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Surviving and Thriving as a Nomadic Developer
This book explains the business and the practice of being a successful IT consultant
Timely insights and practices are delivered by Aaron Erickson in his new book on making a career in IT consulting. In a breakfast meeting the other day at my favorite downtown Chicago pancake house we discussed his book over several cups of strong coffee as I put away a stack of buckwheat pancakes (with blueberries in the batter, not on top).
MICHAEL H: So, who are you; and remind me, why did I let you hijack my blog for this post?
AARON E: I’m Aaron Erickson and I’m a Lead Consultant with ThoughtWorks, a global technology consultancy focused on rescuing projects gone astray and on agile systems development. I’m also the author of a new book, The Nomadic Developer - Surviving and Thriving In the World of Technology Consulting, published by Addison Wesley/Pearson Education. (Disclosure: Aaron has worked with me on projects around the world and he quotes some of my words of wisdom in his book thus flattering yours truly.)
MH: Fill me in on your book; what is The Nomadic Developer about?
AE: The Nomadic Developer is a field guide to the occupation of Technology Consultant - and more specifically, technology consultants engaged in the writing of software for companies (i.e. Developers). The purpose of the book is to help software developers understand and thrive in the technology consulting business.
MH: Why did you decide to write this book?
AE: I saw the handwriting on the wall years ago with all the talk about companies focusing on their core competencies. Since IT isn’t a core competency for a lot of companies, as a software developer, you’ll either fight for a smaller and smaller slice of the corporate budget pie as part of an in-house IT group, or you’ll be one of those people - consultants - who companies call in when they want to build custom applications. Having been an IT consultant for a long time, and having made a lot of dumb mistakes, I thought a book that helps others avoid the pitfalls that developers fall into would be useful.
MH: Is this a career advice book?
AE: In some ways. It talks about ways to survive and thrive as a consultant, which is important. But it also contains a section that helps consultants become better at choosing good employers. Lets face it - consulting probably has reputation problems from time to time for a reason - one of those being there are lots of hucksters in this business that will promise the world to get the big contract, and then have a *business plan* that depends on failure to deliver in a manner that causes the client to need to continue to throw good money after bad.
MH: Would a CIO want to read this book?
AE: I think anyone who buys IT services - especially CIOs, should consider picking up this book - as it gives the reader a great look at technology consulting from the inside of the business. Of course, many CIOs and other senior IT executives probably worked in consulting at one point or another - and probably have a good sense for what that world is about - so for some, this book may be merely an update on how the business has changed in our current time.
MH: What do you see as one of the most common mistakes companies make when they select consulting companies to work with?
AE: Despite mountains of evidence that effective people make a
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