10 things I’ve learned over 10 years in IT

Over the last 10 years in IT as QA, Business Analyst, Product Owner, Product Manager, and mentor, I’ve received priceless experiences I want to share with everyone.

The importance of onboarding is underrated

Every product and project should have an onboarding for new guys. Especially if you’re big. It helps a lot in the long term.

It should be a well-thought document, constantly updated by you and your teammates to make it better and better. New guys should also track their progress, and have someone they can ask questions. Also, there should be some survey or a talk to ensure that the onboarding was successful.

Time management is crucial for everyone

• Use tools like Notion to keep track of your to-do list.
• No excuse not to check your email inbox during working hours. But keep in mind that it’s okay for anyone to have at least 24 hours to read and reply to non-urgent emails.
• Use your calendar and alarm clock not to forget about important meetings, time-tracking, and email checking.
• Respect the calendar of the others. Always check if your colleagues are available before inviting them.

Explain your decision making to the team

Suppose you made an important decision. It’s a good idea to explain to all affected teams what arguments and data you had, what research you did, what alternatives you considered, and why you selected this or that option. Especially for the controversial ones.

Involve your teammates in feedback sharing

Ask teammates what they think of this or that thing. But ask them not only as professionals but also as human beings, e.g. “Do you think that users will like this feature?”.

Remember to ask the calm guys privately.

Keep working on your personal development

If you don’t learn the basics of your IT field, if you don’t follow trends, you will invent wheels, and eventually, you will screw up. So you must learn and break the glass ceilings, push your boundaries and kill your fears. Consistent personal development will help you to feel more self-confident and make better decisions.

Mentoring is another way to learn something new and refresh your knowledge. Because when you have to teach someone, then you have to learn the topic deeply by yourself.

Best practices for leaving a project

Be sure to leave:

• A document with all the links, people, and tips the new guy will need. This is really helpful and professional;
• Good impression. Make a party or at least a warm farewell email. Tell everyone ”thank you” and praise those who deserved it.
• Heritage. Share your tips, templates, etc into Knowledge Base. If you don’t have one, create it now.
• Established processes. Everything should work even without you. Team, atmosphere, project, product, and clients shall not be much affected.

Best practices for going on vacation or a sick leave

If you’re a Lead and go on vacation or sick leave, then make sure that somebody will play your role during your absence.

So, be sure to provide access to all required docs, resources, and call meetings.

Be sure to explain their responsibilities. The best way is to talk to him/her in person, explain the responsibilities, and answer the questions. Don’t forget to send a follow-up email with instructions for him/her after the meeting.

Track, complement, and sign off the requirements

• Meeting notes and follow-ups will save your ass someday. Many times. Don’t neglect them;
• Use traceability matrix to track if all initial business requirements were covered by the detailed ones;
• Insist on the formal approval of the high-level requirements;
• Be sure the project has a roadmap available to everyone;
• Requirements must be complemented by diagrams, tables, schemes, etc. My favorite ones are Use Case diagram, Flowchart, BPMN 2.0, State Machine Diagrams, and Dialog Maps.

Data comes first

Do not succumb to the authority and self-confidence of your customer or a colleague. Respect his/her opinion, but make it clear that he/she cannot know users. Without data and research, all we know are assumptions. One objective metric or research is better than 10 subjective opinions.

Soft skills and communications

• Praise your colleges;
• Research first by yourself before asking your teammates millions of questions;
• Don’t ask developers or any other to do your job;
• Don’t violate the chain of command without a compelling reason or permission;
• Be very short with your top executives. Talk business value and profit language to them;
• Respect the culture of the others;
• Spend time with colleagues after work;
• If you have conflicts with your colleagues, be sure that the problem is not You. Remember, that both you and your colleagues are on one side, while the problem is always on another side;
• If you criticize, you suggest. But don’t tell developers how to code, don’t tell designers how to design, don’t tell QAs how to test. Instead, pay attention to what are the priorities for business and customers;
• Always be ready to admit that you were wrong.