ITCareerCoach Training - Coaching » article http://www.it-career-coach.net How To Take Your Career To The Next Level Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:09:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Tech Predictions for 2009 http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/05/tech-predictions-for-2009/ http://www.it-career-coach.net/2009/01/05/tech-predictions-for-2009/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:00:34 +0000 ITCareerCoach http://www.it-career-coach.net/?p=328

2009 Tech Predictions

2009 Tech Predictions

Happy New Year!! Here are some technology predictions for 2009 that are worth a read for software developers, business analysts and database developers who want to position themselves for success in 2009:

1. Pay attention to Social Media says CapGemini:

“2009 will be the year when use of social networking tools within companies will be the talk of the town. Yes, it has been around for a while but to be honest, nothing much has really happened apart from that Serena Software uses Facebook internally.

So when our global heads of Capgemini Consulting visited Sweden office last week and started talking about the power of social networking only five minutes into the talk I felt that something had changed. For the better. Substantial growth is predicted in web 2.0 for the enterprise within the next five years.”

2. The economy looms large says PCWorld:

“Ultimately, economic conditions will play a huge role in how 2009 pans out for the developer community. When customers aren’t buying, tool vendors don’t innovate — so don’t expect many groundbreaking new technologies to debut this year.

Among enterprise customers, tightening budgets are likely to put the kibosh on many an ambitious new project. But smart companies will realize that process automation is one of the best ways to reduce costs in any business.

Now may actually be the ideal time to revisit old software schemes that got shelved back when staffing budgets were flush. Layoffs and hiring freezes will mean there are fewer developers to go around, however, which could make smart projects infeasible for the time being.”

3. Agile development is a must says Barry Gervin:

“Many of my customers began large-scale re-writes of their key software assets in 2008, many of them against my recommendations. For most of my key customers in 2008 and into 2009 I’m an advocate of providing incremental value in short iterative releases, not major re-writes that take 6+ months to develop.

Even if your application is written in PowerBuilder 6 or Classic ASP, avoid the temptation to rewrite any code that won’t see production for 4 months or longer. We can work towards componentized software by refactoring legacy assets and providing key integration points so that we can release updated modules towards gradual migration.

It is difficult for software teams in this economy to produce big-bang, “boil the ocean”, build cathedral type projects. We simply can’t predict what our project’s funding will be in 4 months from now, or if we’ll be owned by another company, scaled down, out sourced or just plain laid off. That is of course unless you work for the government.

Government spending will continue if not increase in 2009, but still, try to spend our taxpayer money wisely by delivering short incremental software releases. It allows you to build trust with your customers, mark a line in the sand and move onward and upward, and let’s you move quickly in times of fluid business requirements and funding issues.

Incremental, Value-Based software development isn’t easy.
It takes lots of work, creative thinking, and much interop and integration work than one would prefer. It might easily seem like an approach that costs more in the long term, and in some cases you could be right. But if a company has to throw out work in progress after 6-8 months or never sees the value of it because of other changing business conditions, then what have you saved? Probably not your job anyway.”

For more technology predictions for 2009, Bob Stumpel has an impressive compilation of tech predictions from around the web here.


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Because highly skilled software developers (master programmers) are highly paid (read previous post on software developers), the question is how do you become a master contract programmer if you aren’t?

Here is what I consider to be a common sense guide to becoming a master software developer:

  1. Certify now! Use certifications and test preparation material like transcender to sharpen your overall grasp of your technology

  2. Read books. Read a lot of technical books on your skill set (for example .NET development). You should own a number of these books yourself

  3. Find online mentors. Read and follow-up the online discussions or blogs made by people much more skilled and experienced than you. For example, if you are a C# .NET developer, find the folks who seem to be the most active in speaking and writing on C# .NET development. Choose one or two people whose books you like reading. Read every book and article they publish.

  4. Make sure your skills are well rounded as much as possible (database development, business logic development, user interface development).

  5. Do not dumb yourself down! The corollary to rule #4 is: avoid work that makes you more incompetent. If you know that you hate JavaScript development or your UI design skills suck, do not spend your whole life time working on it, find your strengths and sharpen them

  6. Read articles. Read a lot of technical online articles (am I repeating rule #2?). Well written articles can tell you in 1 hour what it will take you 1 day to learn from a book

  7. Become a Google expert. A good deal of the questions you need to answer or problems you need to solve have been answered, solved and posted online. Become confident in using Google to either solve a problem or narrow down your effort to a few specific areas

  8. Ask for help. Learn how to ask for help on the job no matter how good your technical skills are. It is better to ask for help and save 20 hours than to invest 20 hours of your company’s time trying to prove how smart you are

  9. Know when to quit. Not every problem requires a technical solution now! A few problems need to be left alone for a few days, a few need a workaround and the majority need to be solved.

  10. Deliver results. Learn to deliver results often, early and consistently. Businesses love results. If it takes you 1 month before you deliver 1 result which your boss appreciates, either find a new engagement or fire yourself.

There are more street smart rules for becoming highly skilled and competent at work. If you keep your eyes open for what makes you better and what doesn’t, you will see more of them.

To learn more about fast tracking your computer programmer career, visit this resource.


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