In the ReadyTalk nerd book club, we just wrapped up reading and discussing Continuous Delivery by Dave Farley and Jez Humble.

You know, there are those tech books you read that you hope to gain some useful insights from or some knowledge that will ultimately make you a better programmer. Then there are those books you read that you hope will fundamentally change how you think about programming and engineering software. Continuous Delivery falls into that second category.

For this book, we roughly 50 percent of our software engineers participate. Among them, there were a few who had historically been skeptics of the benefits of things like continuous integration, unit testing and automation. It was refreshing to see the assortment in the room, from the Linux ninjas to the server engineer,s to the automation engineers; it was a room full of powerhouse thinkers. I could tell this book would generate a lot of great dialog but I had no idea of the movement it would cause.

The book took roughly 12 weeks to complete, and when all was said and done, the non-believers had become believers. The engineers were going back to the drawing board to figure out how to shift course on current projects and deliver functionality in a more continuous model. In some cases this caused the end product to be delivered a bit later than initially expected, but the result ultimately would be smoother and done with more confidence because of smaller, less risky deployments. Several weeks ago, I overheard one of our engineers who had been a skeptic say during a engineer whiteboard session “I’m really drinking this TDD kool-aid. I think that is how we should approach designing the server components for this project.”  That was music to my ears!

People are interesting creatures. We’re the most complex machines on the planet, and we learn best through experience. There are some things that need to come from within a team, and concepts like TDD and continuous delivery are among them. To really get a team to buy in to it, they’ve got to have skin in the game and they’ve got to figure out as a team that it’s the right thing to do. The pain along the way is minuscule when the outcome is ultimately success.

So, how have your engineering teams embraced concepts like these? Are they topics of discussion or myths? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about this!

Jason Collins (aka JC) is the VP of Engineering at ReadyTalk and the self-appointed Chief Happiness Officer. He’s been either writing code or managing engineers for nearly 15 years and has a passion for technology and agile development practices. The happiness of the engineering team is his top priority and he can usually be found wearing a ReadyTalk cape and the infamous “idea helmet” around the office to help keep people entertained. When he’s not hanging out with his work family, he’s at home with his wife and four boys doing all sorts of geeky things, like playing video games and watching campy Sci-Fi and Action flicks.

At ReadyTalk, we are constantly looking for new and various ways to make our products and services easy-to-use while providing excellent customer service and support.  So what have we come up with now?

A new and improved online request form for operator-assisted services! How does this benefit you (and the ReadyTalk Events Team a bit too?)

• Requesting a Gold or Platinum Webinar package? Or operator-assisted audio?  Now there is a single  form for all your Event Services needs
• A step-by-step and user-friendly process that lets you know what information we need for your upcoming event
• Easier navigation and increased accessibility so that finding the form is…easy

Need some reminders on what qualifies for an operator-assisted service?  Visit our products and services section.

In an effort to showcase what makes ReadyTalk Engineering one of the best teams to be a part of, we have decided to provide a series we are calling “Inside Edition” to give our readers an inside look as to what makes ReadyTalk Engineering click!  We have selected an engineer to provide a personal description of their experiences at ReadyTalk!

Inside Edition with Matt Weaver

Describe a typical day for you at ReadyTalk

It’s 8:17and I may or may not be fully “awake.”  My level of “awake” is inversely proportional to the level of sunlight and warmth in the morning: the longer and colder my bicycle commute (due to ice, Taun Taun traffic, etc) the more I need heart palpitating levels of caffeine.  It’s 8:17 and when that empty stomach, caffeine high kicks in a minute or two later, I’m working.  Music on the headphones, a brisk tattoo pounded out on the poor keys of my keyboard and I have tapped the sweet mainline of productivity.  My god.  The thoughts are kicking, ideas are flowing, and I can’t type fast enough, nor compile quickly enough to see things in action.  This is prime time for productivity and, aside from a few Nerf based skirmishes (my god, the darts… the darts… orange tracers in my dreams, oh humanity!), the window between eight-whatever and noon is a smooth code jam… did I just type that? (did I just break the fourth wall of narrative?)

