Comments on: From Good To Great Developer – Spring Tour 2009

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:20:49 +0000

Johan, I agree completely that the participants are already on their way. That is why I tailored the talk to help these people, the greats that want to help others become great, figure out what they might be doing wrong and how I think they should work to achieve that goal.

By: Johan Idstam

Johan Idstam — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:37:48 +0000

I think that anyone choosing your talk among all the others at TechDays already is, or is on a path to be, great at whatever they are doing. We need arguments and inspiration for our casue, but I think we all have at least on person nearby that would have gained more by seing your talk in person.

So I assume ‘they’ are the ignorant incompetent people outside of the room. ;)

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:23:35 +0000

Hi Kristoffer!

The book I mentioned was Implementation Patterns, by Kent Beck. I think it is a great start for a development team to use as the foundation of a common coding guideline. Read it in a study circle format, discuss it and decide what you agree upon. That will be your initial coding guideline. Make sure to discuss this once a month (or how often you want to, just do it recurrently).

Good luck!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:17:17 +0000

Thanks Gösta. As you found out later, he was indeed a great developer. I will have to take more care to make that really clear at the beginning. Thanks for the advice, it is really helpful to me.

Good luck with the knowledge-sharing in your organization. Glad that I could give you some inspiration.

By: Kristoffer Larsson

Kristoffer Larsson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:57:24 +0000

Hi!

I also attended this presentation at the TechDays and liked it a lot. You mentioned a book about Java design patterns, or something of the kind, during the session. Perhaps written by Kenneth Beck (sp?) or something? What is the title of the book and who wrote it? :) You recommended everyone to read it.

By: Gösta Forsum

Gösta Forsum — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:05:08 +0000

Hi i also saw your presentation at techdays. It was great.

Minor comment:
In the beginning of the presentation i got the impression that “Dan” (or whatever the great developer was called) was a good developer that would transform himself into a great developer.

I think that your point would be even clearer if you explained clearly in the beginning of the presentation that “Dan” is a great developer.

I have been working much in a situation very similar to the one you described in the talk and have had som success and some “slow progress”.
I will try to use more inspiration and less teaching for the “unconscious incompetent” cases i encounter.

I am quite convinced that this will give me higer success rates.

Thanx for the inspiration!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:24:42 +0000

Johan, I am glad that you liked it. Thanks for providing me with this valuable feedback. I realized that I did use we/them/us/me/you etc in different ways, and you are absolutely right I should use more clear communication on that.

Which people are you referring to? Great developers, good developers or managers?

By: Johan Idstam

Johan Idstam — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:44:17 +0000

I saw you talk at TechDays today and liked it a lot.

Me and my friends had two major comments though.

– You probably should define ‘we’ and ‘them’.
– The people who really needs to hear your talk are probably not the ones that go see it.