This specification defines a framework for implementation of the Free Radical Role. It does so by defining desired effects and requirements for employees and their work in order to fulfill the Free Radical Role.
Technical projects increasingly face contradictions in decision-making, methodology and choice of technology.
This development takes place in an environment where technical advancement is considerably accelerating, which makes decision making harder and harder: Adopting new methodology and technology for their benefits versus using known approaches and techniques.
In order to help teams advance in an ordered and sustainable manner, the creation of a Free Radical role is proposed.
This document explains the proposed role for everyone interested in understanding the work of Free Radicals. Notable audience are potential employees and employees striving to take on the role.
List order does not infer any prioritization.
Free Radical defines a role employees working in software development can take on. Organizations implementing the Free Radical role can assume certain desirable effects taking hold. The role comes with a distinct set of liberties and requirements. The Frame conditions to set for efficient implementations and the Requirements an employee taking on the role has to fulfill are described in separate sections of this document.
The scope of this specification is limited to the definition of the very minimum of a framework for the role of a Free Radical.
This specification describes the Free Radical role for employees working in product engineering.
This section is non-normative
The Free Radical role is defined as to achieve the following desirable effects.
- General technical advancement of the company
- General methodological advancement of the company
- Mid- and longterm productivity gains
- Improved reliability and quality of software projects
- Distribution of advanced technology knowledge
- Discover improvements and and potential of new technologies
- Improved attractiveness of company for product engineers
Free Radicals MUST take on the following tasks in their day-to-day work.
- General consulting on technical matters
- Sparring on technical implementations and decisions for all employees.
- General development work, aiming at establishing Best Practices by example
- Introduction of new technology and methods
- Knowledge Transfer
- Active research of upcoming technology and methods
Free Radicals SHOULD take on the following tasks as they see fit:
- Support and implementation of Open Source Software
- Presentations and talks inside and outside of the company
Employees striving to fulfill the Free Radical role MUST have the following abilities:
- Broad technical knowledge on senior level
- Ability to draft and implement sound technical concepts
- Excellent general problem-solving capabilities
- High capacity for learning new concepts and techniques
- Ability to communicate and convince others of new techniques, methods and concept
- Excellent skills in delivery and implementation
- Ability to reason about technical solutions in a nuanced and pragmatic manner
Additionally Free Radicals SHOULD sport the following attributes and qualities
- Strong motivation to improve upon existing solutions
- Readiness to learn far beyond the personal horizon
- Capabilities to think outside of traditional and present boundaries
- Courage to assume calculated risks
- Strong sense for opportunities and risks of applied technology
For efficient implementation of the Free Radical role the following frame conditions SHOULD be met:
- Free Radicals decide independently on their involvement in projects
- Projects avoid planning with Free Radicals as permanent project members
- Free Radicals account only partially for their work times
- Free Radicals have the liberties to take calculated risks in their field of work
- Free Radicals are directly available for questions and sparring to other employees
To help an efficient and successful implementation of the Free Radical role a range of additional measures can be taken.
- Regular surveys inquiring about the perceived performance of Free Radicals
- Transparency about the current work of Free Radicals, e.g. by publishing it on blogs
- Regular updates on the self-improvement efforts undertaken by Free Radicals
The following people have greatly contributed to this specification:
- Clemens Akens
- Peter Ehrenberg
- Helge
- Felicitas Kugland
- Mario Nebl
- Janno Rothfos
- Markus Wolf