Technical people with soft skills – no really? Sapteched is there for you in 2012

So your going to SAP Teched 2012…   So you are ready.  Your bags are packed.  Your schedule is done.  You know just what you want to do and where you want to be.   Ha!   We all know schedules change.   Anyway…

You are a technical person.  I am a technical person.   We must not need to know how to interact with users, functional people, and well just people.   We are heads down programmers.   REALLY?   Are you?   Is that all you want to be?

You can read the blogs.  Talk with the recruiters or look at your current job.    Or you already know…  Technical people HAVE to have the soft skills.  It is a must in our every day lives.   And so….

Yes, there is a point to all of this.   SAP Teched has some cool sessions.  But did you see a little known session / informal get together?    The Role of Empathy in Design thinking?  

What!  You’ve seen it.  It doesn’t sound like you.  You are a developer.  <gasp>  Developers at Teched, I would never have guessed.   Well of course Marilyn Pratt explains it best.  Do click on the link above.  The goal of this blog is not to explain anything.   That’s what makes it so easy to write.

Basically the goal of this blog is to think about things from a developer’s point of view.  Here is what I do at my job.  I bet you do a lot of this too.

1. I create design specifications – either technical or functional.
2. I code.
3. I prototype.
4. I teach – mentor.
5. I attend many meetings.
6. I work with the end user.
7. I work with functional type people who create functional specifications.
8. I create and run unit tests.
9. I revise code

Mmmmm…  The above list doesn’t look like much.   But look at it again.   How much time do I spend on my code?  Hopefully only around 25% of my day.   What!  Not 100%, not more.   Honestly some days are heads down coding.  They have to be.  I am a developer.   But if I have a good idea of what I want to program,  I can actually deliver a better first product.  This limits the need for the round and round or reprogramming.  You know.  You code.  You deliver it.  They don’t like XYZ.  You recode.   AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And so what can help?   Well those soft skills come in real handy.   So this event will increase your soft skills.   Make you think in a different and fun way.   It will make it easier to get those questions answered.  Limit that recoding.  You have to love that.

Yes, I am technical.   I attended a similiar event to this last Teched, and learned so much.   I have stories to share, and no time time type them up.  I’m going to Teched.  I have a lot of work to finish.    I still have my own presentation to tweak.    <Sigh>   But I’ll be at the event!!   I’d love to share my experience.   It is all positive.   You – yes you, you technical person reading this.  You should come to  – if time allows. 

Why?  Learning, networking, fun!   The top three reasons of course.    I’m looking forward to this Teched event.  Hope to see you there!

If not, as always, stop anywhere to say hi.  I’m shy enough I may not stop you.   I’m getting better, but sometimes I sit quietly in a corner.   That’s good too.  But feel free to say hi.

I know this blog is all  over the place.  But what can I say?  I’m excited for Teched!!!!!   Yes – I’ll be there!

Oh and what do I look like?  I hate photos – but for you.   Here’s a recent photo: