Forem: Jayme Edwards 🍃💻

My Recovery From Programmer Anger

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 16:52:10 +0000

After reflecting on the content I've put out to help people in the software industry, I've realized I still needed help working through anger issues. 🤦‍♂️

I mostly avoided social media for the past 5-8 years, and when I started putting my ideas out, I was slowly lured into outrage culture without realizing it.

I've been on many failed projects.

And I've had personal problems with my family and identity.

I made this video to apologize for my anger and how I've come across as "knowing everything" sometimes. 🙏

And to help you understand what I'm doing to recover.

I'm committing from here on out to be more discerning with how I share my opinions and advice.

Maybe by understanding my struggles, you can find peace if you've also struggled with anger or resentment in your career.

Software developers have the potential to make a lot of money, and even though I had most of my financial and material needs met, I was really empty inside.

After suffering from a bout of chronic insomnia two years ago, I began going back to church and started my YouTube channel.

In addition, I've started writing songs again to provide myself with a better creative outlet than software.

It can be really frustrating to work at companies when they put you in a box and don't allow you to do your best work. I was looking for the opportunity for creativity in the wrong places in my life!

Thank you for being so supportive over my journey to find a way to turn my career struggles into guidance for you. ❤️

I just wanted to share my wins and mistakes to provide an honest view of the software development industry - I never thought so many of you struggle with the same issues!

Click below for the entire 51 minute video on YouTube 👇

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How Agile Teams Grow Toxic! Episode 4 | Commitments

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 15:29:23 +0000

Does it ever feel like you'd get so much more done if it weren't for how much work people have you do to make commitments?

Today I'd like to help you understand whether the development team you're on is making commitments in a way that's compatible with the people at the company -

...or will stress them out and put the software project at risk!

Since most teams I have worked with aren't really agile, I'm focusing on helping you with the risks with commitments between the wrong people - which often happens in "traditional" software development companies.

Whether you're a programmer, in UX, or maybe operations - commitments that are too strict, or too unrealistic, put your job and the success of the project in danger.

Let me share with you some insights I've learned about how commitments can cause agile teams to grow toxic.

Afterwards, I'll give you some actionable tips on what you can do to cope with traditional (non-agile) teams that require unrealistic commitments.

I hope this helps you select the best project for your career, or if you're on an unhealthy team - protect yourself so you have the best chance of being successful!

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3 Embarrassing Stories From My Software Development Career

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 16:36:13 +0000

With all the challenges in the software industry with languages, frameworks, and processes...

It's easy to forget we're human.

I've been sharing some serious level 301 agile nerdgasm content lately, so I made this episode to just have some fun. 🤗

Here are three stories of times I did something embarrassing in my software development career.

Do you have some fun or embarrassing stories to share about yourself, or other people who made innocent mistakes that make work fun?

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Skip to stories in the video:

00:17 The Story Of The Disappearing Debugger
05:42 The Story Of The Light-Headed Developer
08:37 The Story Of The Scented Consultant

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How Agile Teams Grow Toxic! Episode 3 | Forecasting

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:22:05 +0000

Deadlines!

"Drop dead" dates!

Changing the schedule to meet "new requirements"!

Do you ever think there's gotta be a better way to do this?

Well there is, and today I want to share with you some information about a topic that often bores software developers...

But in my experience of working with many teams and companies, when developers are frustrated on their project - it is this topic that's often the culprit.

In this video I discuss how people who pay for software development projects forecast.

Before you bail, if you hang with me on this video you'll know more than many agile coaches and product managers about why investing in software projects is unique!

I'll share the dangers of traditional forecasting on software projects - and an alternative way to give investors confidence.

Visit my YouTube channel to watch the entire 18 minute video.

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How Agile Teams Grow Toxic! Episode 2 | Hiring Talent

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 21:34:02 +0000

Thinking of joining a software team and wondering what you're getting yourself into?

I spoke in my last video about how the motivating core value of the founders of the company you're joining impacts culture.

So how do you handle interviewing at a company that may be hiding its values?

We're going to look mostly today at a concept called "mirroring" from the psychology community.

Essentially this is the phenomenon where people like someone who reflects their values and attitude back at them.

Because companies will tend to hire people who do a better job mirroring their values and approach to work, the pressure is high to cast yourself differently during the interview than your core beliefs.

Visit my YouTube channel to watch the entire 25 minute video.

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How Agile Teams Grow Toxic! Episode 1 | Founder Values

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 17:17:17 +0000

One of the most frustrating things over my career has been working at companies where the workplace culture has become toxic.

Think of working with people who regularly tell each other what they want to hear, lie to cover their own mistakes, and put each other in a box of what they can and cannot do to help the software product succeed in its market.

This video kicks off a series called How Agile Teams Grow Toxic.

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I'll share the dark side of human behavior on projects, and why the situation can seem almost impossible to improve.

Though many companies hire agile coaches to try and improve the way they deliver, in my experience it's leaders are the ones who most need "agile transformation".

In this episode, I discuss how the core value or motivation that founders had when starting the software company impacts culture and career opportunities for programmers and other hires.

Most software companies or projects are started for one of the following 3 reasons:

Money
Fame
Impact

It's preferable if you can find a company with founders (or leadership if the founder left) that are motivated by impact.

But this won't guarantee that the project will be successful!

You should also look at where the founders skills originated. Did they come from a business, or engineering background? This will give you some ideas as well about the founder values.

Ultimately, you want to find a software company or product where the leadership are looking to YOU for innovation and help. Not treating you like a pawn who can only crank out code and shouldn't think about the business or its products.

