{"id":37837,"date":"2019-10-15T09:23:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T16:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/?p=37837"},"modified":"2019-10-16T18:57:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T01:57:23","slug":"you-need-to-invest-in-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/you-need-to-invest-in-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"You need to invest in developers"},"content":{"rendered":"

App Dev Manager Reed Robison<\/a> spotlights the importance of strategic developer training and why it’s too important to ignore.<\/p>\n

\n

Satya has a way of getting right to the point– \u201cI fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As an Application Development Manager here at Microsoft, my primary objective is helping customers get the most out of our technology.\u00a0 We plan together, review projects and issues, and I do everything I can to help bridge the gap between technology and achieving business goals.\u00a0 Most of this work falls into two categories \u2013fixing problems and strategic guidance.\u00a0 Both of these needs are highly influenced by how well developers understand the underlying technology choices.\u00a0 What may be surprising is that the challenges encountered typically have little to do with the capability or quality of individuals.\u00a0 It\u2019s usually because they have been tasked to use technology before they have a good foundation in it.\u00a0 That often results in gaining experience on-the-fly or what I like to call \u201cJ-Fig\u201d (just figure it out) development.<\/p>\n

In most corporate environments, developers are heads down, working on existing apps or trying to piece together the next solution.\u00a0 Everyone<\/em> is time and resource constrained.\u00a0 Very few organizations allocate any budget or time for ongoing training.\u00a0 That\u2019s crazy, considering that the pace of technical change is faster than ever and that skills necessary to stay competitive often fall on the individual rather than considered a team investment. To be clear \u2013 developers learn on their own.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad because both developers and management have become pretty used to this and the challenges that often result are counterproductive in every way imaginable.<\/p>\n

This expectation persists because developers are highly resourceful problem solvers.\u00a0 They love to learn.\u00a0 Many don\u2019t like asking for help for fear it will be perceived as a lack of skill.\u00a0 Given a new task, most will happily dive in and dabble until they figure out what they need to know to make it work.\u00a0 The technical community is rich with SDKs, examples, repos, blogs, and forums.\u00a0 In fact, our culture kind of has the expectation that this is how development is done \u2013 Just figure it out<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Ask any developer on your team about the training they had for the core technologies they use.\u00a0 After they stop laughing, they will probably tell you something about a blog they follow or a local community group they are part of.\u00a0 It\u2019s funny, because it\u2019s sad.<\/p>\n

If you are a developer, this probably hits close to home.\u00a0 If you manage developers, I hope you keep reading.<\/p>\n

The productivity cost isn\u2019t obvious<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve actually had project managers dismiss training for their teams, concerned that developers would take those new skills and leave the company–\u00a0 \u201cWhat if I pay for training and they leave?\u201d\u00a0 To that, I ask the question\u2014\u201cWhat happens if you don\u2019t and they<\/em> stay<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

There are new technologies coming at us all the time.\u00a0 Not all are going to fundamentally disrupt or change our business, but some absolutely will and why it\u2019s really important to entertain the possible.\u00a0 I see so many companies moving applications to the cloud but never considering the benefits of re-factoring those solutions to take advantage of PaaS features that can simplify and save money in massive ways.\u00a0 The common reason is that they don\u2019t have the resources or expertise to throw at it.\u00a0 If you are still managing your own data centers or deploying the bulk of apps into VMs, you\u2019re very likely wasting money.\u00a0 Maybe, a lot of money.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re being completely honest, developers are not the easiest bunch to get into a workshop together. \u00a0Sitting through remedial concepts is not a great use of time. \u00a0Most devs prefer to focus on the specific gaps in their own knowledge and are not interested in fundamentals once they get past a basic understanding of the content.\u00a0 Because technology moves so fast, training has to be targeted \u2013 at the right time and with the right information to make it valuable.\u00a0 This makes it really tough to go back and establish a good foundation after a team has already started using a technology.<\/p>\n

Pulling a team off their backlog for training is an investment.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to put work on hold, but if you add up the hidden delays that developers spend quietly learning and overcoming obstacles on their own, those delays add up.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mistake to see a room of developers working on individual problems as productivity, but a day set aside for training — where the entire team is benefiting from shared knowledge as an expense.<\/p>\n

Developers are in high demand and recruiters are soliciting yours on a regular basis with shiny, new opportunities.\u00a0 In this industry, a common practice to quickly advance a career is to move regularly.\u00a0 As much as a developer may like their work environment, if there\u2019s no chance to grow and little opportunity to build new skills, new jobs begin to look very attractive.\u00a0 Investing in your people not only helps build essential, competitive skills but it can also reduce employee churn that will disrupt projects.\u00a0 Show me any highly effective dev team and I\u2019ll show you passionate learners that share knowledge and try new things.\u00a0 These things go hand in hand.\n\"\"<\/p>\n

How do you build great dev teams?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You need to invest in your developers. \u00a0Whether it\u2019s partnering with Microsoft or changing the culture of your team to promote shared learning, this is something you can\u2019t afford to ignore.<\/p>\n

