In Chapter 3 of my Data Engineering Teams book, I show you how to do a skill gap analysis. During the analysis of the team, you either say the person has the skill or not. It’s a very binary decision.
Some people have written me asking if it can be a fraction. Instead of a 1 or 0, they want to say 0.5 or 0.1. In their minds, the person has some amount of that skill, but not the entire skill.
This thinking is a common mistake that leads to failures with Big Data projects. The thinking is that 10 beginners together will somehow aggregate together as a single intermediate to advanced person.
The short answer is no. The longer answer is no, it’s a really bad idea.
While working with companies, I see the manifestation of this thinking. It leads to all sorts of amateur mistakes and uses. I’m at the point now where I can estimate a team’s abilities on how poorly they implemented something.
When you have several 0.1 beginners, they all have the beginner understanding. It isn’t complimentary pieces of the pie all filling in gaps; it’s all the same piece of pie stacked on top of each other.
If you’re starting a data engineering team, make sure you do a skill gap analysis. Just as important, make sure the team has the technical skills to accomplish their goals.
“… the same piece of pie stack on top of each other …”
D
I’ll remember that analogy.
I thought about making a picture to show that concept, but I ran out of time.