What aspects of my pre-programming life are now helping me become a better developer
What does a project manager in a telecoms industry have in common with a developer? Even though I might have laughed it off a while ago, I have now realized that the two transferable skills that have helped me have a more productive learning/switching experience are the ability to collaborate in a team and communicate ideas clearly to others.
These skills have helped me navigate and be comfortable in the software development world. I will explain what I mean in the following sections.
Collaboration in a team
Just like the software development process, telecoms projects processes are also iterative, expensive, knowledge-intensive, and multi-staged.
To begin with, I will take you through the type of collaboration I did in my previous experience and how that closely relates to collaboration in software development.
I was involved in different types of collaboration while in the telecoms industry which ranged from in-house collaborations to inter-firm collaborations. In the in-house projects, my team and I developed a structure for activities within the boundary of the organization which is tasked with setting collaborative strategies and goals. This structure simulates and resembles the agile development process used in the software world where project building is an iterative process that involves constant feedback and communication with the client or the client’s representatives.
This structure was also adopted while collaborating with other firms that aligned with our strategies and goals. In this type of collaboration, we had in-person intensive sprint meetings(we called it war-room meetings) twice every week, where at the beginning of the week, we discussed plans for the week and developed strategies to execute them, and then assessed the milestones achieved at the end of the week. During the pandemic, we had the majority of these meetings remotely, where we leveraged social networks by creating collaborative groups and communicating over a video call.
Communicating ideas clearly to others
In this section, I will talk about how my ability to communicate ideas clearly has endeared my teammates to me and also improved my ability to write clear and understandable documentation.
It can not be over-emphasized how important proper and effective communication is especially when working in a team. When I worked in the telecoms industry, communication played a critical role in the gathering and dissemination of relevant information across several departments involved in the development of a project. This helped to fulfill the client’s needs within the allocated time and budget.
We had a variety of formal communication types that involved communicating directly with the clients by giving weekly(sometimes daily) updates on the progress of the project and communicating with team members(usually hourly/daily) on project updates.
As a project manager, I developed the ability to be able to communicate in an understandable way to other team members, top management, and the client. The clear communication with team members ensured that each person in the team understood their daily/weekly job descriptions clearly and implements them according to the client’s needs. This in turn also helped to foster a good working relationship and improved collaboration among team members.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I will like to reiterate that my previous experience as a project manager has helped me to be able to seamlessly collaborate in a team and also be able to communicate my ideas so others can have a clear understanding. These have helped me when working(in-person or remote) on a software project with teammates from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.