One of the key benefits of having a Developer Support relationship with Microsoft is access to training and subject matter experts.\u00a0 Not only can you access product centric training, but we offer a broad catalog of developer focused workshops that are constantly expanding to cover emerging technologies.\u00a0 As an example, my customers have accelerated projects through workshops like \u201cModern Authentication and Authorization\u201d, \u201cDeveloping Cross-Platform Web Apps with ASP.NET Core\u201d, \u201cAngular\u201d, \u201cDeveloping Applications with Microservices and Containers\u201d, and more.\u00a0 Foundational training has fast-tracked strategic DevOps and Bot Framework projects and demystified technologies like Service Fabric.\u00a0 Our team is constantly revising courseware as the technologies change to provide a solid foundation and working examples for developers to jump-start their projects.<\/p>\n

If you are embarking on a new project and considering new product versions or new development technologies, making sure your team has a good foundation might be the best investment you make to avoid costly mistakes and late breaking architectural changes.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to position training as your team is positioned to take on new workloads, not after they get deep into them.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a multi-day workshop is overkill for developers and they just need access to a deep, subject matter expert for a few hours to understand details needed to make progress.\u00a0 This is another great benefit of a managed support relationship with Microsoft.<\/p>\n

If you have a Premier or Unified Support contract, working with your Technical Account Manager (TAM) or Application Development Manager (ADM) is a great way to ensure your developers are constantly improving their skill sets, adding value, and in a position to achieve a competitive edge.\u00a0 We offer a variety of learning options in the form of dedicated workshops (remote and on-site), open-enrollment workshops, on-demand training, and advisory consulting.<\/p>\n

Changing the Culture of Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On a positive note, many companies recognize the value of ongoing learning in their organizations.\u00a0 Establishing your own internal communities to promote learning and knowledge sharing can be an effective way to change a culture of J-Fig development.<\/p>\n

One approach is to setup a \u201cCommunity of Practice\u201d or \u201cCenter of Excellence\u201d to promote the use of and understanding of emerging technologies.\u00a0 A common way to do this is to designate leads within your team to invest in learning, then setup a regular cadence to share this knowledge with others who want to grow.\u00a0 Not only is this helpful to establish a baseline of knowledge across teams, but it provides a way for passionate learners to explore technologies they might not have a chance to use in their daily work and consider ways it could transform existing problems or solutions.\u00a0 One of the most valuable benefits of these types of internal communities is that it promotes an open and collaborative dialog with team members with the goal of shared learning.\u00a0 When developers can explore and discuss technology in a setting where immediate projects are not threatened by change, there are no boundaries to limit the way they can think about solutions.\u00a0 That can promote some surprising \u201cout of box\u201d thinking for your next generation of solutions.<\/p>\n

Events & Conferences<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are a lot of great developer events<\/a> and conferences out there that can both inspire and educate.\u00a0 Building on my previous assertions, it should come as no surprise that many developers end up attending these through personal funding.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s a testament to how much developers love to learn and understand how important it is to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry.\u00a0 If you manage a team of developers, remember \u2013 ongoing education is critical and something you are going to need to invest in to retain talent and build an effective team.\u00a0 You might not be able to send everyone, but try to send a few with the expectation that they will come back and share what they learned.\u00a0 Consider rotating the opportunity to attend these events or make it a reward based on team contribution.\u00a0 Remember, developer events aren\u2019t just entertainment \u2013 they are essential experiences for staying sharp and competitive.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A lot of the posts on our blog are technology centric \u2013 showcasing something new, demonstrating the value of a feature, or sharing insights that might save you some time.\u00a0 In practice though, our posts are almost always inspired by common experiences working with our customers.\u00a0 I\u2019m constantly impressed by the incredible talent of the developers I get to work with in this job and how resourceful they are at solving problems.\u00a0 I\u2019m also consistently surprised by how difficult it is to help developers get the training investment they need (and deserve) to meet expectations in an industry that is changing faster than ever.\u00a0 Smart people are an asset, but tactical learning \u2013 that ability to quickly absorb what matters and apply it effectively, may be the most important factor that determines how well a team performs.\u00a0 Ensuring your developers have the support behind them to learn what they need, when they need it is more important than ever.<\/p>\n

If you feel like \u201cjust figure it out\u201d development is good enough, remember – all your competitors are doing that to.\u00a0 If you want to raise the bar for your products, start by investing in your developers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investing in your people not only helps build essential, competitive skills but it can also reduce employee churn that will disrupt projects. Show me any highly effective dev team and I\u2019ll show you passionate learners that share knowledge and try new things. These things go hand in hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":582,"featured_media":37840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[217,3,45],"class_list":["post-37837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training","tag-events","tag-team","tag-training"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Investing in your people not only helps build essential, competitive skills but it can also reduce employee churn that will disrupt projects. Show me any highly effective dev team and I\u2019ll show you passionate learners that share knowledge and try new things. These things go hand in hand.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/582"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}