General

Introducing This Dot's PAMstack Services - Process Improvement Consulting for Technology Organizations

Published Apr 13, 2020

Updated Oct 9, 2023

3 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

During these challenging and uncertain times, many companies are taking additional measures to review their operational processes, and determine how they can act most efficiently, while maintaining concern and focus for their employees.

Development team leadership is looking for a way to ensure that their employees remain engaged and productive, while developers demand more clarity and understanding to help them perform despite the anxieties currently impacting every global industry.

Now is the time for leadership to develop clear plans of action not only for the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic, but looking forward as well- to when developers come back to their workplaces, and a sense of relative normalcy returns.

To help support teams, eager to audit their operations, and implement more clear and stable processes for leading their teams, This Dot Labs is now proud to offer a new resource through the PAMstack.

WHAT IS THE PAMSTACK?

In short, the PAMstack (Process, Abstraction, & Mentorship) is a modern framework for creating sustainable development teams.

It is not a list of rigid and inflexible rules, nor does it rely on mountains of documentation. Instead, the PAMstack empowers developer teams to streamline their processes, promote workplace inclusion, and better outfit their projects to promote collaboration.

Teams do this by auditing their processes to incrementally simplify complicated workflows that rely on personal excellence above teamwork, migrate their technologies to leverage highly documented modern web tools, and create intentional mentorship programs to invest in team longevity.

By implementing this customizable program, teams will expect to reduce project and hiring budgets, increase productivity, mitigate workplace stressors, and better diversify their workplaces both demographically, and technologically.

WHAT DOES THIS DOT LABS INCLUDE IN ITS PAMSTACK SERVICES?

Leaders who are interested in exploring how the PAMstack will transform their developer teams are encouraged to contact hi@thisdotlabs.co to schedule their free 1-hour process audit with one of our expert PAMstack architects.

In this session, we will explore how your team can take advantage of the PAMstack, including sample process plans, checklists, and documentation; 1:1 mentorship, team workshops, leadership development, staff augmentation, architectural reviews, and the support of This Dot’s large network of industry leaders.

If you are not a team leader, but are interested in learning more about how to implement PAMstack principles in your own processes, we have made many of our resources, and documentation available free on our For Developers page.

There, you can access free workflow checklists, review example process documentation, explore leading technologies, and check out tips for introducing mentorship programs to your workplace.

To learn more about the PAMstack from one of its lead architects, Rob Ocel, you can listen to this talk, or check out our new website: thepamstack.com!

And if you’re ready to begin your journey with the PAMstack, schedule a complimentary process audit today by contacting us at hi@thisdot.co!

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

About the author(s)

