Driving Technical Change

By: 
Terrence Ryan
Published: 
2010
Pages: 
200
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Book Description

Finding cool languages, tools, or development techniques is easy-new ones are popping up every day. Convincing co-workers to adopt them is the hard part. The problem is political, and in political fights, logic doesn't win for logic's sake. Hard evidence of a superior solution is not enough. But that reality can be tough for programmers to overcome.

In Driving Technical Change: Why People On Your Team Don't Act on Good Ideas, and How to Convince Them They Should, Adobe software evangelist Terrence Ryan breaks down the patterns and types of resistance technologists face in many organizations.

You'll get a rich understanding of what blocks users from accepting your solutions. From that, you'll get techniques for dismantling their objections-without becoming some kind of technocratic Machiavelli.

In Part I, Ryan clearly defines the problem. Then in Part II, he presents "resistance patterns"-there's a pattern for each type of person resisting your technology, from The Uninformed to The Herd, The Cynic, The Burned, The Time Crunched, The Boss, and The Irrational. In Part III, Ryan shares his battle-tested techniques for overcoming users' objections. These build on expertise, communication, compromise, trust, publicity, and similar factors. In Part IV, Ryan reveals strategies that put it all together-the patterns of resistance and the techniques for winning buy-in. This is the art of organizational politics.

In the end, change is a two-way street: In order to get your co-workers to stretch their technical skills, you'll have to stretch your soft skills. This book will help you make that stretch without compromising your resistance to playing politics. You can overcome resistance-however illogical-in a logical way.

Member Reviews: 

Review By: Michael R. Kahn
08/19/2011In most every software development environment, there is a team dynamic at play. In college, they usually don't tell you just how big a part psychology plays in engineering efforts. Having good ideas is one thing; getting other people on board with your idea is another thing altogether. Enter Driving Technical Change. This book provides various techniques and approaches for getting your ideas considered and adopted.

The book categorizes people who represent obstacles to adoption of ideas into several types. For example, members of "The Burned" are people who have tried something similar to your proposal. It did not work well for them, and they put up a defensive resistance to your suggestion. On the other hand, members of "The Uninformed" may not object but simply do not understand the technology or product enough to make informed decisions. The book introduces each character type in short, easy-to-read chapters, describing characteristics of each type and techniques for dealing with them. For example, one technique for dealing with “The Cynic” is to prepare sufficiently so you can not be refuted.

The book also provides case studies to illustrate the character types and corresponding strategies for dealing with those types. The examples primarily revolve around database development. While it would have been nice to have more variety in the examples, anyone with a software background should be able to follow them. In fact, many of these character types exist in any profession, so any professional might find relevant material in Driving Technical Change.

In any professional environment, there are situations where people want to get their ideas accepted. It could be an idea for a software feature, a decision to use a particular tool (e.g., a version-control system), or any other decision on how to proceed with the business of the company. For those of you who want to give your ideas the best possible chance of adoption, I recommend this book. It is a fast read, and potential benefits from using the techniques are well worth the time invested.

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