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Career as a Software Programmer – the world is changing

Considering a career as a software programmer? AI technology that “codes” and low-code/no-code platforms have empowered non-programmers to create applications. AI takes no-code to a whole new level, doing all the work. Tech Execs are excited about the possibilities.

The notion of coding as a career is evolving.

However, the ability to build and deploy technology remains crucial. Working closely with end-users, gathering requirements, and applying that knowledge to various aspects such as data, processing, infrastructure, security, vendor products, and support is more important than ever. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing technological landscape, the ability to understand and leverage technology is a valuable asset for any business or organization. It allows for increased efficiency, improved customer experience, and competitive advantage.

One key aspect of successfully utilizing technology is through proper project management. This involves setting clear goals and objectives, establishing timelines, allocating resources effectively, and identifying potential risks along the way. With effective project management techniques in place, businesses can ensure that their technology projects are completed on time and within budget.

Even if a career as a software programmer doesn’t work out, it’s also important to have a team of skilled professionals who possess a diverse range of technical skills. This enables businesses to tackle complex technological challenges and stay ahead of the curve in terms of innovation.

Tech execs will need to shift from managing programmers to overseeing AI technology that streamlines application development. AI becomes a set of tools to enhance accuracy. While pure coders may not be required, their expertise is valuable in helping business end-users apply technology to their needs.

For tech exec, AI offers cost savings and boosts efficiency. As AI technology advances, it will gradually automate manual tasks, requiring technology professionals to adapt and upskill in other areas to support a complex tech environment.

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Legacy Data – unlocking the value

Tech execs are driven to modernize legacy systems for increased agility to match the fast pace of business. A valuable asset locked up in legacy systems is data. By planning a migration to the cloud organizations can leverage their legacy data and transform it into actionable insights.

This transformation can unlock new business opportunities, improve decision-making processes, and increase competitive advantage. With the cloud’s scalability and flexibility, tech execs can easily access and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time.

Businesses hold decades of untapped legacy data, ready to be utilized for harnessing its advantages.

True, a good portion of it could be aged, corrupted, or duplicate. Cleaning this data is crucial for unlocking its true value and making smarter, focused business decisions. Thankfully, with the advancement of technology and data management tools, this process has become much more efficient and effective.

Migrating from legacy to the cloud enables organizations to utilize cloud service providers’ (CSP) capabilities for big data processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning. These capabilities allow for the extraction of insights from the data. But before this can happen, the data needs to go through a thorough cleaning process.

The first step in this process is identifying and removing any duplicate or redundant legacy data.

This saves storage space and ensures accurate data analysis, avoiding result discrepancies.

Next, the data must be organized and standardized.

This involves formatting text strings, converting data types, and resolving missing values. Without proper organization, it becomes difficult to make meaningful connections or draw insights from the data.

When migrating legacy data to the cloud, consider the target data structure based on the use cases.

Data currently in structured format may be okay to dump into an unstructured data lake for analytics, as an example.

The data format in your legacy environment may differ from that in the cloud. It’s going to depend on the business need. So, there will be a lot of thinking required for how you are going to use this information. Are you going to query it? Are you going to run analytics on it? All these considerations will impact how you structure and store your data.

A major plus of cloud data storage is the flexibility to scale as required.

Traditional on-premises solutions require organizations to predict storage needs and invest in costly infrastructure that might end up underutilized. In the cloud, resources can be added or removed as needed, providing cost savings and increased flexibility.

Another important consideration when moving data to the cloud is security.

Although cloud providers offer strong security measures, organizations must enforce their own protocols and monitor data access regularly. This becomes even more critical if sensitive or confidential data is being stored in the cloud.

Besides scalability and security, leveraging the cloud for data storage can enhance collaboration and productivity in an organization. Teams can effortlessly collaborate on documents or projects from anywhere with internet access, eliminating delays due to location or time differences.

Furthermore, utilizing the cloud for data storage can also lead to cost savings for organizations. By ditching physical servers and gear, while cutting maintenance costs, businesses can greatly reduce their IT expenses. This allows them to reallocate resources towards other areas of their operations.

Lastly, the cloud offers reliable backup and disaster recovery options.

During system failure or natural disasters, cloud storage keeps data safe and accessible. This eliminates the risk of losing important information and allows for a quick recovery in case of any unexpected events.

To sum up, Cloud Service providers offer various services and partner tools to aid in migrating your data, including files, databases, machine images, block volumes, and tape backups. Successful data migration hinges on knowing what to move, where to move it, how to utilize it, and having knowledgeable individuals who can apply the data for making business decisions.

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Recognizing Employees with ADHD

Tech executives have another compelling reason to understand their employees better: ADHD, a neurodevelopmental disorder typically linked to children and young adults, can continue into adulthood. When an employee frequently struggles with task completion, punctuality, or presenting content, they might be contending with ADHD. Recognizing employees with ADHD, you can provide support and devise a plan to foster their success.

ADHD impairs executive function and self-regulation skills.

It’s a common affliction but having it doesn’t mean an employee can’t excel. Recognition and a supportive environment are crucial for success. Employees may be unaware they have the disorder, but signs like difficulty concentrating, staying organized, and managing time are noticeable. It affects work and personal life.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects approximately 8% of adults in the workforce. It is characterized by symptoms such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

In the workplace, employees with ADHD may struggle to stay focused on tasks or projects, leading to decreased productivity and potentially poor performance. However, it’s important for employers to understand that this is not due to laziness or lack of effort on the employee’s part.

