Object Mentor Blog: Multi-dimensional Seniority

Multi-dimensional Seniority

Uncle Bob — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:10:38 -0600

I was at a meeting of the Chicago Software Craftsmanship group last night. Dave Hoover and Paul Pagel were talking about the different apprenticeship models at Obtiva and 8thLight.

The 8thLight model uses a 90 day probation period during which an “apprentice” has an appointed mentor who guides the apprentice to learn enough to become a “craftsman”.

The Obtiva model is less structured, but there’s no probationary period. Once an apprentice had delivered something meaningful for a client, and had been recognized by the others, he/she would become a “consultant”, and eventually a “senior consultant”

Both speakers used the term “journeyman” but neither defined it. Both speakers agreed that 90 days, or a year, or even two years was insufficient for an apprentice to become a true journeyman.

After the talk I started to ponder this question of seniority. What makes a software developer senior? Certainly the amount of time spent in a career is a big factor. Someone with 15 years of experience is certainly senior.

However, there’s that old joke about the guy who had 15 years of experience, the same year fifteen times in a row. That’s a real concern. It is perfectly possible to work for 15 years and dig yourself into a rut you can’t get out of. Think of all those Cobol programmers who never learned anything else.

Both Paul and Dave talked about how they planned for their apprentices to grow with the company. They both lamented apprentices that had left the company to do other things.

This made me think about the apprentices we’ve had at Object Mentor. (Paul was one of them. Dave was almost another.) Over the years we’ve had seven or so apprentices. Today, we have none. Not a single apprentice has stayed at Object Mentor. Is this bad?

It hasn’t been bad for the apprentices. Two went on to form their own company (8thLight). Others have made names for themselves in the community. More than one has written a book. Nearly all are passionate craftsmen who care about their profession, and who are making an impact.

It wasn’t bad for Object Mentor either. The apprentices moved on when it was a good time for them to move on, and we have kept good relationships with them. More than one customer has come our way because of referrals from past apprentices.

So at the end of the meeting, when everyone had milled away from the central area, I went to the whiteboard and scratched out a simple diagram. It was an graph with Seniority on the horizontal axis, and Journey on the vertical axis.

Then I drew a nearly horizontal line starting from the origin and hugging the Seniority axis. This is the career path of the guy who has the same year of experience 15 times in a row. Let’s call him Sam. Then I drew another line which was a stair-step that went towards the upper right at something less then a 45 degree angle. This is the career path of a developer who changes jobs a few times during his/her career. Let’s call her Jasmine.

I don’t think there is a vertical path. The only way to go on a journey is to spend some time at it, and that drives you horizontally.

OK, now maybe I’ve just spent a dozen paragraphs explaining the obvious. To-wit: A journeyman is a journeyman because he/she’s gone on a journey. Does that journey have to involve changing employers? I think it probably does. You see, there’s a problem.

The student/teacher relationship is persistent. At least in my experience it is. The only way for a teacher and student to ever consider themselves to be peers is for the relationship to break and then reform later in a new context.

Sam, has remained an apprentice, even though he’s got lots of experience. Why? Because he still works with his original mentors who consider him to be their student. Jasmine, on the other hand, has seen the world, experienced many different situations in many different places. She could become a master.

OK, ok. I’m belaboring the point. So let me conclude. If you are considering an apprenticeship program it seems to me that the most important aspect of that program is that the relationship is temporary, and results in a journey. In other words, don’t expect to hold on to your apprentices for very long.

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