who form their teams in this way consists not only in significant performance of high-quality code, but also in building and maintaining effective communication between the project team and the customer, whether external or internal.
In your opinion, is there really a trend towards the total transformation of companies in various business sectors into an IT company?
If we take the automobile industry as an example, traditionally one of the fastest growing industries over the past 100 years, it can be noted that people who are responsible for shaping a development strategy are quite conservative. Despite the fact that they have robots on the assembly line, and cars are stuffed with millions of lines of code, they still perceive their business as a technical production of cars, and not as the production of computer applications on wheels. And if they look at the GPRS system, it seems to them to be one of the most complex and confusing interfaces ever created. It will take a lot of time for any industry and for any public organization to understand how vital modern information technologies have become vital for their quality work.
Moreover, the availability of fast and cheap data processing systems, along with fast and cheap communication tools, gives rise to such opportunities that we could only dream of earlier. I recently spoke with the CIO of the US government - there really is such a person - and he told me how he organized an open competition among government officials to develop an iPhone application. The reward was $ 50,000 and thousands of application projects were presented at the competition. There were many ideas of creating access to data, which hardly anyone even suspected, of obtaining information on tax payments, providing a simple opportunity to contact departments and receive information support for citizens. Of course, the real value of the competition was to put all these ideas at will and understand how the government can truly become more open and provide the highest level of service to citizens.
In general, investment in IT projects in the public sector, aimed at increasing the transparency of relations between citizens and the state, at increasing the number of open state and municipal data for citizens, is a double-edged sword. This is really useful for all civilized countries, but in any country the launch of such projects causes stiff resistance. What data is considered secret, for whom it can be made open, and how will this affect workflows? Here are the main questions facing the state - and which each state will have to answer.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/177511/
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