Hi! My name is Krzysztof Hałasa. I work in technology industry & IT for 10 years. I have started as robotic tutor, then software developer, system analyst, architect, manager – and a consultant now. My first programs I wrote in high school, and began to work in IT during my full-time studies in Warsaw University of Technology. In a last decade I had a chance to experience Software Delivery & Operations from many angles – and I decided to share my observations and passion within this blog. This is actually a continuation of what I think I do best – which is using simple words to explain frameworks, mechanisms, techniques and technology to people, who are beginners in IT, or experts in areas which IT became an inseparable part.
More about who am I, what I did in the past, where I worked and what I do right now, you can find in about me. This first blog post is my manifesto, explaining to you my dear readers what can you expect to find here. I am happy to share the values and topics which I’d like to post about within this website.
This blog is my personal view on IT Industry.
Topics and opinions which I publish here are my own, not sponsored or supervised by any Company or Customer I work for. Please, judge only my expertise, knowledge, mindset and attitude while reading it. Thanks!
Values
Software is supporting business value streams since the early stages of programmable computers – and it boosted once internet became accessible for more and more people in late ’90. I remember from my childhood, that once the weather outside was bad, we played Heroes 3 with my friend via LAN network between our flats. Not many years later, as a teenager, I had my first social media (polish nasza-klasa.pl, before Facebook took the market) and first C++ programs I created in high school. Computers were around me since I can remember – my father was systems administrator in the Bank – but I also remember, that more and more computers and cellphones started appearing around my family, neighbors and even school. Being a child, I didn’t understood that this speed of progress was a revolution – this is something I noticed once I started studying and learning the history of technology, programming in the old and new languages and comparing it between one another. During my studies I liked the teachers, who were able to use the simple words talking about the technology – understanding, that being a student, you may not know yet the specific language or terminology. There was unfortunately a minority of scientists on my university who were able to do it – and once I started to work as an engineer ten years ago, I sadly noticed that it was also a minority within the engineers at all. Back then, we, IT people, were so focused on delivering the code, that we were often missing that it is business value which should be our focus – not the architecture or technology we use to deliver it. And that we need to use simple words talking about it, so the business experts can trust us and not treat as some nerds. Luckily, Agile Revolution was already spreading around fast. When we started to deliver software iteratively, focusing on business functionalities and feedback (not a strict “scope of the project”), I realized that effective Software Development and Operations are not only about the code itself – but mostly about how you organize the culture, team structures and understanding of business value streams around it. This is a challenge for us, engineers – because in order to make it work, we need to invite Business Experts to our Software Delivery. We, Engineers and IT people are accountable to create a space, where our Customers are not afraid to work with us. A space, where they will understand what we do – and we will understand what they actually need. We must be their partners, not just code vendors. This blog is my attempt to make that work easier.
IT is already starting to work in this new way by adopting Agile teams and DevOps automation, but these specialists lack the infrastructure and business buy-in to do so effectively.
Mik Kersten, “Project to Product”
This way to long introduction for “Values” topic, together with Mik Kirsten accurate notice (introducing his Flow Framework, which address the same challenge I do within this blog) are to set up ground rules, which I will follow writing this blog. Those are:
Simple language.
When I will write about IT – specific topics, like frameworks, platforms, software delivery processes, practices and books – I will do my best to write about it using analogies to everyday life and describing the overall impact of the topic not only to the code or software component itself – but also potential impact on business value streams, outcomes and culture. I don’t want my technology-related blog posts to be readable and interesting only for engineers – there will always be an organizational big-picture attached.
Big-picture followed by techniques, ideas, tools and workshops to use.
When I will write about management or team topologies frameworks, operating models, consulting or strategy books, models or culture – I will do my best to address the big picture first, then an impact that topic can made on how the organization works – and techniques, ideas or concepts which I would use to try it in practice. I don’t want my blog to be theoretical only. I like to think, that culture and innovation can also be “engineered“. So for example, if I will write about Agile Culture – I will not only focus on “how the organization supposed to work”, but I will propose a roadmap and series of techniques which I would use to implement it.
Being honest.
I am not the Alpha and the Omega of IT Industry. In fact, in Technology Strategy I am rather a junior than a guru. So within this blog I want to be 100% honest with my readers. This will impact the way what, how and why I will publish the posts:
- What: I will publish the topics which interests me the most. I will not try to impress anybody – there will not only be a reviews or posts about market-known tools, techniques and frameworks – but also how I perceive them. I am going to be honest with you on topics which I feel important for IT Industry.
- How: I will publish the articles without anybody’s review. There will be no language editor (I am not an English-native, so there will be sometimes misuse or errors related to words or sentences), there will be no experts editor. I am going to be honest with you on what I know, what I think and how I express it.
