where and how to develop
Hello everyone! My name is Yehor Sizov and this is my second article here. I manage a group of implementation engineers at Tsyfra Central Committee. IN the first article I wrote about the specifics of the role of an implementation engineer in IT and the competencies he needs, now I want to tell you in which directions such a specialist can develop and how he can grow in his career.
The article will be useful to HR hiring managers in IT product integrator companies, as well as specialists who want to become implementation engineers or are already working in this position.
Disclaimer. I will build on the grades and grading process used in our Implementation Competence Center. By adapting the presented principles and ideas to the specifics of your company or division, you will be able to apply them in your work.
1. Development
1.1. levels
To describe the levels of implementation engineer competencies, I will use commonly used concepts Junior, Middle and Senior with sublevels Team Lead and Expert. They can be interpreted in different ways, so I will dwell in more detail.
to a specialist Junior To solve the task, it is necessary to provide an instruction/algorithm for execution. Middle able to independently solve the given task. Expert level senior, in turn, it can not only solve a separate task, but also decompose the top-level statement into subtasks, and it is also understood in the subject area. on the level Senior there are two sub-levels: Team Lead – With a bias in team management and Expert – With a bias in technology and knowledge transfer.
Based on the competencies for each level of the engineer, it is possible to highlight the main tasks and functions that he performs on implementation projects.
1.2. Directions
The level of development of an application engineer consists of competencies in such areas and specializations, which I talked about in detail here.
It is impossible to know all the products in the world, for the purposeful development of the application engineer, it is necessary to focus the development on the main and related product specializations. A pair of related specializations should be chosen based on the interrelationship of products, as well as the contiguity of subject areas and implementation projects. The two specializations are necessary for greater flexibility in allocating an engineer between projects and tasks.
1.3. Stages of development
In this section, I will operate with competence roses. Mastery of each skill is built in them in the range from 0 to 5 according to the following scale:
1.3.1. Junior → Middle
The way to Middle specialist means, firstly, the development of skills in breadth competencies, namely the growth of competencies to the basic level from related roles, flexible skills and subject area, as well as the development of applied skills, core and related implementation specializations. Secondly, the implementation engineer must be systematically brought to the independent solution of tasks (which is what the level is Middle), reducing the detail of the instructions provided for solving the task as the specialist’s experience increases.
1.3.2. Middle → Senior
Growth to Senior level involves development primarily in the main and related specializations, social and subject areas. At the senior level, there are two variants of the competency profile: Team Lead – With a bias in team management and Expert — with a bias in technology and the subject area.
1.3.3. Team Lead and Expert
First, let’s define the terms – my understanding of the specifics Expert and Team Lead corresponds to the following article.
Specialist Team Lead (in addition to basic competencies Senior) has flexible skills at an expert level. This allows you to lead the project from the organizational side and build interaction both with the customer and other roles of the project implementation team.
Specialist Expert is technically inclined and has expert level in core specialization and subject area, has deep applied knowledge and agile skills, and a good understanding of architecture and DevOps. As a result, he is able to lead the implementation project from the technical side.
From the difference between the organizational and technical specifics of competencies Team Lead and Expert possible career growth options emerge: managerial positions (project manager, resource manager) and technical positions (solutions architect).
Thus, the professional development of an implementation engineer at each stage can and should be purposeful.
2. Career growth
Targeted development occurs iteratively, from level to level and causes career growth. Each turn can be divided into three stages: development planning, development and development confirmation. In each of the stages participate three roles: directly implementation engineer, head of his team and resource manager.
As a result of the first planning stage there is a development plan, which is formed based on the manager’s requests for the necessary skills of the competence center, career growth opportunities for the engineer and the difference between current and required competencies, i.e. a set of competencies in development.
As a result of the second stage of development there is a purposeful growth of the implementation engineer’s competencies due to his allocation to projects and tasks according to the development plan, as well as mentoring by the team leader and self-development of the engineer.
After all, the third stage confirmation of development ends with a grading procedure. When achieving the goals of the development plan, grading can be initiated by both the implementation engineer and his team leader or resource manager. The resource manager makes a decision about the engineer’s departure for grading based on feedback and confirmation of the specialist’s level from the team leader, as well as the availability of a budget in the employee’s promotion competence center.
And after the grading is completed, the implementation engineer goes back to development planning, but at a new level.
Thus, the development of the implementation engineer – the joint work of an engineer, a team leader and a resource manager, in which the individual development plan and the grading procedure become not a formality, but an opportunity for purposeful development.
I will be glad if this article is useful for you.