#management (17)
Cooperative vs Employment: A Conversation the Community Was Ready to Have
Notes from conversations with RAD-KOP, a Russian cooperative IT community. Not 'here's my pitch' but 'here's where the dialogue took us': a comparison of models, real-world examples, and an honest look at the downsides.
Red Flags in Hiring, Through a Lead's Eyes
Behavioral patterns in candidates I've learned to spot over years of hiring. Not an HR checklist, but the view of a manager who builds teams.
FAANG the Russian Way: The Cult of Canon and Antipatterns Born of Good Intentions
Why "we want architecture like FAANG" so often turns out to be the beginning of the end. On the cult of canon, antipatterns born of good intentions, and one short word that saves projects more reliably than any pattern.
"Retros Are a Waste of Time." Let's Unpack Why They're Not
A retro is easy to turn into a ritual everyone quietly hates. Let's dig into what it's actually for, how to get honesty out of your team, and why without action items the whole thing is just idle chatter.
How to Take a Banking Product Real-Time
Building a real-time pre-approved offers system inside a banking enterprise. Apache Flink, Tarantool, Kafka — and the lessons you won't find in the docs.
The More Detailed the Spec, the Weaker the Developers — A Paradox I Keep Seeing on Projects
Why overly detailed requirements erode developer expertise over time, where the real pros and cons of a high-level spec lie, and how to strike a balance between predictability and team growth.
Classic Mistakes Systems Analysts Make on IT Projects
Typical missteps systems analysts make on large enterprise projects in banking and fintech: vague requirements, legacy integrations, regulation, negative scenarios and early validation — and how to cut the risk ahead of time.
Fintech Development: 7 Circles of Hell
An honest guide to what awaits your team when shipping a product to production at a major bank. From hiring to support — every stage is a challenge of its own.
User Stories: The Most Underrated Thing on Teams
What a user story actually is, how to write one using the "who — what — why" formula, why acceptance criteria matter, and the traps teams fall into most often.
Saint HighLoad++ 2024: Moving a Banking Product to Real-Time
A talk from Saint HighLoad++ 2024 — how we built a real-time trigger system for banking customers on Apache Flink, Tarantool, and Kafka, and what did not go according to plan.
Building an IT Team Fast: The Risks and the Upside
Assembling a core team in a month and closing all your hiring in two sounds like a flex — but you pay for every week you save. From my own experience: where speed wins, and where the bill lands.
Tech Lead: A New Challenge for the Analyst
A career path from analyst to head of an IT cluster. How to build a team from scratch, which skills you will have to level up, and why knowing how to say "no" matters more than knowing how to say "yes." Based on a proposal for Analyst Days 2024.
IT Conferences for Analysts: A Practitioner's Guide
Why analysts should go to conferences, how to squeeze the most out of them, and which venues are worth your time and money. A rundown of 20+ conferences from the experience of a speaker and the lead of a 2,000+ member community.
How a Software Development Team Actually Works
How a software development team is structured, from gathering requirements to release: six phases and the roles — BA, PO, Systems Analyst, Scrum Master, Tech Lead, developers, DevOps, QA — and who owns what.
Impulse 2023: Community Synergy — Boosting the Output of IT Teams
A talk from the Impulse 2023 conference: how horizontal links, tech guilds, and mentoring boost the output of IT teams and save millions of rubles.
How to Interview a Client When You're the Analyst on an IT Team (a Checklist)
A step-by-step algorithm for interviewing a client when there is no business analyst on the team: preparation, running the interview, analysis, and confirming requirements.
Analyst Days 14 / Impulse 2022: Don't Paint the Grass — Data Risk and Value in a BANI World
A talk from Analyst Days 14 and Impulse 2022 — why ungoverned data turns into a ticking time bomb, and how DAMA, ISO 27000, and plain common sense help you avoid it.