Re: Time to get serious

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 09:01:27 -0600, Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > From: Mike Eovino
> >
> > I don't know where you got that idea, because I certainly did not say
> > that.  I will clarify what I DID say.
> 
> Sorry about that, Mike.  I got the idea because you said "young guys".
> 
> 
> > 2.  We want young guys who can come in and learn from these pros,
> > learn the business and be our workhorses for the long haul.
> 
> So why can't they learn RPG as well?  Any programmer worth his salt can
> learn RPG.

Undoubtedly they can.  One of my guys brought in to do web development
is.  Only problem is that we really can only develop one person at a
time given our staffing and workloads.

> > But I'm on a 30 year time horizon here.  That's why I want the young
> > guys as well.  I want to build this business for the long haul.
> 
> Okay, then you are willing to train the new guys.  Again, you can teach
> someone RPG.  Now, if they're not WILLING to learn RPG, then maybe
> they're not cut out for your job.  

That's my worry.  Without even some basic exposure to RPG and what it
has to offer, I have to do a real sales job at times to get young guys
to learn RPG.  I lost one because he couldn't move forward in our
organization without learning it, and he was just unwilling to learn
it.

Was he wrong for us?  Undoubtedly.  But is it a pain in the neck to
have to sell someone on learning a language?  Yes.

> > That's what I'm looking for.  But as we build a critical mass of Java
> > programmers and our RPG programmers retire off, what do we do?  If we
> > reach a tipping point where we no longer have and no longer can
> > acquire competency in RPG, what do I do?
> 
> First, you need to decide whether RPG is going to be around in 30 years
> or not.  You seem to swing back and forth on that one.  

Who knows what will be around in 30 years.  I hope that RPG will be. 
But what I want in 30 is guys who have a proven track record of being
able to learn the businesses we provide service to and being able to
learn new technologies and apply the best one to the job at hand.  The
thing is, I need to get them now and they need to be productive
quickly or we will not be around in 30 years to worry about this.  And
I need some old pros who can hit the ground running to help us out
with current projects and bringing the new guys along.

> Let's assume,
> though, that RPG is around for 30 years.  Given that time horizon, you
> should have been able to hire quite a few generations of new hires (in a
> shop as stable as yours, I consider a generation to be about three
> years).
> 
> Let's further assume you have a multi-modal shop, with both Java and RPG
> skills required.  You hire the new guys into the Java side, but provide
> incentives to graduate to the RPG side.  In effect, set up your Java
> programming side as the minor leagues.  
> 
> So train them and cross-promote them.

Basically what we've done with the guys willing to go down this road. 
But are there enough young guys willing to go down this road?  And
will we have enough vets to teach them?  And how much training
capacity do we have?  We have plenty of seasoned pros who do good
work, but only a few I'd actually have anyone learn from.

> Now, five or seven years down the road one of two things will happen:
> 
> 1. RPG continues to grow and the iSeries (in whatever incarnation it is
> by then) continues to be the vigorous platform it's been for decades.
> You'll now have a clear advantage in that your business is running on
> the best architectural model and you'll likely be able to adapt to
> changing business rules faster than someone with a brittle object
> hierarchy. (Heck, if your core business practices permit it, you've now
> got some pretty high-talent staff that you can farm out for extra
> bucks.)
> 
> 2. You see signs that RPG is waning, but you've built a multi-modal
> shop.  You can start performing a knowledge transfer from the RPG staff
> to the Java guys and start writing platform independent business logic,
> using SQL and stored procedures and business objects.  Because you have
> the Java guys in-house and some of them have at least touched RPG, the
> knowledge transfer will be much easier.  Your senior RPG guys will be
> retiring, and your second-tier guys move in business analysis roles.
> The entry-level guys by definition are cross-language, since they
> started in Java, so they are ready to go.
> 
> That's just my outlook, Mike.  It may be a little simplistic, but I
> think this is the direction I'd try to go.

Basically along the lines I'm thinking; I just wanted some outside
input on the approach.  I think our organization will be OK if #2
happens, but if IBM could make #1 come to pass, we'd really be in a
great position.

Mike E.