My first couple of weeks at Readify

So now I’ve been at Readify for a few weeks and it has been great. If you gave me a few words to describe Readify I would say:

• Quality
• Learning
• Smart
• Agile

Consulting

There is a different dynamic working here for Readify as a consultant. As a consultant, one is not a employee of the business, but rather someone who provides a service. This change of mentality creates a different relationship all together between the developer and the product owner. Including things such as: more autonomy for the development team, a higher responsibility on the team lead and generally higher quality software. It creates a win-win situation for all. 

Agile

Readify development teams do Agile VERY well. Prior to starting with my first client, I was observing a team at the Readify office using a hybrid scrum-kanban methodology for their project management. I noticed instantly that all team members were aware of the workings of Agile. In addition to this, a CI pipeline was setup that linked to a build light. All these agile processes allowed members to get a feel to how well the team is progressing.

Many of these practices that I had tried to set up at my previous places of employment (and I was only slightly successful) had been fully implemented at Readify. What made me even more happy was the success that these processes were providing.

Constructive Feedback

Readify is a place where people aren’t afraid to give and receive constructive feedback. In fact, the culture instilled into the Readify environment ensures that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that all other Readifarians are given the feedback they require for improvement.

Communication Skills

As a developer consultant at Readify, I am not only required to have excellent technical, engineering and development skills. But also, build my business, managerial and communication skills. I estimate about 70-90% of a Readifarian’s life would be technical and the other would be these soft skills. Readify not only builds great developers but great entrepreneurs and thinkers in general. 

Mentoring

Perhaps the biggest reason why I joined Readify was because I will be able to learn from the smart people around me. I can say that after about 5 weeks that I have not been disappointed at this expectation. The mentoring that I have received in these last 5 weeks and the support from the other consultants has been invaluable. Readify has a ton of people who have been in the industry for 10-15 years (I mean IT has only been around for 20 years anyway), their wealth of knowledge has provided me so much insight.

Readify has been great so far, and I can see myself developing many skills here. I’m looking forward to the great adventures, experiences and challenges that are to come!