SE Radio 655: Charles Humble on Professional Skills for Software Engineers

In this episode, Charles Humble speaks
withhost Brijesh Ammanath about skills that can provide
developers a grounding in systems thinking.


Charles is a 30-year veteran of the IT industry, including as a
former software engineer, architect, and CTO, as well as former
editor in chief of InfoQ and chief editor for Container
Solutions. He has published “Professional Skills for
Software Engineers” as a series of 14 O’Reilly shortcuts covering
communication, critical thinking, documentation, and networking.


Underlying his work is the idea that as complexity increases in
IT systems, the roles of architects and leaders move from linear
thinking to something that might be more broadly defined as
systems thinking -- looking at problems and systems as a whole
rather than just the individual parts. This requires a skill set
that isn’t generally taught or widely valued as an industry -- in
part, because it's hard to test in whiteboard interviews. It
requires a mixture of communication skills; interpersonal skills;
critical thinking; the ability to synthesize large amounts of
information. 


Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software
magazine.