How you can Leverage Self-training in Your Office

Technological changes occur fast and trying to use the latest software development technologies it’s not easy. The developers are focused on their jobs and there is not always enough time for study the new languages, frameworks, and more.

Day after day we have new development tools available in the market. And in some cases, those tools can make our development more efficient and faster.

To give a little context, in our government environment it is very difficult to get economical resources for face-to-face training and specialization. We also have to deal with the fact that it is not easy to send ALL the developer’s team to training sessions leaving the office empty and stop the programming process completely.

So we decided to invest some of my developer’s team time in office to train themselves in the use and adoption of new technologies.

Twice a week, my team meets to take on-line courses on new technologies that they could add to our actual development process to make it better.

Those meetings are always enriching in terms of knowledge and integration for my team. They generate greater and better connivance and also make the knowledge more standardized between the programmers. The most experienced programmers are will to share their knowledge and give tips and tricks for the younger. There’s always someone who has something to teach to others.

With the Director’s support, those meetings take place during normal business hours in our meeting room. Maybe someone will think that this will reduce the production time. However me and my developers would argue to the contrary. They are enthusiastic and motivated to learn, without the need of sacrifice their personal time. Additionally, this gives them a little break in their work day, changing the routine.

We are now implementing some of the technologies we have learned, trying to optimize our development process, saving time using new software frameworks and tools.

I strongly believe that it is an investment using the office’s time for continuing the professional training as a way to get close to use the latest technologies.

As I will write in another blog entry, there is an endless race for using the last technologies, so we must keep learning and moving up with the new trends in our area if we want to be competitive. And not only that, we must adapt to those changes if we want our software can be used for a long time.

Sergio Yorick is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.