One of my favourite things from being a quality coach was having 1:1s with people, tapping into their views on quality, what motivates them and their experiences plus of course exploring how to support them. However there was an interesting trend – quality was new to many people. Just like it was new to me when I graduated. In fact I didn’t truly understand quality until deep into my career (although I did have to learn quickly that I graduated knowing nothing about software engineering and testing!).
This had been in my mind for a wee while and when I found myself with a chunk of time, I decided to start taking it forward.
I’ve already had a handful of interviews with developers, recruiters and people within the education sector. The questions that I’m hoping to answer are:
- What do we (and should we) expect from junior engineers?
- What is higher or further education teaching the leaders of tomorrow?
- What are the different paths that people are following to learn about how to build quality software?
And ultimately:
- When is the right time to introduce people to building quality software? (i.e. good quality & software engineering practices, not just “writing code”)
To help with this I’ve put together 3 surveys that I’d really appreciate people filling out. I’m also super keen to chat to people 1:1, likely over a remote call but if it can be worked, I’m happy to offer coffee, food or booze to facilitate bletherings.
As I’ve only had one Uni experience and it was a long, long time ago, I’m really keen to learn more about what education is offering. If you are involved in education then I have a form targeted at those in education to ask a few questions around the goals of the course and understand what goes into a course.
I’m also really interested in the experiences and priorities of people who are hiring junior / graduate software engineers. This could be recruiters, hiring managers or engineers involved in interviewing. There’s a form focused around recruitment if you can spare the time.
Finally people who’ve been through it themselves. Have you graduated within the past 5 years or so? I’d love to know what your education was like, what you’ve had to learn and what you still don’t understand! Tell me about it with this survey targeted at grads.
For anyone who fills out the form, I really do appreciate it. Over time I’ll share my findings here and hopefully also find other platforms to share my findings. I’m also open to chatting to universities and colleges (even schools) who are interested in bringing quality engineering into the curriculum.
Reach out to me on LinkedIn if you’d like to chat.