Influence, part 1 of 4: Communication
What is influence in software engineering? Why is it important? Influence is what happens when it’s not just you any more. One day while you’re blissfully writing code your boss comes to you and says “I need you to lead project MemeShoe. It’s a little complicated, though, as it’s not just our team. It’ll involve these five other teams, who I don’t think you know yet? Oh, and one of them’s in a different office — they’re based in Sydney.” Or, maybe, it’s your idea. This time you’re blissfully coding when genius strikes and you see in front of you a path forward to product excellence, resource savings, and user raptures. But it’s going to need more than just your team. Uncomfortably exciting! Where do you start? Who do you talk to? How do you get them on board with putting Memes on shoes? What are their goals? Do they align with yours? Do the timelines match up? This is important because a single team can only do so much. Background To give some credits first: I'm using some of the s...