- Why: I am to publish content on this blog to validate my opinions, perspective and knowledge on the topics. I will appreciate discussions, different opinions sharing and corrections of any mistakes I will make. This blog is also my way of learning new things. I am going to be honest with you on being a human – who is learning every day and who sometimes can make mistakes on the way.
Done is better than perfect.
This is the value which I follow the most in my life – both professional and private. The private I will leave for my self. In professional – my code was never perfect – in fact, in many cases it was worse than my colleagues. But almost always it was delivered in time, according to promised functionality and quality. I didn’t like to over engineer what I did. I liked to use ready to use components, I liked to simplify the code structure in order to be understandable by others (even if sometimes the code itself was a bit longer). I am in love with Minimum Valuable Products, which proves the point of the idea (in which by the way I support my customers to select the scope and build a team for it). So the posts within this blog are not going to wait in sketch for a long time. I’d rather publish something sooner and start the discussion, than spend many hours on polishing it to be perfect.
A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.
george Patton, US Army general
Topics & Areas
Ok, finally – after way to long introduction, which definitely is not a Minimum Valuable Introduction ever, and violently (like Patton liked to approach) crash the Values I have introduces to be followed within this blog – here are the Topics & Areas I am about to write within this blog.
Content for IT-beginners
I want to help talented people to enter IT Industry – because this is an exciting professional journey (and profitable, I won’t lie!). And there are a lot of bootcamps, trainings or workshops about specific parts of IT – like programming languages, infrastructure, security, agile, cloud, DevOps etc. But I haven’t found a blog or place I liked, which was covering big picture of Software Delivery Industry for beginners – where career paths were well described and particular architectural and management components or roles within IT are well explained around how to deliver efficiently. All of the content or bootcamps which I found was focusing on how to configure something, how to pass some exam, how IT supposed to look like – but without a big picture on why we even do it. This is a part I am going to cover – based on the materials I will publish here, I hope you will find a right place for you within IT World. It is so important, that I created a dedicated site with all posts for beginners here. This is also my humble request for any of you who wants to support me on the way – also to co-create this part with me. So if you have some ideas on topics to cover, or missing content – please let me know.
Books & Conferences Reviews
Software Engineering is one of my hobbies. Within free time, I like to read books, forums and IT Conferences. One of my mentors said, that such materials is like taking a part of those initiatives or projects by yourself – so it is the best way of learning new things within limited time. I have my own style of categorizing information, techniques and frameworks I find interesting – one of it is a short review of each book or material I find interesting. I will share those reviews here with you, combined with ideas to use it in practice. I will also provide my personal opinions and how I think the book or framework can influence the IT and Business World.
Agile & DevOps Culture
I will put a lot of focus on the Culture and best Practices which creates an environment, where Engineers and Business Experts can work together. Within Agile & DevOps Culture, I will publish key roles within such space, key functionalities & processes which Technology should provide, and Frameworks, Workshops and Methodologies (both market-proven and my own) which supports defining business value streams, context, architecture boundaries and ways to get the proper work done. According to my Values around this blog – those texts won’t be theoretical, and besides answering “how it should work?” there will be a lot of “how to get there” – from both organizational and technical perspective.
Technology
Finally, there will be a lot of technology-related topics – from the perspective of engineer who wants to deliver Business Value and growth within his role. So, if there will be a new (or old) AWS Service I recently used, or MuleSoft Conference on which new toolset had been announced – I will try it and provide some opinion, tricks and big picture perspective on it. I will also share with you some useful materials or conferences which helped me to solve some technical problem or pass an exam. I will also publish here my proof-of-concepts or ways to check new technology – so you might even find some code within this blog. Which will be minimum valuable of course, not polished in a way it supposed to work on production – because programming itself is something which I do not practice a lot anymore.
Why have I decided to write this blog?
This blog (and this manifesto) is a next step in my professional career – where I finally decided to share my thoughts and perspective of Software Engineering with a wider audience. Within this blog, I’d like to validate my opinions, knowledge and methods. I want to start contributing my experience to the World. This blog is also a safe place to share your opinions in the comments, and discuss not only about particular tools or techniques, but how we – IT Engineers – can meet expectations of the business, providing them with the safe space to work with us. Finally, within this blog, I want to connect to the best engineers, managers and consultants – and create a community, which looks at IT Industry horizontally, putting our Customer in a central place, and business need as a foundation for building a great Software.
What can you expect in near future?
In May and June, I will focus on first blog posts. The one I am working about right now is sharing my most recent experience – which is switching from Windows to Mac OS (actually – it’s been just a week, and this week will be a topic for the next post). However – this will probably be the only post about the operating systems and devices from perspective of a user, because my intention is not to write about hardware. So, the next posts after this, will be:
- Why Scrum Master is not an Entry Level position?
- Team Topologies – the best framework I’ve discovered for software architects in 2021.
- Roles & Career Paths in IT Industry – a compendium.
I have many more ideas on topics – and I am going to announce those within next posts.
