The Extraordinary Team Of Developers
Daniel Bryant and I did a keynote at Devoxx UK about how individuals can add something to a team to make the team more productive, and overall more awesome.
We mention a number of books, so I’ve made a list of them here:
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
- Badass: Making Users Awesome
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- Effective Java (2nd Edition)
- The Servant as Leader
- The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Abstract
Rock stars are dead. Ninjas are banished. There are simply too many trashed hotel rooms, dead bodies and failed projects. The age of the individual superhero coder is over.
But if we’re still striving for excellence, what’s replaced the rock-star-ninja-hero programmer?
The team. The team that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Like The Avengers, but with less latex.
In the same way those without super powers, genius levels of intelligence and pots of money were vital to The Avengers, every developer, no matter how much or how little experience they have, brings something important to the team and has the potential to make it better: a nicer place to work, an openness to learning, a focus on clean code or a deeper understanding of the business’ needs.
How can a collection of good developers become a super-performing business-impact-delivering team? What do you, as an individual, add to the mix?
Daniel and Trisha will share stories of individuals and teams who have made an impact (both good and bad!) and offer suggestions for steps we, as individuals, can take to level up our teams.