On April 28th 2008 I was the first engineer that was hired
by Roberto Gobo, the then and currently active director of Software
Development, at Novatec New Technologies. And now, four years and almost two
months later on July 1st 2012 it will be my last day at Novatec.
I will leave my position of Technical Lead which I continuously
held since the beginning of my work there. I worked in many different
technologies, in many different domains and for many different client. I worked
with small teams, with big teams and sometimes solo. And it was quite a ride.
But it is my time to leave and start something new.
In July I will start my work with a Dutch based company
Cenosco in the role of a Software Architect and I really look forward to that.
So goodbye to my mentor and friend Roberto Gobo, my good colleagues
with whom I’ve shared laughs and perils and hope I will meet you and work with
you again, but not just yet this year :) .
What are the best lessons learned from my spent at Novatec:
- - Write down every meeting with the client, share those minutes as references and they will come handy when change requests are being negotiated
- - Use you issue tracker for storing everything: tasks, issues, change requests and defects. Your issue tracker is your best friend for storing software requirements.
- - Write you architecture in as short a document as possible using as many pictures as you want.
- - Be gentle with people you work with, bend and do not be stiff you will get more done
- - Technical knowledge starts projects, relationships finish projects
- - Do the most important thing for the client first
- - Do the most important thing for the project second
- - Find time to increase software quality attributes
- - Teaching people takes time and effort, if you spend it will save money later.
- - Learn, take time to learn on and off your job. Use whatever podcasts in your car, book, your kindle for reading articles, presentations from the web and you own coding katas.
- - Connect with you peers in other companies.
When all is said and done I’ve done a great job there. I’ve
trained a lot of people, I’ve done a lot of projects and helped creating the
technical culture of the company.
I will miss it but it is time for something new.
