Critical Skills You need to be a Marketable and/or Indispensable SDLC Professional in Web Seminar Wednesday, December 17, 2008 David Mantica

Transcription

1 Critical Skills You need to be a Marketable and/or Indispensable SDLC Professional in 2009 Web Seminar Wednesday, December 17, 2008 David Mantica

2 Presentation Agenda Indispensable vs. Marketable Changes Impacting SDLC for 2009 Indispensable skills Domain Knowledge Business Alignment Marketable skills Presentation/Communication Agile Methods Specific Certifications Wrap up

3 Questions to Consider What does it mean to be indispensable and is it possible to become indispensable to a company? What does it mean to be marketable? Who determines what is or isn t marketable, and how do you go about becoming marketable? How do job skills have to do with being indispensable and or marketable? What are my skills? Are they the right ones? How do I find out if they are, and if not, how do I go about getting the skills needed?

4 Indispensable vs. Marketable It is all about SKILLS Different types of skills Indispensable skills are those specifically tied to specific needs of a company Marketable skills are those that are needed by the market place, & are usually more generic and universal You must know which are which, and you must have an idea of your future direction

5 Changes impacting the SDLC in 2009 Current Continuation of Outsourcing Requirements efforts moving closer and closer to the business Software development moving to iterative methods (a.k.a. Agile push) Potential Trends ROI on completed projects, more effort on the business case and enterprise analysis Roll up of positions and responsibilities to cut costs Growth of ITIL and possible co-mingling of ITIL specifics into SDLC Adoption of CBAP certification and a growth of employers and customers requesting CBAP expertise

6 Snapshot of Critical Skills for 2009 Skills that will make you indispensable Domain Knowledge Business Alignment Skills that will make you marketable Presentation/Communication Agile Methods Specialized Certifications PMI, IIBA, Scrum Alliance, ISTBQ, IT Infrastructure Library v3

7 Indispensable Revisited It is about you and your existing company Indispensable skills are not usually highly transferable It is about you making the decision to try and stay at your current company It is about building an expertise It is about going beyond your function and title It is not about power or control. It is about being a trusted resource and knowing the ropes Being the go to person

8 Domain Knowledge What is it? The skills and knowledge a worker has related to the specific function of the company in one or multiple domains, a.k.a. departments or systems. Tied to years of experience rules of the shop Something you can t find out in the job market To get it you Must: Push aside the working in a vacuum mentality to see how departments and functions are inter-related Go beyond your task and function, and dig deeper into the tool or function you support or the tool you use to do your job Build the skills, use the skills, and build your reputation within the organization

9 Specific Examples of Domain Knowledge Skill Critical systems (business or IT) capabilities Capabilities, function or architecture Becoming the guru on that system Internal processes and procedures How work gets done, how decisions are made Are you the Corporal Klinger of your department? Regulatory issues within your industry Can you keep your executives out of jail and your company in compliance?

10 Business Alignment What is it? The critical piece of business alignment ties to the context of the work. Knowing why you are doing something not just the how of doing it, and relating that why to your how to create the most relevant and usable end product. Anticipating change, doesn t mean accepting all of it, but it does mean preparing for it Making sure there are business reasons for all requirements Do you work on items that tied back to the Main thing? Do you know what the the Main Thing is for your company? Main thing comes from the Book Monday Morning Leadership by David Cottrell

11 Specific Business Alignment Skills Knowing the type of business your organization is in, the products it sells, the organization s core values, and trying work to core values Understanding your organization s sales and marketing strategy and goals, and making decisions on tasks within projects based on those strategies and goals Prioritizing projects and functions within projects based on business needs and goals Seeking and gaining stakeholder feedback throughout the project, not just at the beginning and end Controlling the cool factor. Using technologies that provide the best results to requirements, and allow for easy use by end users, not ones that are cool or hot

12 Domain Knowledge and Business Alignment There is no certification test you can take or path to become certified in either of these The key is to gain and use the skills, and build a reputation The proof will be in the output of your projects Your end product will be used more Overall worker productivity will increase Increased productivity decreases labor rates and increase margins Who knows, you might create a competitive advantage for your company through the systems you build look at what Google did Remember: Indispensable skills are not transferable skills

