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Ask HN: How do I find a software best practices mentor / coach?

21 points by trapexit ↗ HN
I'm trying to find someone who can coach/mentor an inexperienced software development manager in software engineering best practices--source control, release engineering, security, backups, planning, development methodologies, code review, architecture, etc.

The manager was promoted from within, the most senior developer from a group of relatively inexperienced PHP programmers. Unsurprisingly, they don't follow any formalized practices and are struggling with a lot of chaos and poor software quality.

The company is based in the Netherlands (Noord Holland), and doesn't have the budget to hire an experienced, full-time engineering manager, and this kind of coaching is outside the scope of the services I normally provide, so I'm trying to find them a local consultant who can do some phone coaching and come in a few days a month to help with training and process development.

Anyone know such a consultant in NL, or have an idea how to go about searching for one?

7 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.2 ms ] thread
andrewtbham
I would go to local tech networking events, like meetups, and ask around.
aaaaa22
I agree. The network (assuming the event is decent enough) will surely lead to one person that would be able to help you. Just make sure you connect to as many people as possible.
trapexit
Good advice; unfortunately, I'm not actually based in the Netherlands.
amanuel
Contributing to an open source project that you admire will do wonders. Any contribution you do will be scrutinized and you will get some good advice on your works.

Also remember to also hang out and become a regular with the developers on the corresponding freenode irc #channel.

trapexit
I'm not looking for coaching for myself; I'm trying to help this company out by finding a local professional who can give their team some guidance.
bnoordhuis
Maybe I can help. I'm relatively local (Gouda, ZH) and I've managed teams like the one you mention before. Shoot me an email, address is in my profile.
trapexit
Your email doesn't actually appear in your public profile on HN. Email me: bwb at holo dt org.