#164 - Lead Developer Career Guide - Shelley Benhoff
Feb 26, 2024
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Explore the world of lead development with Shelley Benhoff, learning about important leadership skills and responsibilities. Discover the different titles within lead development, ways to optimize development processes, and the importance of collaboration with stakeholders. Gain insights on career trajectory, leadership styles, and the significance of technical documentation in software teams.
Reducing technical debt is crucial for stable systems and long-term success.
Transitioning from technical roles to leadership requires mastering soft skills and technical expertise.
Different lead developer roles require clear communication and decision-making skills for effective team leadership.
Lead developers must prioritize technical documentation, development standards, and proactive maintenance tasks for project success.
Deep dives
The Impact of Technical Leadership: Reducing Technical Debt
The importance of a good lead in reducing technical debt is emphasized, ensuring stable systems and preventing future technical debt. Good technical leadership results in stable systems and a decrease in technical debt over time, making it essential for the long-term success of a technical team.
The Career Journey of a Technical Leader
Henry Virawan shares his 25-year career journey from junior developer to lead, emphasizing the importance of gaining diverse experiences as an author, trainer, and instructor. Sharing insights into the challenges of transitioning from technical roles to leadership, highlighting the importance of mastering soft skills and technical expertise.
Varieties of Lead Developer Roles
Exploration of different flavors of lead developer roles based on company cultures and approaches to technology, such as lead architect and tech lead. Distinguishing characteristics of each role, emphasizing the need for clear communication and decision-making skills for effective team leadership.
The Essential Leadership Skills for Lead Developers
Leadership skills crucial for lead developers, including conflict resolution, mentorship, organization, and client communication. Emphasis on the multifaceted responsibilities of lead developers in guiding teams, managing projects, and liaising with stakeholders effectively.
Importance of Technical Documentation and Standards
Highlighting the significance of technical documentation in maintaining project clarity, consistency, and efficiency. Encouragement for lead developers to establish and uphold development standards, ensuring uniformity and ease of understanding within the team for streamlined project execution.
Proactive Preventive Measures: Maintenance and Preventing Technical Failures
Emphasis on proactive maintenance tasks to prevent technical failures, such as monitoring disk space, automated processes, and preemptive testing. Encouragement for lead developers to prioritize preventive measures to ensure system stability and optimize performance.
Effective Task Estimation and Collaborative Approaches
Recommendation for lead developers to involve team members in task estimation to leverage collective expertise for better accuracy. Highlighting the benefits of using story points over hours for estimating complexity, fostering collaborative discussions to enhance project planning and execution.
Technical Leadership Wisdom for Success
Invaluable leadership advice including embracing imposter syndrome, encouraging questions, and embracing failure to foster growth and learning. Insightful tips for technical leaders to navigate challenges, engage with stakeholders, and cultivate effective leadership styles for long-term success.
“The number one result of a good lead is reduced technical debt. Seeing technical debt just melts away and then stops occurring in the future. If you are a good lead, your systems will be stable all the time.”
Are you a developer ready to step up and lead? Join us as we explore the world of lead development with Shelley Benhoff, author of “Lead Developer Career Guide”.
In this episode, Shelley sheds light on the core responsibilities of a lead developer, clarifying the distinctions between different leadership titles within the field. We discuss the must-have leadership and mentoring skills you need to transform you into an inspiring leader. Shelley defines key success metrics and provides a self-assessment checklist to gauge your readiness for this exciting role. Shelley also covers the importance of a lead developer in optimizing development processes and fostering strong collaborations with stakeholders.
Listen out for:
Career Journey - [00:00:59]
Tips for Building Courses - [00:02:20]
Writing “Lead Developer Career Guide” - [00:04:28]
The Different Lead Developer Titles - [00:06:45]
Leadership Skills - [00:08:43]
Main Responsibilities - [00:10:28]
Mentoring - [00:12:42]
Success Measure - [00:14:22]
Getting Appreciated - [00:16:19]
Career Trajectory - [00:18:13]
Readiness Check - [00:21:42]
Leadership Styles - [00:24:12]
Development Standards - [00:27:50]
Optimizing The Development Process - [00:30:02]
Learning from Different Stakeholders - [00:31:29]
Writing Technical Documentation - [00:33:36]
Preventive Measures - [00:36:55]
Providing Estimates - [00:39:44]
3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:41:50]
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Shelley Benhoff’s Bio Shelley has 20+ years of experience in IT as a Business Owner, Author, Speaker, Docker Community Leader, and Sitecore Technology MVP. She has a passion for tiaras, technology, gaming, and general nerdery. She loves to learn new things as well as mentor and teach others. She teaches content creation, content marketing, leadership, communication, Docker, and Sitecore development. Shelley is currently a Co-Owner of HoffsTech, LLC, an organization that she started with her family to provide online courses and digital media production.
Manning Publications is a premier publisher of technical books on computer and software development topics for both experienced developers and new learners alike. Manning prides itself on being independently owned and operated, and for paving the way for innovative initiatives, such as early access book content and protection-free PDF formats that are now industry standard. Get a 45% discount for Tech Lead Journal listeners by using the code techlead45 for all products in all formats.
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