There is no I in IT
There is no I in IT
The human guide for working in IT
About the Book
This is the book I wish I had when I started my career in IT, over two decades ago. When I started, I was anxious, because I did not know what to expect. What should I do on my first day? What was expected of me in meetings? How would I collaborate with others?
I wrote this book so that others would have the resource I did not have. Find out everything there is to know about working in IT. From onboarding to day-to-day work, including working on code, participating in meetings, presenting to eventually moving on. Hopefully, this will remove some of the stress of starting a new job.
If you are looking to improve at your existing job, this book is for you, too. It's a refresher about day-to-day processes we get so used to we forget to think about.
About the Author
About the Contributors
I am a senior software engineer working for Microsoft. I have over a decade of professional experience and am a past recipient of the Microsoft MVP award. I primarily specialize in .NET and Microsoft stack. I am enthusiastic about creating well-crafted software that fully meets business needs.
Throughout my career, I have successfully developed software of various types and various levels of complexity in multiple industries. This includes a passenger information management system for a railway, distributed smart clusters of IoT devices, e-commerce systems, financial transaction processing systems, and more. I have also successfully led and mentored teams of software developers.
I enjoy sharing my knowledge with the community. This motivates me to mentor aspiring developers and create educational content, which includes blog posts, technical books, and online courses. I regularly write about software development on my personal website, scientificprogrammer.net.
I operate at the intersection of Software Engineering and Agile, with a focus on people, culture and community development. Having started my career as a Software Engineer, I have transitioned from hands-on developer roles into management and strategic leadership and over the last 25 years I delivered a range of programs and products for international clients and global brands.
An award winning leader, I am currently helping drive cultural transformation across a global software engineering community in the UK financial services sector. I have a number of global voluntary roles and pursuits, over and above my day and am currently Chair of the BCS Agile Methods specialist group, Organiser at Future of Work Scotland and Co-Founder and Co-Host of the MakingCommunity podcast.
I am Chartered Fellow of both the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and a strong advocate of coaching, mentoring, visual thinking, and social leadership.
An international keynote conference speaker, I have spoken at numerous conferences both in-person and virtual over some years now and spoke on a range of diverse topics from leadership, diversity and agile culture right through to collaboration and community development. I keynoted at the Diversity Scotland Conference 2023 and at Agile in Africa 2023 in-person in Ghana.
Table of Contents
- Foreword by Fiodar Sazanavets
- Foreword by Sathpal Singh
- Acknowledgement
- 1. Introduction
- Who this book is for
- What this book covers
- 2. Welcome aboard Or: Getting onboarded
- What to expect
- Improving your experience
- Fixing the process
- Onboarding others
- Remote onboarding
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 3. We are all different Or: How personality and traits affect work
- Apples and oranges
- Extroverts and Introverts
- Sensors and Intuitives
- Thinkers and Feelers
- Judgers and Perceivers
- Challenging people
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 4. People are strange Or: Diversity in the workplace
- An inappropriate gesture
- Agree to disagree
- What’s the time
- Can you say that again
- See you Monday
- Let’s have lunch
- Why can’t we be friends
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 5. Cultural decay Or: Bad habits within teams
- That’s how we’ve always done it
- Yessir
- We’ve already come this far
- We promised the client
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 6. The folly of youth Or: Respecting those who came before
- I could make a better wheel
- I thought I could swallow the world
- What could I possibly learn from you
- What do they know
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 7. Trust me, I’m an engineer Or: Trust within the organization
- Merging changes
- Estimates
- The manager who cried wolf
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 8. Silence of the lambs Or: Communicate your concerns
- Meeting the deadline
- Is the work necessary
- Are we doing the right thing
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 9. Don’t keep it to yourself Or: Avoiding and breaking down silos
- We don’t know you
- Goodbye and good luck
- It’s mine, all mine
- Identify and break down silos
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 10. CVP the NLM Or: Avoid the Jargon
- Every developer knows what it means
- Riddle me this
- Make up your mind
- Common wisdom
- Why is everybody nodding off
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 11. Join our cult Or: Getting religious about personal preferences
- Spaced out
- Early returns are evil
- Follow the trailing comma
- Avoiding the clash
- Code style matters
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 12. Code review How to effectively review code changes
- What to look for
- Effectively conveying your thoughts
- Working with people
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 13. Two heads are better than one Or: Pair and mob programming
- Pair programming in the field
- How to pair program
- Mob programming
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 14. The human angle Or: Soft skills and why we need them
- Know your audience
- Give credit where credit is due
- Constructive feedback
- Put yourself in my shoes
- A team, not a competition
- Adapt or die
- Get creative
- But why
- Stay organized
- Take responsibility
- Lead the way
- I can’t do this alone
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 15. The meeting room Or: Making the best of meetings
- Why are we here
- Do we have everyone
- Time is precious
- Who is driving
- I am out of here
- Surprise
- The sound of money
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 16. Time to show off Or: Acing the demo
- Cater to your audience
- Choosing a presenter
- Presenting progress
- The pitch
- Presenting to the team
- A grand rehearsal
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 17. Let’s have some fun Or: Social activities
- Getting to know each other
- Getting challenged
- Having fun
- Bridging distances
- Sometimes things go wrong
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 18. Distraction destruction Or: The importance of quiet time
- Get a room
- Pick up, pick up, pick up
- Headphones on, do not disturb
- A juggling act
- I need a break
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 19. It’s a small world after all Or: Collaborating around the world
- Virtual existence
- Remote life is good
- Long-distance relationships
- Two worlds apart
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- 20. Goodbye and thanks for all the seafood Or: Leaving a job
- Follow the process
- Knowledge transfer
- The exit interview
- Offboarding from all systems
- Check in equipment
- One more thing before I leave
- When others leave
- Conclusion
- Key takeaways
- Afterword
- Key takeaways
- Key principles for a true professional
- That’s all, folks
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