As the lunching hours approach, if I’m not too involved (because sometimes I am) I am faced with a use of time type quandary: if the weather’s warm or, at least, not icy, I may throw a leg over my road bike and try to squeeze in a twenty mile ride, I may just ride to my favorite record shop to enjoy the fresh air or meet an associate in the park for a lunch gab session, or my coworkers may cajole me into a lunch somewhere in lower downtown.  Today it was a lunch at Ted Turner’s bison loving burger chain replete with work discussions, jokes, yelling, crying, and jokes.  Did I mention the jokes?

Afternoons are a fine time for meetings… because even if I haven’t attempted to ascend gluttony heights (e.g. I worked out and am drinking a horrible protein shake or my own sweat and tears… that is, nothing), I’m never that productive.  So a meeting or two.  Today a coworker has questions about a software design.  We scribble on a white board and raise our voices.  We lower them and agree.  Ideas are fielded, white papers are read, articles are linked to, social networking sites are updated (no day is complete without the tangy smack of narcissism, you have, of course been reading this tripe…).

And the day ends.  Some days, the team may go out for a cocktail or two.  Others, I work into the night, not because I’m forced to, but because I’ve had a new surge of productivity or I’ve solved a problem, and riding that wave is worth the personal sacrifice.  Still others, the day ends uneventfully (except for another round of Nerf darts, fired for effect… war never ends, war never begins) and I ride home to my girlfriend, my dog, and my non-work friends.

Today, I pack up my Macbook and ride home under twilight.

All this is merely evidence that my job is pleasing: a design challenge here, an obstacle there (why won’t the Cocoa API actually respond to this call… grrr), and the day is over.  It’s a rather good thing.

Why do you think that ReadyTalk is the #1 company to work for in Colorado?

(Re-read abovefor the story, but…) I work with far less process and far less constraint than in other jobs I’ve had (I’ve been writing software as a day job since my internship in 2000).  I like the people I work with.  Those are givens and, honestly, not enough reason to work somewhere (though they can easily be enough reason to “not work” somewhere).  The real reason(s) I like my job?  I ride to work in a decently sized city.  I like my coworkers and I’ve worked here long enough to have roots in the company.  I enjoy the problems I solve.  I enjoy the work life balance afforded by the company.  I can work from home, if I have to.  I come and go as I need to.  It’s a job that places much trust in me and, as trite as it sounds, supports my urban-bent lifestyle.

Tell us about your favorite day at work…

This is rather a harder task than you might imagine, for I’ve just had too many high points to single out one.  That’s the problem with having a “good” job.  But it’s dishonest and rather cheap to just hand wave and say “they’re all good days” because that doesn’t really sell it, it fails to say anything useful.  The qualities of a good day, a great day, involve balance: solving a long standing problem, figuring out a design that hits home in usability testing or a software design that solves many problems, affecting the outcome of a project for the better, leaving work early to meet an out of town friend for a drink in uptown… it could really be any number of things, but to strike that balance is particularly important.  But, a singular day that presents itself was a demo of an Android based version of our service.  I woke up early, unable to sleep.  I had tried not to take the project home with me, but I did.  I sat at my Eames knock off table and sipped my way through half a bottle of bourbon fixing bugs and trying to add some much needed polish to our application.  Then I went to bed… and didn’t sleep.  So I woke before the sun rose and rode in.  A coworker and I had ported much code and sketched out much of the design of a new client that was built on newer ideas and utilized newer technologies from several open source projects.  We tried not to, but we coded all morning before the demo.  It wasn’t a product demo, it was a research project.  And after that presentation, we sighed heavily.  It was a sort of high, a rapturous glow in which we felt like we had done something.  It had taken a few nights and a few weekends, but we had built something new from near scratch and it felt good.  That, devoid of any other trappings, was one of my best days at work.

