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 Professionalism =
Knowledge First, Experience Last
By Jurgen Appelo
Do you trust a doctor with diagnosing your mental
problems if the doctor tells you he's got 20 years of experience? Do you
still trust that doctor when he picks up his tools, and asks you to prepare
for a lobotomy?
Would you still be impressed if the doctor had 20 years
of experience in carrying out lobotomies?
I am always skeptic when people tell me they have X years
of experience in a certain field or discipline, like "5 years of experience
as a .NET developer", "8 years of experience as a project manager" or "12
years of experience as a development manager". It is as if people's
professional levels need to be measured in years of practice.
This, of course, is nonsense.
Professionalism is measured by what you are going
to do now...
Are you going to use some discredited technique from half
a century ago?
- Are you, as a .NET developer, going to use Response.Write,
because you've got 5 years of experience doing exactly that?
- Are you, as a project manager, going to create Gantt charts,
because that's what you've been doing for 8 years?
- Are you, as a development manager, going to micro-manage your team
members, as you did in the 12 years before now?
If so, allow me to illustrate the value of your
experience...
Photo by Gaetan
Lee
Here's an example of what it means to be a
professional:
There's a concept called Kanban
making headlines these days in some parts of the agile community. I
honestly and proudly admit that I have no experience at all in
applying Kanban. But that's just a minor inconvenience. Because I have
attained the knowledge of what it is and what it can be good for. And
now there are some planning issues in our organization for which this
Kanban-stuff might be the perfect solution. I'm sure we're going to give it
a shot, in a controlled setting, with time allocated for a pilot and proper
evaluations afterwards. That's the way a professional tries to
solve a problem.
Professionals don't match problems with their
experiences. They match them with their knowledge.
Sure, experience is useful. But only when you already have the
knowledge in place. Experience has no value when there's no knowledge to
verify that you are applying the right experience.
Knowledge Comes First, Experience Comes
Last
This is my message to anyone who wants to be a professional
software developer, a professional project manager, or a professional
development manager. You must gain and apply knowledge first, and
experience will help you after that. Professionals need to know about the
latest developments and techniques. They certainly don't bother
measuring years of experience.
Are you still practicing lobotomies?
Until next time,
Jurgen Appelo
Visit my
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