RRU 090: How Do I Introduce New Tech at Work?

Dec 3, 2019

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Today the panel is discussing how to introduce new tech at work. They agree that it’s important to get input from all teams on the decision, although it will primarily affect the development team. One should also consider the different ways people make decisions, such as through discussion or quiet thinking, and give everyone time to come to a decision. The panel talks about positive and negative examples of how to introduce new tech at work. Thomas believes that it is important to acknowledge your own biases in decision making and to try to avoid them. The React experts discuss the significance of the team dynamic and the necessity of different roles in decision making or if it is better to have an organic discovery phase. This relates to Thomas’ point about personal biases, and he believes that it is important to put people in roles that are opposite of their personality. When making decisions about new technology, it is also important to note that not all decisions require the same amount of input, and they discuss how to measure how much input is required for a decision. The discussion turns to methods for introducing testing, and the panelists talk about their experiences. The rule of thumb for introducing testing is to start simple, have an expected behavior, and test the output to see if it matches. Some other aspects of this discussion to consider are that introducing React Hooks could be considered introducing tech, testing is just a new process, introducing new tools, and budget concerns. Charles shares experience convincing his boss to introduce Agile practices which shows the importance of getting management to see the benefits of the new tech or strategy for themselves. The show concludes with the panel acknowledging that other than introducing tech, introducing philosophies on how to organize your code follows the same patterns as introducing technology. Panelists

Thomas Aylott
Charles Max Wood
Chris Reyes