IBM Xiaohu: Architects are not made in a day

Reading is a lifelong benefit

"Programmer": What are your childhood dreams and hobbies? How do these hobbies affect your future career development?

Xiaohu: To be frank, I didn't have any particular obsession when I was a kid. Parents did not "force" me to all kinds of interest classes, but gave me a very relaxed and free growth environment. Now in retrospect, the habits of childhood benefit lifelong is to love reading. A lot of reading not only cultivate my curiosity, broaden the knowledge, but also for the future work of rapid reading ability to lay a solid foundation. When I was a child, I remember that I had read through the four famous Chinese classics when I was in primary school.

"Programmer": When did you start to touch the computer? What was it like?

Xiaohu: My college is the computer department. The reason why I chose this major is because I think the computer is very mysterious, high-tech things give me a very cool feeling, I think I can be suitable for this line. The original volunteer was my own fill, the parents did not interfere with my choice. Freshman, I first formal contact with the computer, learning the first language is Pascal, suddenly feel extremely excited, I immediately fell in love with this smart "guy", I was operating computer to do some interesting things. Now it seems to me that although it was just a few simple operations, I thought it was interesting to get the results I wanted by writing the program output.

Programmer: How do you find a job after you graduate?

Xiaohu: When the master graduated, the tutor asked me if I wanted to stay at school. I thought about it, the school atmosphere is fine, so I left, in Beihang University for two years as a teacher. As time goes by, I find myself best at not doing theoretical research in school all the year round, but preferring to combine theory with technology and apply it to specific enterprise projects. At this time, I began to consider looking for a business. At that time, the main choice of transnational well-known foreign companies, and then through the interview into IBM, this stay is 13 years, until now.

Two transitions in your career

"Programmer": what was it like when you first joined IBM?

Xiaohu: The first position is a database engineer. Looking back, I was confused. First of all, IBM is big and I need to spend some time figuring out the relationship. Second, my role has shifted from past researchers to technical support for the sales category. This process actually takes some time to realize. Because not only do the technology so simple, the past as long as the program at hand to write well, detect bugs, debugging through the line. And as sales of technical support not only need more and teamwork, but also have a strong sense of sales and communication skills, these soft skills are needed time to accumulate. It took me nearly a year to get myself to deal with these things calmly.

"Programmer": what would you do if you joined IBM to the present and divided several stages?

Xiaohu: It can be roughly divided into four stages. The first one is the first year, from all kinds of confusion to gradually more comfortable to work, complete from the researcher to technical sales transformation, in this process gradually deepened the company's products and solutions to the research and understanding. The second phase is from 1999 ~2001 years, in the project I let my theory and practical ability are more solid, can deal with some very complex projects and challenging customers. From 2001 ~2007 I started a second career transition, from technical individuals to IBM's first line manager (management positions). began to pay more attention to how to improve team fighting capacity and management capabilities. Since 2007, I have been leading the IBM software group in Greater China Partner technical support work (the following manager to help me with the team). The important thing is that I learn to empower and train managers to better build and manage teams. In addition, think more about how to promote the business through some creative plans and measures, and then lead the team to achieve it and everyone will feel fun.

Architects are not made in a day.

Programmer: Many technical individuals are on the road to transition to leadership, do you have some advice for them?

Xiaohu: The most important thing is to find a mentor. Technical staff in the transition, the processing of certain things will be a lack of experience, many times is not black or white such a simple matter, if there is a tutor advice will be a great help. Second, it takes more time to be a coach. At this point, you do a good job, often not directly to the whole team to achieve good results. Maybe you used to be a technical expert, but at this point you have little time to do the very details, so it takes time to be a coach and encourage team members to achieve greater success.

"Programmer": Indeed, many technicians are now writing code, some of them are going to transition to the architect direction, what do you think they are in this transformation of attention?

Xiaohu: First of all, from the job role, there will be a process. Not to say today to learn a lot of things, tomorrow can become an architect, but need to sink heart, bow can write procedures, the head can grasp the direction of technology, in the work of continuous learning, summary, application of these methodologies. For example, you are now a programmer, want to become an architect, you should refer to the current more popular methodology, first in the small team to apply, and then gradually extended to large projects. As far as architects are concerned, it is also necessary to have a timely understanding of the interests and passions of new technologies, and to be able to analyze and compare new technologies to understand the pros and cons of the technology in order to make reasonable architectural decisions. Have a good understanding of their team, know the technical ability and potential of the team members, understand their temperament, find the right person to complete the appropriate technical tasks. It is important that architects have a deep industry experience that can predict the development of architecture and technology.

The methodology of practical architecture is leading engineering

Programmer: What do you think is the key to an enterprise implementing a good architecture methodology?

Xiaohu: First of all, the company's leadership to pay attention to the structure, from the promotion will be easier. Secondly, there is a need for a training and education process within the company, and there should be organizations like the Architecture Committee in the organization's perspective, to be responsible for such things as architecture management, process, promotion, and so on. Again, there needs to be a sustainable planning. Through these processes, step-by-step practice to specific projects. The architect of the company needs to be familiar with the architecture methodology, understand the industry, and then tailor the methodology to the project solution for specific projects. As long as you stick to it, companies will soon feel the great benefits of architectural methodology.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)