Dan Appleman: Kibitzing and Commentary

My personal blog

Introduction to Leadership and Management for Developers

When I studied computer science, it was about gaining “hard” skills. Learning the technology – how to solve tough technical problems. There was almost nothing relating to what we now call “soft skills” – getting along with others, working with a team, dealing with managers, or being a manager.
Based on what I’ve seen of new graduates, things haven’t improved much. Yet in the real world, those “soft skills” are what really make the difference between someone who is truly driving the agenda, and those who are just pounding out code on demand.
I’ve learned and forgotten and learned hard skills throughout my career. But I can tell you this – it’s the soft skills – the leadership skills – that have made all the difference.
The problem is, that most leadership training isn’t design for developers (you know, people who spend 90% of their time dealing with relentlessly logical machines as compared to somewhat less rational human beings). You might think that puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to learning leadership, but it doesn’t. It’s just that the way you might teach leadership to an English major, psychologist, or MBA doesn’t necessarily work that well for developers.
So here it is, a leadership training course designed specifically for software developers. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m very excited to be able to present in one place many of the ideas and techniques that I’ve been teaching for many years.
Check out “Introduction to Leadership and Management for Developers” on pluralsight.com

So you want to be an entrepreneur?

I think every developer, at some point in their career, has that whisper of a dream – what if I was the person to start a company… to be my own boss? What if there was a way to get out of this cubicle and make some serious money?
And it is a dream in more ways than one. You see, common mythology suggests that new ventures are either wildly successful, or total failures – the dreams are either the best dreams you can imagine, or nightmares. But in reality, most dreams are just – dreams. Ordinary and usually pleasant stories we barely remember when we wake up.
And so it is with entrepreneurship – some are wildly successful, some total failures, but a great many are ordinary and pleasant outcomes – individuals who make very nice livings in small or medium size companies, with greater freedom and income than they would ever have at a real job.
I’ve spent almost my entire career at small companies and start-ups, so I suppose I’ve lived that dream in a sense, and have learned a great deal along the away. And you know how it is with me – when I learn something, I like to share it – usually in books, but increasingly now in courses on Pluralsight.
So I’m pleased to present my new course “So you want to be an entrepreneur?”
This course is the sequel to my Career and Survival Strategies for Software Developers course – a guide to those who are curious about the possibilities of taking that particular career path of entrepreneurship, or who are already on that path and are looking to fill in some gaps in knowledge and perhaps avoid a mistake or two along the way.

New Course: Career and Survival Strategies for Software Developers

I just released a new course on Pluralsight titled “Career and Survival Strategies for Software Developers”.
What I’ve tried to do is put in one place, all of the “stuff” about being a software developer that we want to know or need to know, that are rarely discussed, or that we’re sometimes afraid to ask about.
You know what I mean – those times in your career that you had no idea what to do – which job offer to accept? What to learn next? Is it time to change jobs? Maybe you ask a friend, or post an anonymous question on a forum. Or more likely, just take a guess and hope for the best.
Or the times when you wonder if you’re the only person who is feeling stressed about keeping up with technology, or the fact that the executive team has been locked in a conference room for three days with bankers coming in and out….
Mostly, it’s all the stuff I really wish someone had told me back when I started out. Hopefully it will save you some grief.
Here’s the official announcement and a better description:
http://blog.pluralsight.com/2013/01/10/new-course-career-and-survival-strategies-for-software-developers/
 

New course: Force.com and Apex Fundamentals for Developers

I’ve just had my very first online course published at Pluralsight. Here’s a brief description:

Apex is the native language of the Force.com platform, and there is a huge demand for skilled developers in this space. The Java/C# like Apex language looks familiar enough that experienced developers often expect a short learning curve, but the platform is actually radically different, and requires use of a unique set of set of design patterns. In this course, you’ll learn the core concepts that are essential for every Apex programmer to learn, and a roadmap to further resources to help you quickly become an expert in this rapidly growing space.

You can read more about it on the AdvancedApex.com blog.

