How IT professionals work. Semen Bagreev, Rambler Digital Solutions, Python / Ruby Development Manager

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.



Today our guest is Semyon Bagreev, head of Python / Ruby development at Rambler Digital Solutions.

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What do you do in the company?



I lead two development departments with a total of about 55 people. I am responsible for the technical condition of projects, the motivation and development of employees, the culture of development.



One word that best describes how you work?



I do not interfere.



I will decipher: I try very hard to create conditions for developers so that they can calmly and with pleasure write code, deliver business value and be proud of the results of their work.



How many hours a day do you spend on work?



Formally, 9 hours. And if you count things indirectly related to work (correspondence in messengers / mail, reading articles and literature, and so on), you will get more.



How many hours do you sleep?



7.5 hours is enough to recuperate.



How do you have breakfast?



It takes a long time to get to work, so I prefer a hearty breakfast at home.



What are you doing on the way to / from work?



As I have already said, it takes a long time to get to work, about one and a half hours (not so long ago we moved our family to live outside the Moscow Ring Road), so I try to spend this time with benefits. If I'm driving, I listen to English-language technology podcasts (TechNewsToday, 5by5 Ruby on Rails, and so on), and I read books on technology or management in the train / subway.



What kind of todo-manager do you use personally?



I use Notes for myself. And in working with alternates -Todoist.



What applications and services can't you do without?



I work mostly with people, so I often use instant messengers (Slack, Telegram, Skype), MS Outlook and Google Apps.



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



The main task tracker in our company is JIRA, although for internal projects we often use Trello (hello, Atlassian!) For version control, we use git. For proprietary things we use corporate GitLab, and for open source - GitHub.



What other tools and software do you use at work?



If I work on a project, then I use Sublime Text, and if I need to correct something quickly - Vim.



Does the company have internal projects?



There are many of them.



I will start with our corporate portal, the people - Intranet. This is a kind of social network and, at the same time, a useful assistant. News, announcements, calendar of events, e-services, documents, office map and much more live on the Intranet. Need to go on vacation? Find colleague's contact information? Change LDAP password? Book a chat? All this is done through the Intranet.



Or for example, our internal technical health projects dashboard, which we call Stack. This application collects certain metrics from project repositories (cyclomatic complexity, code duplication, percentage of test coverage, etc.) and displays them on TVs hung in the office as one estimate.



No less interesting are the internal projects that came out of our last hackathon: a system for dynamically raising stage and test environments — Manufactory, or a service for sending feedback to product developers — Rambler / Feedback.



In general, developers like to automate any boring, routine work. So, for example, recently, noting that information about employees is stored in different sources, and we send too many similar messages, we have released a tool for development managers, who jokingly call ERP.



What annoys you most when you work?



Probably, when something annoys you at work every day, you need to either try to change it, or change your place of work. So, I can not say that I have such factors. With such factors as changing priorities, ill-defined tasks, uncomfortable chairs (just kidding), you can cope.



What professional literature would you recommend?



Today, there are many (the feeling that the infinite) books on programming. Some are better, some worse. In my opinion, each developer should read the book of four authors (AKA Gang of four) Design Patterns and the book by Martin Fowler Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture .



You can list books for a very long time, especially considering that new ones appear every day. It is much more important to really get involved in what you are doing, follow trends, subscribe to newsletters on technologies of interest, read microblogging of developers respected in the community, participate in events (good, today you can find them in almost every city).



And for novice executives, I would recommend something from management classics — Adizes or Drucker.



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



I read books only on the phone. Only because he is always with me.



What technique and why do you prefer at work and at home?



Due to the fact that I spend a lot of time at meetings, and indeed, I travel a lot around the office, I love the austerity in this matter. I have a working MacBook Pro 15, which is always with me. And that's all. I use the same machine at home. Neither tablets nor desktops take root. In addition, the home made a media center using RasberryPi.



What do you listen when you work?



Listening to music, while writing the code, is not possible too often - the whole day is spent in discussions or meetings. But, if all the same such moments happen, I listen to Russian rock.



Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?



It is very useful to come to the office early. Until meetings and discussions have begun, to answer letters in a relaxed atmosphere, be sure to write down and prioritize tasks for the day. By the way, many of them manage to perform in the morning.



It also helps to book a time in the calendar for lunch. And also create meetings not for an hour, but for 45 minutes - so there is a 15-minute break to take a break and prepare for the next meeting.



What kind of professional advice for the future can you give yourself?



More often say "NO." Often it turns out that the “task”, “problem”, instruction, question or request turns out to be blurred, untenable or irrelevant. In this case, the answer “NO” helps the source to think, to understand what he or she really wants, to formulate the task more clearly and return to me with a specific proposal. It saves time and energy for everyone.



What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?



First of all, I would recommend not to stop in development, to constantly learn something new, to be aware of the latest trends, of what is happening in the community. Regardless of whether the employer allocates this time or not.



And second, be open, sociable, listen and hear, not be afraid to ask questions, not be afraid to make decisions, take responsibility. Then everything will work out!