Boredom is good for everything

2 questions

How to you choose technology?

How to do you make your devs happy?

I've been there

and maybe I'm still there 😂

TODO moje zdjęcie

Alternative way

Use most popular stack - PHP
- Why? 75% of the web pages use PHP (according to TechJury and W3Techs).
Pick using GitHub repo stars
Pick using external report like:
- Software Developers Statistics 2024 by JetBrains
- 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey

A small exercise

Pick your area of expertise: web, mobile, infra, ...
Pick your favorite tech: React, Flutter, K8s, AI
Ready?

Read the text

In our next project, we should use "my favorite tech" because it is widely adopted in the market in "my area".

Moreover, it has received numerous stars on GitHub and is widely used by developers according to last year's Stack Overflow survey.

It is simply the best choice.

PHP for the win

In our next project, we should use PHP because it is widely adopted in the market in web development (75% according to TechJury and W3Techs)

Moreover, it has received 38757 stars on GitHub and is widely used by ~20% developers according to last year's Stack Overflow survey.

It is simply the best choice.

I know that

I know nothing

TODO: jako sokrates

[A]s we know:

1. There are known knowns - there are things we know we know.

2. We also know there are known unknowns - that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

3. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld in 2002

Secretary of Defense of the United States

Who	Tech A (e.g. PHP)	Tech B (e.g. Postgres)	Tech Z (e.g. Kafka)
Dev 1	1	8	9

Dev N	10	2	6

Checking competences

Scale

Scale 1-10 - is difficult to measure - am I 6 or 8?
Experience-based scales work better
- “Hello world level”, “production experience” or if you wish “padawan”, “knight”, “master”
- Novice (“What is it?”), Practitioner (“I can do it”), Expert (“I can teach it”)
- Shu-Ha-Ri - A progression from following instructions (Shu) to independent practice (Ri)

Visualization example

Convert back "experience-based scales" to point scale 😉

Aggregated Data Benefits

Avoids technology misalignment:
- Prevents issues from choosing technology based on isolated team preferences.
- Ensures organization-wide awareness and alignment.

Supports blameless culture:
- Avoids using matrix data for punitive actions like firing or reviews.
- Focuses on organizational issues and strategies.

A new buzzword on the horizon

To AI or not to AI?

Extending Tech Stack

Need for extension:
- Companies often need to expand their technology stack.
- Current trend: integrating AI into products.

Competency matrix for new tech

Best-Case Scenario - few members with basic experience:
- 'PoC at home' experience.
- 'Hello world' level.

Weight	Category	Tech A	Tech Z

Category examples

Aligned tech stack with current skills.
DX, DevOps, etc.
Assumed willingness of developers to adapt.
Perceived employees market.
Community & knowledge base.
Stability - e.g. how regular new versions appear
...

The end

If you're already doing that - congratulations!

If not, remember this

Don't design against your team.