Agile - It's not just tech skills any more

The old stereotypes as to what skills are needed to work in software engineering, testing and Devops. were never accurate. Twenty years ago a good developer still needed soft skills, however, thanks to Agile, those soft skills are needed more than ever.

1. Communication - The modern development project involves many people filling diverse roles. Without the detailed specs of the past, it is essential that collaboration is of the highest order.

2. Empathy and intuition - The lack of detailed specs makes it even more important for a developer to put themselves in their customer's position.

3. Prioritisation and common sense - because you are not being told what to do and when, the developer needs to understand which of their tasks is most important and when it is needed.

4. Creativity and curiosity - Self managed teams produce better end results because the team is free to come up with new ideas that an analyst may never have thought of. Agile gives developers the opportunity to show off these skills.

5. Organisation - It is essential that you have the ability to document and report on your work otherwise no-one knows what you have done and how it fits into the project.

6. Tolerance, tact, listening and openness - the very strength of self directed teams is their ability to adapt to new ideas about development and testing. It is essential that one listens more than one speaks and have the ability to handle criticism. Equally, it is important to be able to communicate constructive criticism in a way that your teammates will want to take it on board.

Of course, coding, database and automation skills remain important. You still need to learn new languages and frameworks but without the softer skills your job will be so much harder.

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