Why is this important for a tech exec to understand?

It was shown that many kids doing school virtually during the pandemic saw a significant drop in their GPA, even though these kids were top students. It was shown that many of these kids did not have peer stimulation, which helped them stay focused when they were live in school. Without the stimulation they could not pay attention and were easily distracted.

Now that the work world is in a hybrid environment, many employees still work virtually. Some tech execs want to bring people back to the office due to observed drops in performance. Instead of immediate disciplinary actions, consider their past history with the company. If they were previously good workers, they may not be suitable for the virtual world. Bring them into the office to engage with others and enhance their performance.

We don’t want employees using ADHD as an excuse for poor performance.

But individuals with ADHD often have trouble regulating their attention and impulses, making it difficult for them to stay organized and on task. This can be exacerbated in a fast-paced work environment where there are multiple demands and distractions.

So how can employers support employees with ADHD?

The key is to provide accommodations and structure in the workplace. This could include setting clear expectations for tasks and deadlines, breaking down large projects into smaller manageable chunks, creating a quiet workspace or providing noise-cancelling headphones, and allowing for frequent breaks to help manage energy levels.

So, it’s important for employers to educate themselves and their staff on ADHD and its symptoms. This can help foster understanding and reduce stigma towards individuals with the disorder. Providing resources such as coaching or counseling services can also be beneficial in helping individuals with ADHD develop coping strategies and improve their overall performance.

Click here to learn more about ADHD from the Mayo Clinic.

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Legacy Mainframe Environment

Today, tech execs are concerned about the mainframe computer application code. Many companies have had mainframe computers since the 70s and 80s. Large companies, particularly in insurance and finance, built applications during that time that still run on mainframes now. These applications consist of mostly COBOL code, with millions of lines.

SIDE NOTE: COBOL is the oldest still used programming language, developed in 1959. The only other language even close in age is C, which was developed in the early 70’s.

Today’s mainframe computers have powerful processors and seamlessly run COBOL applications alongside Docker containers. Tech executives face challenges with complex COBOL, PL/1, and Assembler code, as well as managing decades of data in diverse environments like DB2, MySQL, and Oracle. We’ll discuss data in a future post.

Mainframe applications have long been vital for enterprise business processing. They were game-changers, and still handle key workloads effectively. However, the drive to convert or move these applications has been slow. Today, tech execs face fierce competition in aggressive markets. Outdated systems hinder companies from keeping up with innovative rivals. Cloud computing enables competitors to invest in new systems without hardware burdens. Consequently, older companies face disadvantages and must modernize their legacy application environment. The three reasons for this transformation are:

Agility: Companies need IT systems that can be updated for functional processing requirements in a timelier manner. Shorter development cycles are a must for organizations to keep pace.
Cost: The mainframe is the costliest computer available. In many organizations, it’s also difficult and time consuming to maintain. The complexity of the code and data environments makes keeping the systems up and running difficult. Modern cloud technologies offer a significant reduction in cost of ownership.
Risk: Knowledge of legacy environments is fading away as programmers who developed this code many years ago retire. Skills in COBOL, PL/1, CICS, etc. are becoming scarce, making managing the applications and responding to major incidences more challenging.

To remain competitive, organizations must tackle legacy mainframe systems. The transformation should uncover the current state and map out an ideal future state. Develop a value proposition with a total cost of ownership analysis for transitioning to the cloud. When it comes to maintaining the mainframe and harnessing the power of the cloud, it’s worth considering strategies from industry leaders like IBM. Take into account the costs of migration and retooling, but also weigh them against the benefits of ownership. Furthermore, take the time to explore the numerous advantages that cloud computing has to offer.

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Coaching is a Key Tech Exec Skill

The accomplished tech executive participates in coaching and mentoring junior colleagues, imparting acquired skills. Establishing a thriving succession cultivates respect and a reputation as a seasoned technology leader. Technology advances rapidly, emphasizing the need for experienced leaders to mentor. Accomplished tech executives must excel in their roles and share expertise with newcomers.

Coaching is an essential aspect of career growth and development.

By mentoring, you shape the industry’s future by sharing your experience and insights. This not only benefits the individual mentee, but also contributes to the overall growth and success of the technology sector.

Besides coaching junior colleagues in your organization, it’s beneficial to share your expertise beyond your company. Engaging in industry events, speaking on panels, and writing articles help spread knowledge to a broader audience.

Increasing visibility for yourself and your company also enables networking with tech professionals and staying updated on the latest field developments. Active participation in the tech community establishes expertise and fuels growth and innovation.

Furthermore, mentorship can also be a mutually beneficial experience. As a mentor, you have the opportunity to learn from your mentees as well. Their fresh perspectives and unique insights can inspire new ideas and approaches, benefiting both career development and professional growth.

Coaching is a key tech exec skill to learn and embrace.

Some execs reach a stage in their career where they consider mentoring beneath them, but it should never be the case. Stay humble and maintain an open-door policy. Avoid intimidating your team; instead, be seen as someone who is eager to mentor and support their growth. Everyone strives for success, and your subordinates will respect you if you invest time in helping them.

Bottom line, really successful technology execs take the time to mentor and provide guidance to their teams. Ensuring your emerging leaders align with your thinking and operations helps build a strong, empowered leadership team. Coaching is a key tech exec skill.

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