When the 13 category winners came across my desk I read through them all and reluctantly got it down to seven. Usually on a first pass I like to have it down to three or four and then all I need to agonise over is the order. Luckily on the second pass I was able to be ruthless and get it down to four.
To make it even more difficult, three of my four fell into three categories I am passionate about:
- Technical excellence and diversity
- Automated Testing
- Practical, visual Agile
And the fourth achieved results for her organisation which just couldn’t be ignored.
So I read and reread and ordered and re-ordered. Made more tea, changed the CD and re-read and re-ordered some more. Eventually it became clear.
Technical excellent and the ability for a software engineer to turn their hand to new technologies is vital. When I started my career there were basically two main programming languages, C++ and Java. C# came along soon after, but most people fell into one camp or another and a few of us crossed over. Now are are many, many more to choose from and lots of young engineers decide to specialise in one and are reluctant to learn and use others. This diminishes us all as an industry. So someone who likes to learn new and different technologies is a jewel in any company’s crown.
The implementation of Agile methodologies in Software Development is extremely important. Software, by its very nature is complex. Only on the most trivial projects does the solution the users need look anything like what they thought they wanted at the beginning. Traditional waterfall approaches to software development do not allow for this. The client requires flexibility and we as software engineers need the flexibility to deliver what they need. Software development is a learning process for both the client and the software engineer. Agile gives us a framework for this. Unlike many of the traditional methods, Agile has the flexibility to be agile itself, giving continuous improvement.
When implementing Agile processes, the practices are often forgotten or neglected and in many ways they are more important. Not least of which is automated testing. The practice of writing code which tests your code and running it at least on every checkin. This gives you a safety net that code you’ve already written isn’t broken by new code you write. And when it is, the tests tell you, they tell you what’s wrong and where it’s wrong. We need more of this as an industry and that is why I chose Rita Cristina Leitao, an automated software tester from Switch Studios as the overall DevelopHER winner.
Good decision criteria. I got ability to cross the boundaries of computer languages as being a major consideration. Surely any web developer must know 3 or 4 languages to make one web program? HTML / CSS / Jquery or JavaScript. Then what about technical ability to use the IDE as well, I am always amazed at some of the technical ability needed to step through code locally as well as remotely. I think these awards are important to help establish people that normally do not wish to force themselves into an industry, but would like to flow with it as that is far healthier. Strangely, because I work in an office with cyberspace between me and most of my collaborators I do not like Agile methodologies so much, I have experienced scrum before and the stand up seemed so intimidating. Anyway wishing luck to all female coders, may they learn and be learned from.
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