Things a Senior Developer Should Know Besides Code

The post was originally written for the Telegram channel.

I recently came across an article by Camille Fournier about things that a Senior Developer should be able to do besides development.

I often, in conversations with friends and colleagues, raise the question that you don't need to be a coder, you need to be an engineer/developer.

Responsibility and abilities that are not directly related to development, but make you better, are simply enormous and there is no limit to perfection; you can develop yourself in a huge number of directions.

I have selected several points that I often encounter in my work:

1. How ​​to take negative feedback gracefully

Negative feedback (NF) is not always a productive OS, but you, as a developer, must be able to accept it and find points of growth in such an OS. Reflect, look at yourself and your code from the outside, we are not perfect.

2. How ​​to tell someone they're wrong without making them feel ashamed

The developer community is often very stuffy and toxic, which can lead to the impression that it is "normal" to behave this way in work communications and it even works in some companies/teams.

It is very important to learn to speak without judgment, try to explain why the person is wrong, so that the person is not demotivated by your comment or message and draws the right conclusions.

3. How ​​to help someone get promoted

From my own experience, I know that for many developers it is very difficult to admit that someone is better than themselves. Many see other developers as a threat and can only help juniors in development, because... They don't see them as rivals. But every time we help someone become better and grow in their grade, we ourselves become better, improve our mentoring skills and learn something new.

4. How ​​to communicate project status to stakeholders

And not only stakeholders 🥩. Often, developers, even experienced ones, cannot proactively and fully communicate the status of the project, what difficulties they encounter and when the release will be. Keep in touch and be open, you are getting paid for this.

What do you consider to be a sign of a good Senior Developer?

The remaining points are at the link - https://www.elidedbranches.com/2021/06/an-incomplete-list-of-skills-senior.html (Web Archive)