June 17, 2021 at 12:43 am
Doctor Who 2 wrote:Jeff Moden wrote:My basic trouble with hackathons in a company is... why do they actually need one to begin with? It seems like that's an admission that they don't embrace innovation during the rest of the year.
I also agree that the stuff created in such a one day event is going to be pretty limited in scope and value.
I hear what you're saying, but I must respectfully disagree. Working in state government, innovation is discouraged. I've tried introducing several innovative approaches, but nothing doing. We're still working with .NET 4.5.2 which came out with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. I've tried so many times to get us to adopt newer .NET frameworks, because of the improved productivity for developers, but they won't hear of it. And as often happens, they won't say why they won't hear of it. Then there's the passive-aggressive resistance to Agile. I could go on; my point is we really could use something like a hackathon to encourage innovation and creativity. I'm a senior software developer. The "senior" has nothing to do with being creativity. It's only that I've been doing this longer than a junior and can accomplish more by following a prescribed pattern set by others. The same holds for senior DBAs. I know they use tools from both Redgate and Idera, but I don't think they have created a database project in Visual Studio. Granted using Visual Studio isn't something many DBAs are likely to do, however I doubt they use Azure Data Studio and I know that none of the SQL code they've written is in any VCS. The "real" creativity comes from about two levels higher than me. And at that level they're no longer acquainted with what people at my level are dealing with. I long, so much, to do innovative and creative software development, process solving and the like.
Heh... we're actually agreeing with each other. My take is that if you need a hackathon, then your company is probably suppressing innovation the rest of the time. You're saying, yep... you work for one of those and need a hackathon.
If that's the way you're forced to operate, then perhaps the ideas coming out of that one day won't be so limited in scope... you'll have thought about it most of the rest of the year and be totally ready for the hackathon if and when it comes.
😀
Oh, totally my bad, Jeff, for misunderstanding you. Glad I'm on the same page with you. 🙂
Rod
June 17, 2021 at 12:48 am
Jeff Moden wrote:Doctor Who 2 wrote:Jeff Moden wrote:My basic trouble with hackathons in a company is... why do they actually need one to begin with? It seems like that's an admission that they don't embrace innovation during the rest of the year.
I also agree that the stuff created in such a one day event is going to be pretty limited in scope and value.
I hear what you're saying, but I must respectfully disagree. Working in state government, innovation is discouraged. I've tried introducing several innovative approaches, but nothing doing. We're still working with .NET 4.5.2 which came out with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. I've tried so many times to get us to adopt newer .NET frameworks, because of the improved productivity for developers, but they won't hear of it. And as often happens, they won't say why they won't hear of it. Then there's the passive-aggressive resistance to Agile. I could go on; my point is we really could use something like a hackathon to encourage innovation and creativity. I'm a senior software developer. The "senior" has nothing to do with being creativity. It's only that I've been doing this longer than a junior and can accomplish more by following a prescribed pattern set by others. The same holds for senior DBAs. I know they use tools from both Redgate and Idera, but I don't think they have created a database project in Visual Studio. Granted using Visual Studio isn't something many DBAs are likely to do, however I doubt they use Azure Data Studio and I know that none of the SQL code they've written is in any VCS. The "real" creativity comes from about two levels higher than me. And at that level they're no longer acquainted with what people at my level are dealing with. I long, so much, to do innovative and creative software development, process solving and the like.
Heh... we're actually agreeing with each other. My take is that if you need a hackathon, then your company is probably suppressing innovation the rest of the time. You're saying, yep... you work for one of those and need a hackathon.
If that's the way you're forced to operate, then perhaps the ideas coming out of that one day won't be so limited in scope... you'll have thought about it most of the rest of the year and be totally ready for the hackathon if and when it comes.
😀
And be careful not to conflate using the latest flavor of the month tech with innovation, the two are not synonymous. Whatever problems are hindering innovation on your current tech stack won't just go away if you suddenly switched to open source, no sql big data with a cloud based ai decision engine. Indeed chasing the current must have tech can easily become a hindrance to innovation in and of itself.
Good point, ZZ. Open source/NoSQL/Agile/etc. isn't necessarily the knight in shiny armor. I believe changing the processes and people, are necessary for the shiny babble to really work.
Rod
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