In Agile improving is important. Improving the product, improving the process, improving the team. But I believe there is one thing also important: improving yourself. In an Agile world, you should be willing to learn and grow. And there are so many options, far more than you would probably think of. So, let me mention a few. And give some tips on how to find your own learning path.
IT knowledge
The most known way to learn is to extend your IT knowledge. This can be to learn tools in IT. Think of learning tools like Jira, Azure, Postman. Take your pick.
Another important area is the courses that make you better at your job. For me, as a tester, these are courses that are extending my testing skills. Learning new ways to come to test cases. Or learning another way of testing, like mobile testing or performance testing.
But you should feel also free to learn a skill from another job. Agile is about working together. And working together is easier if you know something about the job of the other.
And don’t forget the many courses about IT methods like Scrum, SAFe, and DevOps. Getting information and opinion about that can help you get the strength out of a method. And avoid the common mistakes that every IT method has.
Domain knowledge
Domain knowledge, yes, you know you need it. But seeing it as a real learning goal, that happens not that often. For me it is.
I see this as an area where everything you learn will most likely only be used for the company you work in now. For other companies, the knowledge has no value. That is probably the main reason this category is not discussed. But certainly, in an Agile environment, this is needed to build a good product. If you know your current environment, you can design, build and verify your product a lot better.
Knowing the company or companies where your product is used, is the first option. How does your product fit into the process? Which people in the company use your product? This can help you to ask the right questions to the right people. To make better first versions, that will work in the real world . And it will help you communicate better with customers and colleagues. You can understand them better.
Better known is knowing your product. How does your product work? How does your product work together with other products? I think I can write a book about the many times where developers or testers were working on a product, without any idea how it worked. And the many problems it created.
And yes, you can also choose to learn about the domain. I can make that clear with an example of myself as a tester. While working on a travel website I decided to learn more about all types of vacations, locations, and types of accommodations offered. Which countries offer a lot of All-inclusive? Which travel agency had a lot of flight transfers? Since the test database was a representation of real test data given by tour operators, this helped me in finding test data. In the end, I had a whole document where for every situation I wanted to test, there were tips on how to easily find it.
General knowledge
Besides specific knowledge, there is the knowledge that can be used in every company, even outside IT. The most common is communication skills. You can follow courses for this. But you can also get coaching or just tips from a colleague, that is already very skilled.
Another category is the more commonly used applications, like Word and Excel. Do you already know how to use functions in Excel? I even used Excel as a test tool, to check applications. And I used it to create test data, by entering values and using the result.
Another idea is skills to improve a company of a team. There are all kinds of methods, courses and books with tips and tools to improve the process or the way a team works.
What to learn
For me there are a few area’s I want to learn:
Prove of knowledge
These are mostly official courses, that I take to prove I know a certain area. This is mostly for the job I have or the job I want to get.
Company problems
Every company has its problems. When you are willing and your company is willing to let you, you can use those problems to grow yourself and grow the company at the same time. Get the knowledge and skills needed to solve those problems. And immediately start applying them for solving the problems your company has.
Job improvement
You want to do your job better. You might have an idea how. Or you might not. But you know what you think can be done better. Then you can choose a learning path that focusses on these improving points. Extending your knowledge about tools you are using. Or another example: improving your communication skills with your collegues or your manager.
Now your learning path
It might be clear, that I prefer learning stuff, that I can also apply directly. Look at problems or improvements. Look what the company wants from you. Look what the world outside expects from persons in your job. And decide what options you have to learn.
Thik about more than IT. Think about knowledge that shows you want to build a good product, even if it’s just usable for that company. The skills you use to get that knowledge, they can be reused. And think about skills and knowledge that are usefull no matter what you do or where you do it. Like social skills or generic improving methods.
I think, if you do all of this, the problem is not: what should I do to learn and grow? The problem is: what should I do first?