This Dot

Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer

Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer In today's ever-growing software landscape of tools and experience to gain, we can find ourselves lost wanting to do more, yet feeling like we don't have enough hours in the day to accomplish everything we want. This problem is all too common in every level of industry, and as software engineers we can find ourselves racing to finish multiple things yet never actually reaching the finish line with anything. If by chance we do, we're often burnt out and ready for vacation (sometimes after a few days). Sadly, we all can't be Elon Musk, but we can begin to fix our habits and patterns to feel more like a genius. Why Is Time Management Important? As professionals in any fields, it's important that we execute on our work in a consistent way that helps us not only feel *productive*, but also feel like we're helping achieve business goals as well as personal growth goals. Taking an example straight from my own life, I found myself mentally exhausted trying to keep up with everything in my life - my job, personal projects, and my life goals. It seemed like I had so much going on, but my fatal flaw was the fact that keeping myself busy with so much didn't make me feel accomplished. Something had to change. Benefits of Proper Time Management Simply put, there are no downsides to better time management. The act of time management is a great key to our success in whatever we do. While it's as simple as just doing it, focus and consistency are needed to really be successful. Because we live in a world where the speed of business and technology is increasing, being decisive about priorities is even more important. Where we fail is when we try to make snap decisions especially for important tasks that require our full attention. Not only does it take focus and consistency to succeed, but when a person knows what they're doing for the week, day, or hour, they can better focus on tasks and feel better about whatever they're doing. There's a sense of clarity that comes as a result of having a single focus on one thing and executing on it, even if it's not to completion. Helpful Tips for Better Time Management Important Being a master of your time can be a difficult task at first, but with some grit and determination, paving the road to success can become easier. Say you need to meet a deadline for a project with a release in a few days. How can we make our lives easier in a short period of time? 1. Redefine Goals and Expectations The first step is to write down all you tasks including goals, milestones, or whatever you use to describe large bodies of work. This will paint a clear picture of what is and what is *not* a priority. Wins from doing this include: - framing your to-dos to better execute them - freeing your mind from trying to remember why you're doing something - strategizing how to best execute tasks *Pro tip: adding goals and activities you're already currently working on to this list helps make sure nothing is missed.* This doesn't have to be a complicated step with each goal or task being general. In the next section, we'll see how to be effective with this list. 2. Prioritize Goals and Actionable Tasks Now we have a list of things to accomplish and activities already invested in, but we haven't figured out what to perform first. The best way we can prioritize these items is to place value on them. Value can be added to tasks by determing how much of an impact one task can make over the other. We can even timebox them to further increase that value. Ask youself these questions to categorize tasks: 1. Is it urgent and important? 2. Is it important, but not as urgent? 3. Is it urgent, but not important? 4. Is it neither urgent nor important? Remember urgency often has a time limit, and importance can be specific to you or to a group of persons. A couple of examples look like this: 1. Release candidate to deploy to production by 3/1/2021. Urgent because there's a due date, and important because it affects the team and/or business. 2. Technical task to unblock a portion of work. Doesn't have a time limit, but could help unblock yourself or another developer. 3. Make a Plan and Stick to It Lastly, and this may be the hardest part about time management: consistency is another one of those building blocks to success and it's absolutely critical that all of the effort so far does not crash down on us. This one really comes down to knowing how best you work. Whether it's waking up at 4:30 am to get your mind ready for the day or working out to keep your body active, figure out your motivation for the work being done and put it into your schedule. What you gain from doing this is: - a clear visualization of what's being worked on for the day or week - what's up next on your agenda - *when you'll have your breaks to recharge and finish strong* A note on breaks: developers write code, check processes, do code reviews, plan solutions to unique problems, suggest and articulate solutions, and the list goes on. Without scheduled breaks, we'd be on the fast track to burn out before the day's out. Make a plan solid by strategizing about the plan and how you'll *stick to it*. It makes a world of difference to set your work space away from your bedroom, or to work at the office or a coffee shop. Prepare healthy meals ahead of time so you're not skipping meals or eating junk. Workout during the week because your body is a temple, and the mind needs the body like the body needs a fully functioning mind. Tools to Help Structure Your Time As stated before, write things down and block out your time, so you know what you can and can't commit to. Here are a few tools that I use to get me through the day feeling well-accomplished: iCal - makes it easy to import multiple calendars, from one or more email addresses, into a single calendar view. Google Calendar - you won't get the same importing features as iCal, but their interface makes it easy to add shared calendars. If you can find a 3rd-party mail client that offers the same flexibility as iCal, I'd recommend that for the single calendar view. Notion - Notion has changed the way I operate entirely. You can use the free version personally and for work. It just requires that you use one email address per workspace. With Notion, you can: - Take general notes - Keep a work log - Generate to a table of tasks - Set reminders for tasks - Sort tasks into views - Use user-built templates. Some you can buy while others provide instructions on how to make them your own. If Notion isn't the right fit for you, Evernote is another really great tool for assembling thoughts into books, articles, and notes. It also features templates more than Notion does. Conclusion In the earlier example of a deadline for a release candidate, it may feel like there's no time left before that deadline rolls around. That sinking feeling like you're running out of time is the reason you should manage your expectations, priorities, and time. Only good things can come from taking back your time and focusing it. At the end of the day, you can look back and feel a sense of freedom. Be good to future you!...

