Excellence in Software Engineering
Monday Tech Talks
25 Juli 2018

Author: Kadir BULUT, SW Engineer – Embedded Systems

Technology evolves so fast and it is getting harder and harder to follow the evolution, regardless of how much we try. However, we want to learn about new technologies, and we wonder new inventions or maybe old ways/methods in order to learn how things were used to be. To get that information, we use various ways. Which method do you use to achieve it? There are various ways of course. But we have a different, an innovative way, an ICterra way that is also useful in current projects. I am going to tell you about Monday Tech Talks.

The idea of Monday Tech Talks is simple and will be simpler with an example. Let’s say you have read/heard about a design pattern or it is already being used in your current project and you wonder what it is used for, what are the benefits of using it, why it is chosen in the first place and what we could possibly have sacrificed when we use it. Then you make your research in your own way. Surf the internet, watch some videos, read articles and finally you find the answers for your questions. Then you think that these answers would also be the same answers that your colleagues might look for. If so they will have to spend some time to find them. And you tell yourself “They don’t have to spend so much time. I can tell them in half an hour or even less!”. So you invite your colleagues to join your session on Monday. It is Monday because it is better to start a week with such a good event. On the other hand, it is more favorable because your colleagues would rest at the weekend and they will have clear minds.

Then the time comes. Your colleagues take their place around the white board or in a meeting room and you are about to tell what you have learned about the topic. This is an interactive session of course, they may want to ask some questions during the session. However, you are already well-prepared since you have spent enough time so that they not to. So you answer the questions, keep talking and finish the session.

Preparation for the session already improves your knowledge for sure. But it is possible that some of your colleagues may also have some knowledge that you didn’t come across. They could also have learned something about the topic based on their previous experiences. That is even better, right? They can enlighten about some parts you may miss.

Now everyone in the session knows the drill. Perhaps some of them inspires from your words and decides to make deeper research. Who knows maybe they will find a way that is more efficient way than the way you researched. Or maybe some of them inspires from your efforts and make another Monday Talk.

The key point of the session is getting the information without spending extra and unnecessary time. So if someone wants to do a session like this, there should not be anyone else thinking the same topic. It would conflict with the main purpose of these sessions. In order that the person tells everyone that the topic s/he wants to explain in another session like yours and if there is another one thinking the same, then they do the next session together. That will be on a Monday of course:)

We have performed several Monday Tech Talks so far in ICterra. We have talked about C++ Pimpl idiom, common Git problems & solutions, observer pattern, type casting in C++, SOLID principles, clean code, strategy pattern and some other topics we already use in our projects.

Thanks to Monday Tech Talks, we are learning in a social way by saving our times. These sessions improve the know-how inside the company, expand awareness in our projects and broaden our mind. And we all know that the knowledge we gain from Monday Tech Talks will help us to understand the handling of some certain behaviors in current & future projects.

In the end, it is a great pleasure for me to be a part of Monday Tech Talks in ICterra.

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