The Software Engineer’s Development Plan – Part 3

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Maintaining the PDP

The professional development plan (PDP) is great to have but you can’t just file it away some where. It’s a living document and needs to be maintained and tweaked . It’s great if you can discuss it with your manager in a regular 1:1 catch up.

To me the key with looking After your PDP is to make sure you are regularly ticking off items in the 30 day list. It’s great that you accomplish the medium and Longer term items but to me the importance is the focus on the next 30 days.

Ok that’s it, hope you’ve enjoyed these posts on PDP’s.

The Software Engineer’s Development Plan – Part 2

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Structure of a PDP

I have to be honest. I try to follow the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) policy and for creating a PDP for a developer/software engineer that is so important. Also, it’s important that the PDP is just a one page document stored usually as a Word Doc, Google Doc etc…

The PDP has 4 parts/sections:

  • Career Goal/Aim
  • Short Term Actions
  • Medium Term Actions
  • Long Term Actions

Career Goal/Aim

A one line statement on where the engineer wants to be in 3 years time

Short Term Actions

Specific short tasks that can be completed in the next month. Examples include:

  • Pluralsight/BUILD video’s
  • listen to podcasts
  • Read a book or a few chapters of a book
  • Work on a home/hobby/sample project
  • Tutorials
  • Work on an open source project

Medium Term Actions

Longer term projects or events  that can be completed in the next 6-12 months. Examples include:

  • Events ( DDD, NDC, Microsoft Ignite, BUILD etc…)
  • listen to podcasts
  • AWS/MS Exams (on path to Certification)
  • Nano Degree’s or equivalents

Long Term Actions

Long term major achievements. Examples include:

  • Tertiary Study
  • AWS/MS Certification

Next Time:

Maintaining the PDP