Mar 8, 2021

6 mins

TipsGeneralMentorshipSoftware Engineer

My Career Roadmap

Every developer has their own unique roadmap. I love hearing these stories as they’re constant reminders that there is no right way. Anyone can become a successful developer as long as they have the passion for it. I’ll be sharing my roadmap in hopes that someone also realizes that there are multiple ways to be part of the programming world. My journey started when I attended a junior college in an effort to complete the prerequisites for a Biochemistry degree. I actually got far enough to start taking Organic Chemistry courses. However, my heart wasn’t in it. I found it boring and dreaded anything related to those science classes. I did find it cool that I could recognize some of the fancy ingredients in a shampoo. It just wasn’t what I connected with. I knew that something had to change. I was on track to transfer to a four year university in less than two years. I was always interested in computers and thought about programming. I still don’t know why I was drawn to that: maybe social media made it look cool? The dilemma was to either continue or take a risk by starting a whole new career. I didn’t want to spend more time at junior college, so I needed to make a hard decision: either continue with Biochemistry or drop it completely to pursue programming, but still transfer within the estimated year. I probably would have chosen to experiment with both at the same time if I had realized this a couple of years prior. However, I ended up changing majors within a week. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My first programming class felt a bit scary. The building was run down and cold. The room was cramped. There were only two females (including myself). The course wasn’t hard or discriminating against genders but it probably felt that way due to being completely new to the field and not knowing anyone. It didn’t discourage me from programming. In fact, I still remember typing up my first Hello World program. It was the feeling of writing code that made me realize that I was on the right track. Luckily, the junior college had opened up the new STEM building a year later. This really made the place more welcoming. It was actually pretty cool. There were outlets everywhere! A dream for programmers that we take for granted. One of the courses that I took was Internet Programming. This was a turning point for me. My professor recommended that I participate in the local hackathon that was coming up soon. He suggested forming a team with the two other females in class. I never once thought he was discriminating. I honestly believe that he saw potential in all of us but we were lacking confidence in a male-dominated world. We participated in the hackathon as a female group. It was my first time working with a team and presenting our project to the public. We didn’t win any awards, but it provided some of the confidence that I was lacking. I finally understood that it didn’t matter what gender you are. I found a love of programming and wanted to be one of the best. I ended up getting recruited for a local internship through the hackathon. I was able to learn about realistic expectations when building a project for a client. The lead developer was also very open to teaching a complete newbie. This is where I learned the basics for web development. It was this type of support that helped shape my career. I graduated from junior college with an associates degree in Chemistry and transferred the next semester. The one regret that I do have in my career is the university that I chose. It didn’t have the best resources for the Computer Science students. The classes were boring and most of the professors didn't seem to care. If you weren’t on the game research cohort, you were just another student passing through. During this time, I got a chance to be part of a research team. However, I decided to accept an internship instead. It was another difficult decision as both had great opportunities. I still think that the internship was the best route as it helped me later on. The internship only lasted for the summer. I learned Polymer during this time. The project was my first deployment and it was used by the city. It was also another great confidence booster. I returned to school with the goal to find my first job before graduation. Truthfully, it was very discouraging, even with my internship experiences. Most companies wanted developers with years in programming. They really don’t make it easy for junior developers. I’m almost positive that I placed over 100 applications. When I did get a response, it was a decline. I also attended the career fair that the university organized. That’s where I found the company that gave me a job offer. I started working for them after graduation. This led to web development in the Drupal world for a little over 2 years. It was a small company but provided development growth. I learned the importance of quality assurance and time management. I also acquired the skill to advocate for higher priority tickets. The most important lesson was that a project can only thrive with a unified team and proper documentation. However, the company had a tremendous downsize due to the pandemic. I was once again on the job hunt. Fortunately, the connections I made during the summer internship helped me find a job at This Dot. There was still an interview process, which I passed due to all the career choices that were made. I’m very excited to be here. I’m working with LitElement projects and more structured work environments. It really is a big difference from a very small company. I’m now pursuing the path of being a mentor, a dream that I had since my first internship. I’m working on improving a mentorship program and making sure my mentee has all the support she needs. I barely have a bit over 3 years of work experience. The time went by very quickly and I’m still excited to be programming. I can’t wait to see where my roadmap will be in the next upcoming years. Tweet me your favorite moment in your roadmap!...

Feb 2, 2021

4 mins

CareerMentorship

Announcing September JavaScript Marathon - Free, online training!