Force.com is the next Visual Basic

I just came back from the Dreamforce conference with an epiphany – Force.com is the next Visual Basic. Some less experienced software developers might think that’s an insult, but those of us who have been around know that it’s not merely a compliment – it’s an observation that, if true, represents a potential tectonic shift to our industry.
To understand why, I need to take you back over 20 years.
When Visual Basic 1.0 came out (I participated in the original beta program), the reactions to the product fell into three categories:

  • Most professional C++ programmers dismissed it. VB was a “toy language” or a “glue language” for components – not for serious software development.
  • Increasing number of software engineers embraced the language because, to put it simply, when it came to desktop applications you could be an order of magnitude more productive in VB than in C++. It may not have had the stature and features of a “real” professional language, but it sure was profitable to work in it.
  • VB was easy enough for anyone to use, so everyone did. Doctors, lawyers, students – millions of VB developers sprang up out of nowhere and wrote a lot of code. Much of it was very bad code, but that’s what happens when a bunch of amateurs get in the game. Entire book, magazine and training industries grew up to help them get better, and many of them did and built entire careers around the platform.

By the time VB6 came around, it was the most popular software development language and platform in the world. Simply because it was easy, and it was productive.
Why was it productive? Because VB put an abstraction layer over the Windows API that was infinitely easier to use than coding to the native API or other available frameworks such as MFC or ATL. You couldn’t do everything in VB6, but you could do most of what you needed, and could call the API directly if you really needed to. Having a rich set of available components to purchase didn’t hurt either.
Microsoft did a lot of things right building the VB community. They had great developer and ISV relations. They supported several conferences. There were books, documentation, whitepapers and so on. They really set the standard on how to build a platform.
Then they created the .NET framework.
There was a lot of negative reaction from the original VB6 community towards VB .NET, some calling it “VB .NOT” or VB.Fred (coined by Bill Vaughn). Some programmers made the transition. Some switched to C#. But two things were clear. First, VB .NET was indeed a powerful, serious, professional language and platform for software developers. Personally, I love it, and still use it all the time. But it was equally clear that VB .NET is not easy. In fact, the entire .NET framework is robust, powerful, sophisticated and complex. It’s a great platform for software developers, but is it a platform that makes it easy for non-programmers to write line of business applications? Not even close.
Both VB .NET and C# are native languages to the .NET framework – the Windows API of today’s software. Missing was the magic of the original VB – that layer of abstraction that made it easy for anyone to write software.
I’ve been searching for that magic for a long time. I kept waiting for it to appear out of nowhere the way VB 1.0 did. I sure didn’t expect it to sneak up on me from behind.
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Advanced Apex Programming for Salesforce.com and Force.com

Advanced Apex Programming for Salesforce
As many of you know, I do enjoy writing books. Which is a good thing given that I’ve written quite a few of them. I’m proud of all of my books, but there are a few that fall into a special category – and that includes my latest effort.
If you’ve looked at the book market, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of books are very similar. Most subjects offer dozens of competing books that have pretty much the same content. Personally, I’ve always felt that if a good book exists on a particular subject, I shouldn’t waste my time writing another one. As a result, most (if not all) of my books have been either unique, or the first one in a given space. For example: my original Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Windows API was the only book for a long time that dared to teach Visual Basic programmers to use the Windows API. My recent book on teaching leadership skills to teens is nothing like anything else on the market.
Which brings us to Advanced Apex Programming.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I’ve been spending more and more time over the past few years working in Apex – the native language of Salesforce.com. I’ve learned a great deal in the process and… well, you know how it is. Sooner or later, if I learn something, I end up writing a book to teach it. In this case, I was astonished to find that nobody has written an advanced Apex book yet. There’s lots of great reference material, a good selection of articles, and plenty of beginner’s texts out there. But there was no book to help the intermediate developers take the next step, and give the advanced developers something to geek out to. Even the domain, AdvancedApex.com was available!
I couldn’t resist.
You can read about the book at AdvancedApex.com. I’m as excited about it as I was that original VB Programmer’s guide. As with that book, I think it’s going to help a lot of programmers write a lot of great code and become more successful. And as an author, hearing from readers that a book I’ve written has helped them build their careers is what really makes it worth the effort.