Backwards Compatible- Lessons from a Quarter Century in Software

From implementing enterprise applications at Accenture in the 1990s to my current role as a Staff Engineering Manager at GitHub, I’ve learned several essential lessons about the software industry. These lessons were often learned the hard way as an individual contributor and as an engineering manager. I’ve often wondered what I would say to myself if I could go backwards in time and help past versions of myself become compatible with what I know now. This talk is that conversation. Attendees will learn how to better guide their own careers in software development today from the things I wish I knew in the past.

The Burnout Resistance Workshop

Introduction

We’re glad that you’ve decided to take control of the stress in your life and join the fight against burnout. This workshop is designed to provide an actionable framework to help you improve your burnout resistance and become a better engineering leader!

What will you learn?

* The difference between stress and burnout
* The Burnout Resistance Framework
* How to take command of your time to prevent burnout

Remotely Operated - Managing Scattered Teams

While work environments where employees don’t occupy the same physical space are commonly called “remote” or “distributed”, these terms don’t adequately describe the stress of doing your job separated from your colleagues. A more accurate terms is “scattered”, and this talk will provide guidelines for managing scattered teams.

Managing the Burnout Burndown

In addition to managing backlogs and burndown charts, technology leaders have to follow an ever-changing software landscape, manage team dynamics, and navigate office politics. It’s no surprise that this leads to burnout. This talk will provide tools to help manage stress and reduce burnout.

Developers are, almost by definition, highly capable and strongly driven individuals. These traits are indispensable to success in creating working code, but they are also the very traits that makes developers susceptible to burn out. People who can get things done often find themselves overwhelmed by their to-do lists.

This talk will combine the understanding from the trenches of Anjuan Simmons (who has been a developer and engineering manager for more than 20 years) with the academic understanding of his wife, Dr. Aneika Simmons. Together, they will provide a framework for reducing burnout and consistently keeping stress levels in a managed state.

Here a link to the presentation of this talk at The Lead Developer New York: https://youtu.be/e2dgOfedI3A

Leadership Lessons from the Agile Manifesto

ABSTRACT

Whether you’re a Tech Lead, Engineering Manager, or Project Manager for an engineering team, you probably weren’t handed an instruction manual when you were given your first team to lead. This talk will show you how to apply the principles in the Agile Manifesto to become a better leader.

DESCRIPTION

When I was given my first technical team to lead many years ago, I didn’t know what to do. I copied the style of technical leads I worked with and what I could learn by reading USENET newsgroups about leadership (yes, it was that long ago). The results were mixed, and I felt that I was constantly making it up as I went along. However, after I began leading projects that used Agile software development, I eventually realized that the principles behind Agile provided powerful guidelines for leading my teams! These principles made me a more effective leader, increased team morale, and improved my ability to deliver software to customers.

This session will help attendees understand the principles behind the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and how to practically apply them to their daily leadership practices.

OUTLINE

* The Hero-Developer’s Journey
* Remembering the Revolution
* Individuals and Interactions: Preserve Dignity and All Costs
* Working Software: Working Always Ships Faster than Perfect
* Customer Collaboration: Customers Trust Colleagues, Not Contracts
* Responding to Change: Don’t Fear Surprises, Fear Inflexibility

https://anjuansimmons.com/talks/leadership-lessons-from-the-agile-manifesto/

Lending Privilege

Diversity and inclusion have become hot topics in technology, but you may not know how you can make a difference. However, this talk will help you understand that, no matter your background, you have privilege and can lend it to underrepresented groups in tech.

Privilege is access to societal and economic benefits based on characteristics you possess. The most well understood forms of privilege are birth privileges like racial, gender, and physical privilege, but there are also selected privileges like religion, education, and career.

This session will teach attendees how to lend their privilege to their fellow technologists. They will learn the various types of privilege lending including credibility lending (where you provide visibility to someone without privilege), access lending (where you provide access to someone without privilege), and expertise lending (where you provide a voice to someone without privilege). These different types of privilege lending will be illustrated through well known examples and an explanation of how they can be applied to the technology industry.

https://anjuansimmons.com/talks/lending-privilege/

Technical Leadership Through the Underground Railroad

Abstract

Technical leaders are often tasked with guiding teams through difficult times. The Underground Railroad provides insights into how to navigate challenging conditions and find success. The principles that Conductors on the Underground Railroad followed can be directly applied to the work of software engineering leadership.

Description

Software development has regularly borrowed processes and terminology from outside technology to improve how code gets to customers. For example, Scrum comes from rugby, and sprints come from track and field. However, history has been an often neglected source of insight for software development. The Underground Railroad was a system of pathways and people that provided a way for African-American slaves to escape to non-slave states and countries such as Canada and Mexico. The network stretched from Boston to Austin and consisted of self-organizing teams operating in conditions of extreme uncertainty who were tasked with shipping the most important product of all: freedom.

The Underground Railroad provides insights that technical leaders can use to improve their teams, products, and customer relationships. This talk will share timeless lessons of courage and leadership from the men and women who risked everything for the success of their teams.

Outline

* A Technical Leader in Trouble
* The Underground Railroad
* The Conductor Hero
* Leadership Lesson 1: Prepare Your Incentives Before You Need Them
* Leadership Lesson 2: Bold Actions Set the Tone
* Leadership Lesson 3: Don’t Let Your Experience Bias You
* Leadership Lesson 4: Embrace Continuous Solving
* Leadership Lesson 5: You’re a Lead of Leaders
* Leadership Traits from the Underground Railroad

https://anjuansimmons.com/talks/technical-leadership-through-the-underground-railroad/