Join us September 23rd, 2020 for our next JavaScript Marathon! JavaScript Marathon is a full day of free, online courses on Angular, React, Vue, RxJS, Web Performance, and more. Come learn about some of the leading web development technologies, and concepts! Stay for one training, or stick around for the whole day! No two sessions will be the same! --- React Native in 60 Minutes - Introduction to Creating Your First Hybrid Native Application *Featuring Rob Ocel @ 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT* So, you know React, and you want to build a mobile application - how do you get started? In this training, we'll discuss the architecture of React Native and how it differs from competing approaches such as Progressive Web Applications, Ionic Capacitor, and Apache Cordova. Then, we'll make a basic application from scratch that uses data from remote APIs and device sensors, and we'll show how to test and debug the application on your device and in simulators. --- Using Angular Libraries in an Nx Monorepo *Featuring Patricio Vargas @ 12:30pm - 1:30pm EDT* Learn how to use Angular libraries and share code between multiple enterprise applications in your current or your future monorepo project using Nx by the Nrwl team. --- JavaScript Animations with GreenSock *Featuring Christina Gorton @ 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT* Have you ever been to a website and wondered "Whoa, how did they do that?" In this session you will learn how to get started creating fun, interesting, and complex animations that delight users with the GreenSock animation library. --- Type-Safe Databases with Prisma *Featuring Ryan Chenkie @ 3:30pm - 4:30pm EDT* TypeScript is seeing huge adoption in all kinds of settings, from enterprises to open source projects to indie side projects. The promise of type safety via TypeScript is compelling: it allows you to catch a whole class of bugs before you even deploy your code. While there's a lot of focus on making your front-end and backend code type-safe, not as much focus is put on applying the same to your database access. That's where Prisma comes in. Prisma is a database toolkit that allows you to build type-safe databases with ease. It gives you a fully typed database client which means you get type hints, autocompletion, and you are prevented from accessing your database in an invalid way. In this session, we'll build a TypeScript node API that uses Prisma for database access. We'll see how Prisma can be used to give you confidence in how you access your data and how you can be more productive by using features such as the Prisma Schema Language, migrations, and more. --- Javascript-free Websites with .NET Blazor WebAssembly *Featuring Heather Downing @ 5:00pm - 6:00pm EDT* Curious about the development experience of building front-end with C#? Blazor WebAssembly makes it possible to replace all of your Javascript completely - even in the front end! Join us as we build a secure SPA in .NET and discover the tricks of debugging and the trade-offs of the server-side version of Blazor....

Aug 17, 2020

3 mins

EnterpriseGeneralJavaScriptTraining

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

In this episode of Leadership Exchange, host Rob Ocel chats with Jerry Reghunadh, Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture at Data Nimbus, about leadership, AI adoption, and data-driven decision-making. Jerry shares his career journey, insights on leveraging tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and strategies for building effective data pipelines. They explore how companies can avoid "analysis paralysis," adopt AI strategically, and evaluate new technologies to solve real-world problems. Tune in for practical advice on aligning innovation with business goals and staying competitive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction 00:31 – Jerry’s Leadership Journey 02:01 – Discussing AI in Leadership 03:59 – Experimenting with AI Tools 06:24 – Overcoming Analysis Paralysis 09:18 – Importance of Early AI Adoption 13:12 – AI’s Impact on Efficiency 14:30 – Sponsor Message 16:26 – Setting Realistic Goals for AI 19:41 – Data Management and AI 23:09 – Is AI Just a Fad? 27:22 – Testing New Technologies 29:56 – Final Thoughts on AI 30:25 – Connect with Jerry 30:44 – Closing Remarks 31:20 – Outro Follow Jerry on Social Media Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrymannel/ Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

Nov 18, 2024

1 min

AIEngineering Leadership

Let's innovate together!

We're ready to be your trusted technical partners in your digital innovation journey.

Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

Introducing This Dot's PAMstack Services - Process Improvement Consulting for Technology Organizations

This Dot

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Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer

My Career Roadmap

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AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh

Let's innovate together!

You might also like

Tips for Better Time Management as a Software Engineer

My Career Roadmap

Announcing September JavaScript Marathon - Free, online training!

AI Leadership: Data-Driven Decision Making & Avoiding "Analysis Paralysis" with Jerry Reghunadh