3 questions to Tomasz Ćwięk, DevOps Engineer at Grape Up

1. Is it enough to know only one programming language?

That’s tricky, because it greatly depends on the goals you set for yourself. We tend to hear from other programmers all the time that you don’t need a college degree - you can learn everything yourself on YouTube and take online courses. Just spend a few months doing courses and tutorials and voila – you’re a self-made programmer!

On the other hand, if you really want to be a programmer or a software engineer, college will not prepare you for this role properly, neither will it teach you how to make the best first impression at work. At university you will learn how to think like an engineer and eventually you will become an engineer with, hopefully, enough knowledge in multiple fields - not only different programming languages, but also statistics, compilers design, AI, digital signal processing and tons of different stuff that you might never even use in the future. However, this kind of knowledge can also make you an invaluable asset in the project.

So if you don’t mind doing the same thing, similiar kinds of projects in repetitive scenarios: one programming language is fine. But if you totally feel like exploring new things and approaches, learning new programming languages and frameworks (of course - learning by doing!) will definitely make you a better programmer and a way better engineer.

2. Is pair programming difficult?

Yes and no. It is definitely more exhausting than programming alone. You need to pay attention all the time and, depending on the knowledge gap between people you pair with at work, sometimes think for the two of you. Also, you should synchronize breaks, lunch time etc. Obviously it is not a problem - just an inconvenience if you’re a lone wolf.

For some people, especially introverts, it may be hard to leave their comfort zone and get comfortable spending the whole day working with just one person. To be honest, I have never seen this kind of problem lasting longer than one day.

However, there is no better way to learn something new than working with a person who has experience in a particular field. The value of this way of transferring knowledge overcomes all disadvantages thay you may encounter working in pairs. Even the partner who is less experienced can have a valuable input thanks to which working in pairs rarely means getting stuck - two heads are better than one, even in googling. ;)

Don’t believe people who say that working in pairs means dividing the team’s velocity in half. Effectively, when properly executed, pair programming may go as fast as doing it by yourself. As a result, code quality is better and it contains less bugs in general. At some point, there is even no need for code review if both partners are experienced enough.

3. What can you learn from working on site with the client?

Humility. Working closely with the client makes you more aware of the caveats of their field of work, competencies, what they actually want and need. Not everything can be easily described in an email and it is definitively easier to directly speak with the person of interest and get all the answers.

Meeting people you work with on a daily basis and learning the specifics of their work is also extremely important and heavily affects the future work. In general, it is also easier to skip the chain of command and force the necessary change, but it has to be done with caution.

Additionally, it’s a great time when you meet new interesting people you can learn from and obviously go out with and see the city, grab a beer or just talk. Working on-site often means working abroad so automatically you get to experience a new country and its culture.

So you’re a new project manager, now what? Michał Darkowski, Project Manager at Grape Up gives some valuable insights that will help you nail it at project management. Since he joined the company in 2013, he has led a variety of projects implemented in multiple technologies, with a team ranging from 1 to more than 15 members in size. In addition to that, Michał has a solid software development background.

1. What are the 3 questions that every project manager should ask their team most often and why?

Michał: The first one would be, "What’s slowing us down?" . You will be surprised how much insight you can get from an answer to this. First of all, you will learn what needs to be changed to make it possible to deliver faster - which is very important in today’s fast-paced IT industry. You will also learn what impacts your team’s productivity and affects their morale. Perhaps something can be automated? Maybe the team is doing something that doesn’t bring any value? Maybe there’s something that you’re doing as the PM, that you shouldn’t do? I think that every project manager should strive to make their team as efficient as possible on a daily basis and this question gives space for that.

The second question is, "What would it look like if it was easy?" . Ever since I read this in a book by Tim Ferriss it became one of my favorite questions. We often think that complicated problems require even more complicated solutions. This question completely changes the perspective and matches perfectly the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) which I’m a huge fan of. Whenever someone in your project team is stuck with a challenging problem, asking this can help re-frame their thinking and get the answer they are looking for.

And last but not least, the simple, yet so powerful, "How are you?" . It is important to know the atmosphere in the team and get along well with all members. A little chit-chat in the kitchen can only do good things for your relationship with the team and also have a positive impact on your project.

2. What was the biggest problem you encountered as a PM and how did you overcome it?

Michał: Some time ago my team took over a significant part of an in-development application from an internal team after one of our customers.
The problem was pretty complex. We got a codebase without the documentation and a terribly confusing API. We didn’t know how many of the requirements have already been covered by the existing code. The requirements themselves were poorly defined. In fact, it was more of a bunch of ideas and keywords rather than a list of proper product requirements that developers can follow. To make matters worse - the team which has previously worked on this project was no longer around.
How did I overcome it? Long story short, by problem decomposition and teamwork.
Once we gathered all the questions and unknowns, we were able to clearly understand why our situation is difficult. The next step was to invole the entire team in gathering all the answers.
Which requirements are already covered? Well, let’s try to use the application ourselves and see what happens. Ambiguous acceptance criteria? Let’s properly define it and consult with the customer to ensure that this is indeed what the product should do.
API issues? Let’s successively clean them up, one piece at a time.
Of course, all this was a huge effort for each team member and it took plenty of time, but seeing improvement every single day was very motivating.
Thinking about it today I’m very proud of what we have achieved and how significantly the project changed since day one.

In my opinion, the approach to all problems consists of four simple steps.

• Analyze the current situation. What don’t you like about it? Try to break it down into smaller, preferably independent issues.
• Define the desired situation. Imagine that a year from now all the issues are solved - what does it look like?
• Think of at least one action that will get you closer to the desired situation you have just imagined.
• Execute! Repeat the process if needed.

Keep it in mind the next time you feel overwhelmed and believe that you’re facing a dead-end situation.

3. What’s the most useful tool you have discovered in the last 6 months?

Michał: That would be Evernote. We all take notes, don’t we? Doing it efficiently and keeping all your notes organized is a very important, yet downplayed need. With Evernote, which as you already guessed, is a note taking app, it is fun and very simple. I can for sure say that it took my note-taking to a new level. On a side note, this blog post isn’t sponsored! From rich formatting, to attaching files, and inserting images that can be easily annotated, or saving interesting web pages with just two clicks - it’s all there!

To be honest, I tried Evernote for the first time in 2016 and was a little bit disappointed with the tool and at the same time surprised that so many people recommended it. I have given it a second chance recently and I don’t regret it. Going all-in was the crucial part, I moved there all txt and docx files from my Dropbox, all screenshots with some important information from my phone and also imported pictures of my last paper notebook. Finally, I have everything in one place, and with Evernote’s powerful search tool I can find it in no time. This month I even got to convince a few of my colleagues to use it!