Chapter 12: The Deployed Workflow
Let’s walk through a day in the life of an FDE at Benmore. Typically you are placed on multiple projects and much of your responsibility is predicated around delivering rapid value. We already walked through expectations in relation to relationship management, context extraction, development practices, and so on. But, one thing that hasn’t been touched on is the high octane environment you are operating in. At any moment in time you may be concurrently coding multiple projects, while conducting research for another project, and communicating with your support developers via Slack. Everything about your job is predicated around optimizing value delivery at an unprecedented level. Again, the talent hierarchies have been collapsed and you are the orchestrator. Yes, it’s stressful, yes it can be intense, but it’s definitely not boring. In my experience operating in the role, it’s like being on the field or court; it’s game time. Things come up that you have to react to and there’s a constant loop of “plays” unfolding in front of you that you have to essentially defend or attack - very similar to sports in this sense.
A Day in the Life: FDE Workflow
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ FDE OPERATING STATE │ │ │ │ │ │ ┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐ ┌────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Project A │ │ Project B │ │ Project C │ │ │ │ Coding │ │ Research │ │ Client comms │ │ │ │ (agents │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ running) │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───────┬────────┘ └───────┬────────┘ └───────┬────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ │ │ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ORCHESTRATION LAYER │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Deploying agents Client communication │ │ │ │ Reviewing outputs Support team coordination │ │ │ │ Scope defense Relationship management │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ Mental Model: Sports — constant plays unfolding, │ │ defend or attack, react in real time. │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Communication rhythms are key in the position as well. Rapid communication is necessary, and, frankly, should come fairly naturally due to the high octane environment you are already operating in. However, as mentioned earlier, there’s many things at play here as well, the portrayal of your communication to clients is going to be different to the way that you talk to your support team. Beyond that, transparent communication is a necessity here. You’re playing at too high of a level to communicate in any other manner than one that is direct. Again, very similar to sports.
There will be a couple things in the back of your mind on a day by day basis as well. First, is relationship management, both internally and externally, how you position yourself with your clients can get stressful especially when you feel a relationship slipping. On the other side, how your relationship is with your support staff is also difficult to manage and will be at the top of your mind. Beyond relationships, project feasibility and defense against scope creep will be a constant pain. Sticking, ruthlessly, to that what that is determined with client is a daily battle. Understanding that any down trend of relationships or scope management will directly impact your performance, coupled with the fact that both of these components are mainly impacted by “soft-power” plays can definitely get to you.
However, let’s talk about some of the benefits of the role. First being Autonomy. You are the project owner and you have a mandate to deliver the most amount of value to your clients. Understanding this, you have near complete autonomy in the way that you go about delivering said value. Of course, many of the concepts outlined in this book are great guidelines to follow, but by no means are they mandates. Every client is different, every project is different, and if you see a more effective method of doing something, by all means call that shot. However, if you get to make your own bed, you also get to lay in it. You are in control of the way that you communicate with your support staff, the way that you extract the what and so on. In general, pretty much everything is given to you as a guideline, so long as you hit your KPIs, we are not here to tell you how to run your book. We encourage you to explore better methods of doing things as well, and if you come across something more efficient, sharing that with the rest of the team. There are a couple key decisions that need to be escalated, mainly decisions that have larger implications like firing a client, but beyond that you own your projects.
Another core benefit that I can outline is proximity to value. Many jobs in the modern world are so removed from the generation of value, it can get deafening. That is not the case in the FDE role. You directly get to see the fruits of your labor on a daily basis. The projects that you bring to completion are not buried under layers of red tape. When you complete a project you get to look at it and point at it with a sense of pride knowing that you built it with your hands from the ground up. You conceptualized the solution, you got stakeholders on board, then you built it and get to see it directly generate value. There’s an innately human feeling of accomplishment and pride that comes from doing that and being so close to the fruits of your labor.
Lastly, you are on the cutting edge of AI and have a mandate to test out the latest technologies in pursuit of providing more value. Benmore will fully back any tools that you wish to explore and will strongly encourage testing out new tools and processes.