How IT professionals work. Dmitry Stolyarov, Technical Director of Flant

We continue to ask specialists about the mode of work and rest, professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.



It will be interesting to find out what unites them, in what they contradict each other. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.

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Today our guest is Dmitry Stolyarov, Technical Director of Fant . Many would like to use his life hacking, but not everyone can afford it.



What do you do in the company?



I am a co-founder of the company and was its CEO for a long time. Now I give the reins and begin to do what I like, what I love - technology. I became the technical director.



One word (phrase) that best describes how you work:



Quickly and efficiently.



How many hours a day do you spend on work?



From 10 to 12.



How many hours do you sleep?



6-7 hours.



A lot of time goes on the road?



3 minutes. I work practically from home: my office is in a separate building. I have been working remotely for a year and a half, I’m contacting via videoconference and chat.



What kind of todo-manager do you use personally?



Have your own project.



What kind of task manager do you use / issue tracker / repository?



Redmine. We redid it very much for ourselves, since we have a Ruby development department and non-standard needs that go beyond standard plug-ins and require two-way integration with other services.



About the task manager: we have our own development on Ruby on Rails, it functions according to the principle of a man on a boat, who shouts how to row: “And-and-and times, and-and-and times!” We spend in it status meetings and make a plan for the day, maximum - two.



As for the repository: use GitLab for a long time.



What tools, frameworks do you use for development?



First of all, we have Ubuntu, the same for everyone. There is software that integrates our admins and devops with our tools.



In addition, we use vim: we still rule a lot of configs on servers. For development we use mainly Atom. Someone is using RubyMine.



The frameworks depend on the selected languages ​​and requests, which are selected in accordance with the tasks. And as the latter, there may be both system software (in C / C ++), and another script (Bash, Ruby, Python) or a web interface / API (Ruby). Sometimes it depends on the applications themselves, for which additions, wrappers, and integration are written.



What were the internal projects created in your company?



Could not find on the market what we need. For a long time we didn’t very consciously approach this. A few years ago, this changed: as ready-made support tools, we study not only Open Source solutions, but also all sorts of SaaS and so on.



Our business is devops and automation, it is outsourcing. And outsourcing is more than renting people out. There must be some added value. In our case, it is the speed, quality and efficiency of our work.



This is achieved not only at the expense of people, but also at the expense of our decisions on group work, task management and technological tools. We have a small software development department. There are only 8 people.



How do you decide on the use and integration of new software? For example, Docker appeared not so long ago, but it is used by the majority.



We dreamed of a tool like Docker back in 2006. In 2009, we made our development in Python. This is the way of a lot of pain and problems. But when Docker appeared, it closed most of our problems. There was not even a question of whether to use or not.



For other solutions - almost the same. There is a problem that we face many times. Accordingly, we begin to look for its solution, look at how others solve it, look for tools or create our own.



What annoys you most when you work?



The dishonesty of people. I am used to being very honest with employees and customers, I always say it as it is, and I expect that I will be treated the same way.



What professional literature would you recommend?



Martin Fowler website - martinfowler.com. This person writes a lot about development. You can read in detail about it, what is continuous integration, continuous delivery, how to work with Git and so on. He is in the subject for a long time, all will be useful.



What do you prefer: electronic reading rooms or paper books?



No preferences.



What technology (computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems do you prefer at work and at home?



Our company deals only with Linux. All Ubuntu employees, and many used to use Gentoo (and at home too). Phone - Android.



Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?



The most important life hacking is work at home. You will not be distracted because of nonsense. Correctly organize a chat and plan your day in advance to clearly know what you want to get at the end of the day.



Do you listen to music when you work?



I love contemporary classic. From what everyone knows, is Jan Tiersen. In general, I love the piano, guitar, background music and sometimes something modern. Yes, I often listen. Sometimes I play the guitar while I work (smiles).



What applications and services can you do without in your work or in your personal life?



G Suite and Slack.



Imagine: ten years ago, Dmitry Stolyarov wrote a letter from the past to the future. What can be written there?



It seems to me that we had to focus on the foreign market, because the situation in Russia is such that there is little real demand for interesting practical things. I should have probably left.



You have come a long way. And someone is now at the beginning of this path. What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?



Believe in yourself. There is a "rule of ten thousand hours": do not jump from one to another. As my experience shows, even in such a not very popular area like ours, we managed to find our clients. So do not jump, become good experts in something. And when you have already become good specialists, you can gradually expand your competencies, if necessary.