Entelect's Retrospectives "17

Similarly, the projects we have taken on are coming from locations all over the world and have grown in size and complexity. With all of these exciting projects keeping us busy, our knowledge sharing mechanisms within the company have truly been tested.

One of the things that gives us a competitive edge has always been our culture of continuous learning. The variety of programmes and opportunities we offer ensure that we are all continually growing, learning, and ultimately, preparing us for the next wave of exciting things to enter our industry. For me, this is what makes us the craftsmen, craftswomen and engineers that we are, and separates us from the competition.

Given that the intent of this digest is to look back over 2017 with fond memories - and of course look forward to the future - it is apt to take a pause and reflect on the drivers behind why we do what we do.

The most obvious advantage is to give us the tools to grow and better ourselves. All of our initiatives are designed to make sure that our people can access the knowledge they need to improve themselves, whenever they need it. Given the constant evolution of our industry this also enables us to stay current and maintain our ability to be the best in the industry. For instance, five years ago I would never have imagined that we would be talking about such things as Containerisation with Netflix Stack, Spring Cloud, Kubernetes and OpenShift, or Block Chain and the applicability and uses of this technology. It is also re-assuring to see some of the foundational topics still come to the fore, ensuring we don’t forget about the fundamentals that we need in our endeavours. Some good examples here include: understanding network topology, agile methodologies and discussing the software lifecycle, and how this applies to remote projects, as well as messaging and integration styles.

Another driver behind our approach is to add to the strength of our collective IP. By elevating and identifying key individuals that have the potential to be knowledge experts, or are already in a position to add value to their peers, we help stimulate knowledge sharing. I am a true believer that everyone has something they can offer to another; its just about finding the right mechanism for that individual to channel that knowledge.

We also want to embed a culture of continual learning. Consistently providing initiatives that allow people to learn creates a cyclical effect: We learn something new, we like the feeling of learning, we want more and become restless until we able to get the next dose of knowledge.

Once confident enough as craftsmen and craftswomen in this industry, each one of us will be well-positioned to take this out to a broader audience and share our knowledge with the communities we operate in. I am especially excited to see how many of us are involved in actively contributing to user groups, conferences and other knowledge sharing formats that exist outside of our Entelect family.

Looking forward to 2018, I am excited to see what we discover, how we incorporate this into our collective knowledge, and how this positions us all to become more.

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- Sheldon Lyne, General Manager