4. If someone were interested in working on your team @ReadyTalk what advice would you have for them?

What’s that joke about advice?  Or no… that’s opinions I’m thinking of.  We all have them, etc.  (Insert laughter here).  My advice would be incomplete, but simple: be teachable, be curious.  I forget things  (I blame whisky).  I learn new ones.  Failure to admit my own ignorance about something stupid is a waste of my time.  I’d rather look silly for a moment (“what server is the failover production db?”) than get in the way of forward progress.  That’s more important than any other advice I can give you.  If pressed about my team, the client portion of our real-time application, I’d add this, less noble sounding advice: know when to delegate.  If you don’t get excited by good UX or have skills there yet, there are people who can help you or do that part of a task.  If you are uncomfortable with an architectural piece, either in the system or in the client code, ask someone.  Bring it up.  It dovetails nicely into that other rot, but it’s worth noting.  The best way to learn and all that.

Katie Green is part of the ReadTalk Recruiting Team (AKA the Beaphins)  She has been in the recruiting industry for 10 years and has developed a strong interest in technology and technical recruitment. When she isn’t searching for technical talent for ReadyTalk you might find her at the tennis court, playing volleyball or learning a new song on guitar!

Marketers are always looking for the next best way to create buzz around their product and their brand with the right audience.  There are so many promotional outlets in which to market your content, especially on the internet; webinars tend to bubble to the top due to the likelihood of a lower investment and higher ROI.  Over the past few years, many companies have put significant effort into building their following through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks.  Each of these has a different flavor of audiences, including what topics are relevant and which will resonate. Despite the differences, these channels can be a great way to promote your upcoming webinar.

The first step is using social media to get the word out about your upcoming event. After coming up with a catchy title, interesting content, and engaging speakers, you have to get people to care…and then, register!  Posting your event to your company’s various networks gets you there, partly; but allowing your registrants to post to their networks snowballs your efforts even further.

The next step, and probably even more important than the first: tracking the effectiveness of each social media outlet! Which site gets you the most traction, the most bang for your buck?  And, even more so, do you have a few ‘power users’ that are consistently promoting your events, and bringing in a significant number of registrants? If so, you probably want to keep inviting these types of people to your events!

So the moral of the story? Keep up with social networking, yours and your followers…it pays off!

Beth is a Product Marketing Manager and works with our customers to understand their needs as they relate to Event Services and ReadyTalk’s Conference Center, which is used to setup the details of our clients’ upcoming meetings. Outside of the office, Beth loves to spend time with family and friends, cook, and hit the slopes.

It’s 2012.  Everyone typically has great intentions this time of the year in putting foot to pavement and nailing down some concrete resolutions; things they really want to get done over the next year. I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the context of my current role at ReadyTalk and the roles of those who surround me. One of my resolutions is for personal improvement.

Professional growth, and getting better at “your craft” is one thing that is constantly on my mind.  With my team, I’m always stressing that failure is a learning opportunity, but how do you learn and advance without waiting for failure? Simply put, you practice.

Ok, that sounds easy, you say. But, when you sit down to think about it, how exactly do you practice things like project management or people management or even software engineering? My day is filled with  productive meetings, but does going to meetings allow me to practice my people skills? Does making a spreadsheet or facilitating a story-pointing session give me ample opportunity to practice the craft of agile coaching? And more important to me directly, how does one practice effective leadership?

Dan King, our CEO, is an amazing leader and his thoughts and ideas inspire me. So I took a step back and examined what I see Dan doing almost constantly. The answer was reading, and asking questions. Dan is a voracious reader, and he uses the management and leadership books he reads to help formulate questions about how lessons learned by others could have been applied to his own experiences or how they could be applied to challenges that ReadyTalk may face as the organization grows. So, my goal is really about practice. Practicing leadership by way of reading and thinking more about leadership in different industries and domains. Also on my agenda is helping our engineers practice their craft of software engineering, but that is a blog post for another time!

I’d be curious to hear how you may have tackled this problem. How do you practice something that isn’t quite tangible, such as leadership or people management? Drop me a line and let me know!

Jason Collins (aka JC) is the VP of Engineering at ReadyTalk and the self-appointed Chief Happiness Officer. He’s been either writing code or managing engineers for nearly 15 years and has a passion for technology and agile development practices. The happiness of the engineering team is his top priority and he can usually be found wearing a ReadyTalk cape and the infamous “idea helmet” around the office to help keep people entertained. When he’s not hanging out with his work family, he’s at home with his wife and four boys doing all sorts of geeky things, like playing video games and watching campy Sci-Fi and Action flicks.