13 Marketable Skills Highly transferable skills Potential and current employers want to invest in them Higher value with potential employers Must know what skills are in demand The challenge is the how to get the skills Potential employers want people who already have the hot skills Current employers are wary of paying to get some skilled

14 Presentation and Communication Skills SDLC is all about translation skills Communicating needs into specifications Communicating capabilities so they can be used Communicating schedules and resource needs Managing conflict Crossing the Chasm of Business and IT Outsourcing science IT related jobs Keeping the ART jobs Communication/Presentation is part of the art Communication ideas Make presentations Turn tech talk into business speak

15 Specific Needs Under Communication/Presentation Skills Written and Verbal Communication Presenting your ideas An idea is nothing until it is communicated, and it is useless if communicated poorly Presenting ideas to peers, managers, functional groups and business leaders Ability to train others (big one) Shows ability to take complex ideas and simplify them The key is practice, practice, practice

16 Agile Methods Growing trend in Software Development Agile principals focus on iterative development, embracing change and communication Building only what is needed in 4 to 6 weeks. Useable pieces using the concept of Pareto s efficiency Both Art and Science Repeatable and scalable processes But relies heavily on people skills including coaching, motivating and mentoring All about practice Highly transferable skill All about proven experience

17 Face-to-face hands-on training Practice in safe environment Continuous reading and learning Investment to be Agile Real-world practice and experience Seek out user groups, Agile associations or conferences Agile people like to coach and mentor Must build communication, coaching, presentation, mentoring and business alignment skills Don t consider Agile if you are not interested in person-to-person communication

18 Specialized Certifications A lot of confusion in the certification marketplace Who owns what? What is more important? Certification or Experience Certification becomes an augmentation to experience Some certifications require experience Watch out for paper certifications Certification don t make you indispensable to an employer Makes current employers nervous Potential employers want to hire the skill Certifications make the job easier for hiring Would you get fired for hiring a PMP PM?

19 Specialized Certification PMI Multiple certifications CAPM, PMP, PgMP and scheduling and risk specialization Over 270,000 PMP in world Good application criteria for PMP and PgMP Includes verifiable work experience Worldwide recognition for both employer and employees Tough to get a high-level PM job without a PMP Downside: Groundswell of dissatisfaction with qualification level of new PMPs, and a fear with longer tenured PMPs that the value of the certification is decreasing

20 One certification Specialized Certification IIBA CBAP (Certification Business Analyst Professional) tied to a Body of knowledge, BABOK 1.6 (moving to 2.0 soon) Good application criteria for CBAP Includes verifiable work experience Making strides with Worldwide recognition especially for employees RFPs are starting to come out with CBAP requirements for consulting work Downside: With only three employees, IIBA is slow moving, especially with marketing the certification to employers. Still a slight chance a competing certification body will muddy the waters

21 Four certifications Specialized Certification Scrum Alliance CSM (Certified Scrum Master), CSP (Certified Scrum Practitioner), CST (Certified Scrum Trainer, CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) Good application criteria for some of the certifications CSP and CST can only be achieved through proven work experience, CSM and CSPO is achieved through attending a class Becoming the major Agile flavor Scrum is gaining worldwide recognition as the defacto Agile flavor Downside: The Scrum Alliance is a for-profit organization. The certification is based on methodology created by a person, no industry approved body of knowledge. Certification can change based on the needs of the business over the needs of the industry

22 One certification Testing certification Specialized Certification ISTQB Gain the certification through class administered test No application requirement Becoming the worldwide de facto testing certification Downside: Not much employer recognition for the certification, not too many job postings or RFPs requesting testing providers use ISTQB certified professionals

23 Multiple certifications Specialized Certification ITIL Foundation, Functional and Service Manager levels Based on IT Infrastructure Library v3.0 Gain the certification through just a test No application or course requirement World-wide standard, strong in Europe & growing in US Downside: Not many professionals with both the certification and experience, and not sure if ITIL will roll into SDLC functions Upside: PMP with ITIL foundations certification

24 Wrap Up Marketable verse Indispensable It is a choice It is all about skills development All employees must be concerned about 2009 Need to set goals Need to think about yourself: Your interests, strengths and weaknesses There is no luck. It is about hard work The job market in 2009 will treat work and career laziness very harshly

25 Thank you The Q&A will begin momentarily