Last week, I taught several project management workshops. When I spoke about moving to Agile methods, a number of the PMs were quite concerned. "But people aren't interchangeable. I have only one kernel/GUI/database specialist (pick the specialist of your choice)." But they don't actually need specialists. They need people who get things done.
You can overcome this specialist/generalist problem by expanding your skills. If you're an application developer, learn about the platform or the GUI. Maybe you want to learn about more testing approaches or patterns. The key is to expand your skills across the product and to expand your repertoire of functional skills.
One technique I especially like is to look at feature slices (slices through the architecture) and learn more just above and just below where you currently work. The more you do that, the easier it will be for you to see the whole architecture, whether you are developing, testing, writing, or whatever you do for your project.
You are not interchangeable with any other person, even if you expand your skills. Especially if you expand your skills! If you stand out from the crowd, you will be more valuable to the organization. Which makes it much easier to succeed in your current job or find a new one.
Yep,
And no matter how hard you work, how much you learn, how vast your abilities are that you yet remain a mere Specialista. The world is just too big for one big-headed person - way too big.
O, by the way, let's forget about our families in the meantime. They rate somewhere between inconvenience and annoyance. I have three little things like that and their producer. Let the government take care of them by the way or throw them in front of the TV when they're back. Love it Man!
I got to go. I have a Library of the World to stuff into my head so that I can fulfill the Agile requirements.