Driving Technical Change

Create Evangelists

They’ve agreed to help, and now you have to help them help you. You need to arm them with tools that they can use when they are faced with skeptics. Again, disclosure is key.

First let them know exactly why your tool or technique is important to the wider group. “We spend too much time on maintenance of old spaghetti code. If we standardized on framework [x], we could reduce maintenance time and have more time to focus on….” Be that explicit and simple; make sure people know what they are fighting for.

Next, come clean about the skeptics they’re up against. Let them know why one or the other is skeptical. Let them know who is the Burned and who is Time Crunched.

Then, let them in on the whole plan. Let them know who you are ...