Interviewing: The Importance of Examining Applied Knowledge

We’ve been interviewing for developers and BAs lately. I’ve always been a fan of using a test that is as close to their day-to-day job as possible (I blogged about it back in 2005 – here). This is the idea of testing applied knowledge rather than book work / factual recall. For developers we use a small class and test. It’s similar to the Thoughtworks Rover problem but has the advantage that it involves refactoring existing code rather than starting from scratch so you can get through it with them in under an hour. The Business Analyst test is similar. It looks at how they think about laying out a story and more importantly what they think is important.

Finally I’m still a fan of exploring Practices Maps during the interview. They’re a great way to see what people value.

Posted on November 14th, 2010 in Team Development

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The Data Dichotomy (2016)
The Benefits of “In-Memory” Data are Often Overstated (2016)
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Building a Career in Technology (2015)
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Distributing Skills Across a Continental Divide (2011)
Learning Practices for Distributed Teams (ICST) (2011)
Interviewing: The Importance of Examining Applied Knowledge (2010)
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