Disclaimer: if after reading this text you want to implement KPI for programmers, go read this too.

I recently wrote about how competency maps were invented and how we apply them to interns. The cards themselves were invented to assist in the attestation of programmers. Certification itself is complex, dreary, and often ungrateful.
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So what are the objectives of certification.

Goals

• View current developer level.
• Find out which areas it is interesting for a person to develop.
• To provide an opportunity for development in the same technological vector in which Siberiks is going, or in an optional direction (for general development).
• Give the developer feedback: positive or negative.
• Make recommendations: what is better to pump, what needs to be tightened up, what can be read.

Decision

In order for the whole scheme to work, we have developed and implemented such a certification model:

Step 1. Filling the competency map . Before certification, each developer fills it. If you implement, the mandatory requirement is to make the filling of the competency card regular.

Step 2. Certification itself. It always happens one on one with the developer.

We talk and compare competency maps: current and previous. So you can track the progress and change of orientation of a particular person.

Further - the needs (technological "wishes") of the developer are analyzed. In order to help pump some technology, the studio can offer three options:

• First and foremost , try to put a person on a real combat project with similar technology, when (and if) stars will fall out like that.
• Examine optional. There are two options. Preferred - to arrange a hackathon, this is how more practical knowledge is obtained ( this is how we did Whoision , for a moment). Alternative - to hold a holivar on the topic , and designate the developer as a speaker.
• Examine yourself. Everything is in the hands of the programmer himself, we can help with recommendations on what to read, with whom in the studio to talk and we can believe knowledge.

In connection with the latter, a list of references has now been added to the competency map: books, without which you can hardly be considered “cool”. Well, or at least they greatly accelerate the process of increasing the steepness.

Step 3. Codream. I can see the code of the programmer - real projects that he has been working on for the last six months.

It’s not at all the fact that the codec will reveal some deep-seated errors. It takes too much time. It is aimed, rather, at forming a general idea of ​​the developer level. Such knowledge is useful in the formation of teams (experienced / beginners) and in the distribution of tasks within the team.

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“Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

Linus torvalds

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Step 4. Summing up. As a result, the developer receives three valuable directives: what to read, what to pull up, what to try from the new.

For example, during one of the appraisals, the developer and I decided that he needed to upgrade to Linux. As a result, they demolished the Windows machine on its working machine.

Find: in the course of certification, we also apply the variation of the well-known “360 degree method”. We are talking to a person, please tell us about the specific people with whom he worked, their strengths and weaknesses. Since in Skram all projects are done in small teams, such an “insider” can give the most valuable recommendations.

What is not in our certification system is a point system and other formalistics.

Total Implementation difficulties

If you want to implement something like this, then be prepared for at least three difficulties:

• It takes a lot of time.
• Not every leader wants to do this: talk, find out and clarify, so that there is no misunderstanding and omissions.
• Tips that you give on the basis of the results of certification are just recommendations, and imperative instructions with entry into a personal plan and control of implementation.

Once upon a time I wrote about the derivation of KPI for different specialists, the text is still very relevant, you can join the discussion, if that. And if it is lazy to read, then the output there was quite clear: KPI for developers does not work. But some gauge should still be - in our case, this certification.

The purpose of certification: not to judge the developer, but to help him grow. According to the results of a couple of successful appraisals, the developer may experience a salary upgrade. In a good way, certification should be carried out regularly (a couple of times a year).

I suggest to express thoughts and comments boldly, I will listen and answer with pleasure!