I discuss a simple way to research founders and other members of the management team at a company to get an idea of whether the culture there is healthy.

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I Quit My Software Project To Get Healthy!

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 02:46:51 +0000

Have you ever had to quit a good software project...because you figured out you weren't going to be successful in your role?

I had the opportunity to help two consulting companies try and rescue a troubled software project for a client.

Though I was originally brought in to help figure out how much work was left to do, I found myself in the position of being "the expert" once again.

Because of politics, deadlines, and challenges with the maturity of the companies understanding agile - I found myself overwhelmed.

Though I continually tried to reset expectations and get help, I decided eventually that it was better to move on.

Have you ever been on a good project, with good people, only to find when you really think about it you're not effective in your current role?

Did you have a hard time getting support from management to make the changes necessary?

How did you deal with it?

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Scrum Got 3 People Fired From A Software Project!

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:04:44 +0000

Over my career I've seen many software projects fail spectacularly due to political infighting between team members.

I prefer a simple definition of politics:

When people tell each other what they want to hear instead of the truth.

I'd like to share the story of a software project I worked on, where the client was a non-profit company with a big budget.

They wanted to redesign a major application used to help struggling educational institutions.

But the staff were inexperienced with agile.

And multiple contractors on the project were fighting.

In this video, I share what can happen when software development processes get people fired!

Especially when there's politics...

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How To Get Support To Fix A "Disruptive" Problem

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 14:11:03 +0000

Software projects are getting more complicated every day.

It's easier than ever to get to a point where you’re blocked by a problem.

And I’ve been in the situation many times where I’ve had to explain a problem I’m having to my boss or managers.

It’s bad enough when you're blocked until you fix the problem.

But it’s even worse when you realize fixing the problem might block other people from getting work done!

When this happens, I’ve had bosses at times pretend there is no problem!

If there’s high pressure on your software project, blocking multiple people to fix a problem can feel impossible for management.

Especially if managers are focused on how much work people are getting done.

I talked with you in another video about how focusing on how much work a team gets done actually hurts how much money a product makes for your company.

So in this video I want to share some ways you can get your manager or boss to support you - even when you need to disrupt other people to fix a problem.

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Skip to points in the video:

01:47 Communicate The Impact
02:24 Document Who Will Be Blocked
03:06 Explain The Dangers Of Not Stopping
04:44 Offer Next Steps
06:01 Offer Alternative Work For Others
07:39 Take Ownership For The Problem

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They Watched Us With Webcams And Rewrote Our Code!

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 15:02:51 +0000

One of the most frustrating software projects I've been on involved webcam spying and having our code rewritten.

A large company that bought out two young entrepreneurs hired me and 9 other consultants to help them.

But the entrepreneurs didn't really want help.

They had no desire to listen to our advice, or treat our opinions as worth anything whatsoever.

Their parent company had hired us to help with serious problems with performance of the data layer of the application.

But when we offered solutions, we were subjected to intimidation and ignored.

In this story, I share how software developers can act irrationally when they fear being "found out" as not knowing something.

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Lead Software Developers Better By Letting Go!

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:49:27 +0000

Over the years I've had to lead many software developers, and it's become much easier since letting go of being seen as "the expert".

Even if I’m only leading a few people, there’s always too much work and I have to choose really carefully what I do.

If you’ve watched any of my other videos you know I’m a big fan of teams where there’s less management.

But whether someone is officially recognized as a “lead developer” or not, most teams usually have people on them who are more experienced.

And people naturally seem to take ownership for areas of the product they’re most interested in.

Soon they can start being seen as a leader around that area or idea.

Maybe that’s you, or maybe you’re considering stepping into a role where you’ll be leading developers to do something with the software.

In my career I’ve found it’s really easy to get overwhelmed when I’m leading other developers.

Meeting with the business, supporting developers, and still trying to get work done on the product myself can feel impossible.

You’ve probably heard the saying “give someone a fish, feed them for a day - but teach someone to fish and feed them for a lifetime”.

But even though I know this, it can be hard to let other developers do more to help if it’s going to take longer than just doing it myself.

In this video, I share how I’ve had more time to support my team when I encourage other developers to have more responsibility, and you can too.

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Skip to points in the video:

01:47 How Leads Get Overwhelmed
04:18 You Can't "Know It All"
05:19 Clarify Your Role As Team Helper
06:30 Delegate Research
07:39 Delegate Information Requests
07:39 Be Forgiving Of Mistakes

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It’s Hard To Keep A New Team Doing Continuous Delivery

Jayme Edwards 🍃💻 — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 21:17:06 +0000

Sometimes I get an opportunity to use a technology that not only solves a business problem, but that I really like!

When a client was burned by a prior vendor that couldn't deliver their software project, they needed to see progress made quickly.

The product was supposed to be a set of complicated visual dashboards that pulled in data from a bunch of different healthcare systems.

At the time of this project, deploying these types of software systems was a manual, error prone process.

So I wanted to introduce a framework I'd built and used on other projects before.

It could be used to automatically "promote" software releases between dev/test/production environments (like many of us do today with other tools).

But I'd never used it to deploy data warehouses and their dashboards.

The lead on the project was resistant at first.

Though he understood the concept, he just hadn't seen it done before.

And the client was concerned about the implications of releasing to production early in the project.

In this video, I share how the framework I used earned trust at first...but was eventually abandoned.

I still had many things to learn about how to support my own software frameworks!

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