Lessons Learned from the Professional Development Ladder

Version 1.0 of the Professional Development Ladder was deployed within Construx in 1998 and released to the public shortly thereafter. Since then, we have continued to evolve the ladder, releasing Version 2.0 internally in early 2002. During this time, we learned a number of important lessons about deploying and supporting a Professional Development Ladder.

Structural and Cultural Reinforcements

To successfully support an organization's professional development, the Professional Development Ladder must become engrained in the culture of the organization. We have found that numerous reinforcements are needed to ensure employee buy-in and achieve the desired benefits.

While adoption of the specific reinforcements used at Construx is not essential to successful deployment of a Professional Development Ladder, it is important to identify structural and cultural reinforcements that will work within any particular organization.

Construx's specific structural and cultural reinforcements include the following programs.

Professional Development Plans. Professional Development Plans (PDPs) provide a mechanism to plan, track, and document an employee's progression along the ladder. Each PDP outlines the short- and long-term goals of the employee and describes the specific activities (reading, classes, work experience, and other professional activities) that will occur between the current and next review cycle.

The goals of a PDP virtually always include a grade level promotion within a one to five year horizon. The plan outlines the work an engineer needs to accomplish in that timeframe to achieve the promotion. Further than one year out, the final details of the work are not fully described, but a high-level path is outlined. When an engineer is within one year of a promotion, the details of the work are described month-by-month to manager, mentor, and employee. The PDPs support objective and consistent promotion criteria throughout Construx.

Mentoring Program. Mentors provide guidance and support as an engineer progresses up the Professional Development Ladder. All technical employees at Construx develop and discuss their PDPs with their mentors. Mentoring allows tailoring of the Professional Development Ladder to provide relevant and practical professional development plans for each employee. To ensure that knowledge requirements are met by the employee, employees and mentors meet about six to eight times a year; more often when the employee is within six months of a grade level promotion.

Active manager and mentor interaction is critical to ensure the progress and completion of activities in the PDP. To support this, the division Vice President and mentor must both sign the employee's PDP. Additionally, mentor meetings track the employee's progress against the plan and, if appropriate, adjust expectations about the timing of a promotion.

One of the goals of the mentor program is to produce professional engineers dedicated and self-directed in further professional development. Engineers at Level 12 and above are expected to be self-directed, and so they do not have mentors unless they specifically request a mentor or wish to work toward an additional grade level promotion.

Professional Development Plaques. Construx recognizes numerous significant milestones that occur during an employee's professional development grade-level promotions, achievement of professional certifications, first leadership roles on projects, first classes taught, first papers published, and other significant accomplishments. Each technical employee receives a Professional Development Plaque that contains engraved plates commemorating significant accomplishments. These plaques provide a way to commemorate important milestones and reflect the importance Construx places on ongoing professional development.

Training Program. Construx targets 10 to 12 days of focused training per work year in addition to the on-the-job training that occurs inherently in software development work. At lower experience levels, focused training consists mainly of attending classes and conferences. At Level 12 and above, training can consist of preparing for conference presentations, participating in standards committees, organizing special interest groups, and other professional activities.

Salary Structure. We've found that an organization's traditional reward system must be structured to support professional development goals; otherwise, project goals will supercede development goals. By basing promotions, salaries, and performance reviews on the ladder, the emphasis on professional development is firmly engrained in the organization.

Our ladder levels have exactly one salary level at each level. The salary for each ladder level and each employee's ladder level is public information within Construx. Employees have a tangible incentive to reach the next ladder level because they know the salary adjustment that will occur with that promotion.

Software Engineering Discussion Groups. Software Engineering Discussion Groups (SEDGs) provide a forum to gain and share software engineering knowledge. They are moderated forums in which a book from the Professional Development Ladder is discussed and debated. Levels 9, 10, and 11 have an SEDG. Level 12 engineers are encouraged to join the SEDGs as a way of sharing experience and knowledge with more junior engineers.

Level 12 Recognition. Attaining Level 12 full professional status at Construx represents a significant achievement in a software engineer's career at Construx. In recognition of this achievement, Construx provides a bonus equal to one year's difference in salary from Level 11 to Level 12, a reception in honor of the promotion, an advertisement in a local business newspaper, and a portrait in our lobby. This recognition symbolizes the importance we place on professional development.

Assimilating Experienced Engineers into the Ladder

We found a need to accommodate new employees who gained their experience at other companies. Many of our job candidates have had extensive industry experience but have not met some of our other ladder requirements. Hiring these employees at our Level 10 or Level 11 salaries would make our offers noncompetitive. As a practical matter, we wouldn't be able to hire many senior engineers. It became important to determine how a new employee could be brought in at Level 12 without compromising the integrity of the ladder and without diminishing the achievements of Construx employees who have worked their way up the ladder while at Construx.

To support these goals, we created "Transitional Level 12." A Transitional Level 12 Engineer is hired as a Level 12 Engineer and has one year or less to complete the missing elements of the ladder, typically extensive reading. During this year, the employee meets with a mentor monthly to discuss the work he or she has completed and to deal with any progress issues. When backfilling is complete, the employee is recognized as a Level 12 Engineer.



Professional Software Development(c) Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, [... ]reers
Professional Software Development(c) Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, More Successful Projects, [... ]reers
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 164

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