Suggestions
Benji Stephenson
Software Engineer with a focus on full-stack development
Ben Stephenson is a highly experienced software engineer with a diverse background in Linux, open source, functional programming, and agile methods. Graduating with a first-class honors Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Northumbria University has given Ben the foundation of knowledge and skills to develop expertise in multiple roles, from junior technical architect to director. Although he has experience in various organizations, including News UK, Bossa Studios, and Accenture, Ben's focus is on self-organized, empowered teams to generate quality software that's not only functionally perfect but can be delivered efficiently.
As a former technical lead, he is skilled at coaching and leading teams of varying sizes, bringing an experience-driven approach that has allowed him to become a key influencer in shaping agile implementation and code delivery. He's also worked on projects for Royal Pharmaceutical Society and OVO Energy, where he served as a firmware engineer, illustrating his proficiency at Scala, Coding and development.
Highlights
The Agile Coaching Lab has been a 9 week journey that's taught me a couple of things about myself and reaffirmed a few others. Even as someone who isn't an agile or scrum coach it's been a really valuable experience; I've picked up a good toolbox of mentoring, facilitation and teaching techniques that feel like they'll be invaluable when working with client teams. I've already tried some of the liberating structure activities like 1,2,4,all in workshops and meetings, if you've never come across them before, I'd definitely give them a look https://lnkd.in/gAJhafjC. All of the homework involved creating something which I took in the form of some writing. Now we're all done I plan on continuing to scribble things down and putting them online somewhere. It's always been something I told myself I was bad at but it's ended up being something I enjoy. And I'm probably not going to get any worse at it with practice.. Probably!
As an engineer and sometimes-engineer-coach, I can say it's been a worthwhile endeavour; it's helped me learn more about how to interact with teams, be mindful of how I impact them and hopefully be more effective as a consultant. Jakub Jurkiewicz was a great guide from start to finish and I couldn't have asked for a cohort that was more supportive and willing to be vulnerable with each other.
My good friend Theodore the cat also enjoyed the sessions!
Take a look at the course outline over at https://lnkd.in/gjyH5_uE
Talking with a colleague the other day on the wonderful world of Haskell and FP, I thought I'd jot down one of the patterns that I think has shaped the way I write code the most; make expressions, not statements.
It's pretty simple, applicable to loads of languages and, I reckon anyway, gives your maintainability, readability and composability a boost. Would love to hear your thoughts.
https://lnkd.in/gb2PBsPD
#programming #programmingpractices #fp
