Positive experiences.

The most frequently touted benefit frameworks have to offer is minimising the time taken to code and deploy a software solution. Given my interest in Agility, this is an attraction, reducing the time to market.

Another solid development practice is code reuse in the form of software components, and frameworks have a place amongst them. This approach offers the reliability and security inherent in widely used and tested code. Remember to choose popular software though, or this benefit disappears.

On the downside.

Applications developed using frameworks have to carry significant excess baggage in the form of unused features. This raises two main issues: your codebase will be unnecessarily large, and underused blocks of code are a breeding ground for hidden exploits and errors.

Frameworks are designed to function in a specific way, some with more flexibility than others. This much you’d expect, after all it’s the essence of a framework, but what if it doesn’t provide everything you need? For example, I’ve spent hours trying to integrate SimpleTest, a unit testing suite, to produce satisfactory results with CodeIgniter. My unit tests run well for my own libraries, but I’m still unhappy with the test coverage imposed by CodeIgniter’s MVC implementation.

Finally, they say practice makes perfect, but does reliance on any framework reduce developer skill? This isn’t a problem if everything is pre-packaged in your chosen tool, but what if a client wants something that isn’t included?

Too good to ignore.

That said, I’ve found all of these software very useful and there are far too many advantages to ignore them. But I often find myself fighting these same tools, frustrated at they’re eagerness to help me do something in a way I don’t want it done. I guess the key is to understand which is the right tool for the current job: the ultimate skill for a developer.

Nature’s generalists have a tendency to survive longer than its specialists when environmental change accelerates. For those species adapted to become dependent upon a particular habitat its loss can spell their doom.

There’s no doubt that the technological world can exhibit these phenomena for those with a limited set of experience and skills. This realisation should inform our career choices: which skills you should develop to avoid extinction?

The good news is that, unlike physical changes, professional evolution is capable of working on in a much shorter timeframe.

Constantly look for change.

In the 1960s, British railway rapidly moved from steam to diesel. In this environment trains still needed to be driven, so the drivers mostly survived, huge numbers of firemen didn’t. Since then travel by car and aeroplane have become far more common: I wonder how many train drivers realised this too late?

Those in highly specialised professions almost always command higher pay. If you make the conscious decision to chase the cash, that’s fine, but be aware that its a high risk strategy.

Look for the future trends: which are the promising technologies and can they be addressed with the skills you currently possess? If not, you need to decide upon the new skills and knowledge that will be necessary.

Learning is all around you.

Books are readily available and I’m a big fan of reading, but don’t expect them to be up to the minute. It takes time to write, edit and publish a book, so you’re best using them as a source of general knowledge.

Likewise, formal education courses are slow to react to the pace of technological change. I’ve often heard complaints about the failure of a course to teach the latest advances or techniques, but if used properly they have an important place. Industrial practices had little in common with my Engineering degree, but it did teach me how to think like an Engineer.

These two sources exist to provide a solid, general background knowledge that will enable you to develop your own understanding of the cutting edge. Basics covered, you’ll find the Web and journals much more useful.

There’s a massive quantity of both good and bad information available on the Web, and with your general grounding you’ll be able to tell them apart. In addition to traditional websites, there are podcasts, video tutorials, wikis, forums, and much of the very latest information will appear here before it can be published.

Academic and industry journals can be a little hard going, and some of the content is less than informative: intellectual property can be too jealously guarded sometimes. This said, they’re rigourously edited and can give a good global perspective on the direction of the industry.

Finally, conferences can provide a good indicator of what is hot or not, but beware of jumping on bandwagons. These are also good places to network and find out what other people are doing.

You may want to follow the herd or deliberately make your own path, just make sure you’re happy you understand your decisions. Constant development and the application of a little thought to your actions is the key to professional life.

This came to my attention a few years ago when my Mother decided to learn how to use a computer. Once she retired she needed to keep up with the technology she’d avoided for years. I actually think it was a great idea; retirement often increases the perception that the world is leaving you behind. She’d never used a typewriter: why are those letters in such a strange place? The mouse was a huge challenge to hand–eye co–ordination.

She enrolled on CLAiT Level 1, and she’s made great progress, but I doubt she’d claim to be comfortable enough to be able to try something completely new without a lot of support. She can surf the Web, check and send basic email and do a little word processing, but that’s about it. It’s more than enough for her needs, but a business is going to need a little more.

The point is that there are a lot of younger people still in the workforce that are in much the same position to my Mother. They are often encouraged to undertake ECDL training as shown on the BCS website:

The European Computer Driving Licence® (ECDL) is the internationally recognized qualification which enables people to demonstrate their competence in computer skills. The record breaking ECDL is the fastest growing IT user qualification in over 125 countries. ECDL is designed specifically for those who wish to gain a benchmark qualification in computing to enable them to develop their IT skills and enhance their career prospects.

The problem I have is that I’ve encountered people with these qualifications, and others, purporting to be ‘Microsoft Excel Expert Users’, and they haven’t even figured out that a spreadsheet IS a big calculator! This can’t be entirely due to the course content, so why are these people allowed to pass this qualification: it has to be in the assessment and a reluctance to fail anyone.

So as an employer facing a knowledge based economy — according to the UK government — where success is based on the skills of your employees, how do you decide which candidates are fit for purpose? My experience is that you can’t rely on these benchmarking qualifications.