Building a Java Team

Although the need for Java developers seems to be growing faster than universities and development houses can train new workers, Java lends itself to creative staffing solutions. Because it is a standards-based, object-oriented language, Java offers great opportunities to break up and distribute development, both within and outside of an organization.

"You want to start out by making your current developers more productive. The companies we talk to have 10 Java developers and need five more. So we try and give the 10 the tools they need to get the job done," says Alan Armstrong, JProbe product manager at the KL Group, in Toronto, which offers online libraries of Java code. Relying on online code libraries, such as those from Rogue Wave Software and KL Group, is one way that IT shops help developers do more with less.

"With the Internet remaking the economy, there just aren't enough people. Java is a skill that's in great demand," says Ron Bodkin, chief technologist at C-Bridge, an Internet solutions provider in Cambridge, Mass. "We put a premium on high-quality individuals with an object background, and with business and communications skills."

RECRUITING THE RIGHT WAY

A June report by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research suggests a strategy for companies short on Java development talent: Find people by using outsourcing, training, and recruiting, both at schools and online; then break development into segments appropriate for developers at various levels.

Forrester breaks down the skills to include Java specialists (the hardest ones to find), business developers (from existing ranks), and Java application builders (who may be outsourced or hired and trained).

The report says companies should resist trying to hire "superprogrammers" and instead divide the types of work involved in overall development. That way, the highest- level developers can concentrate on server-side and distributed-application logic and architecture.

SOURCES OF TALENT

As with other business functions, from payroll to landscaping, enterprises are looking outside themselves to fill gaps when hiring the properly trained staff isn't an option.

Flashline.com, for example, allows for an auction or posting-board approach to finding developers to work on discrete parts of projects. It also offers a marketplace approach for components to be acquired from outside an organization to plug in to an application project.

"There are 400,000 open IT jobs now, and[this number is] increasing," says Charles Stack, CEO of Flashline.com, in Cleveland. "We've got two things that help: a component- by-design service and an outsourcing model for components. We have 500 developers that can react to that kind of component need. They bid on it, and then they get awarded the bid."

To help develop new sources of talent, Bodkin's company has created the C-Bridge Institute to help train those with less experience and to help programmers move from C++ languages to Java. C-Bridge is also building relationships with universities to try to attract graduates with the proper training, and perhaps even some real-life experience.

"The universities out there are really adopting Java as one of the primmary languages that they're teaching," says Mansour Safai, head of the Internet tools division at Symantec, in Cupertino, Calif. "I think that's going to make a big difference in terms of how many Java developers are available out there."

In addition to training and acquiring new recruits from colleges, Bodkin says he relies more than ever on the Internet itself to find candidates, via both his own Web site and postings on such sites as Monster.com.

The Atlanta Java Users Group's Web site (www.ajug.org) has recently been used by recruiters to post job listings. The role of the Internet for such postings is growing.

"It's hard to find people with experience. It's easy to find people, but they are not ones that have done real work in Java, built real apps," says Cynthia Jeness, Web chair of Atlanta Java Users Group and a developer at Golden Code Development, a Java developer in Atlanta.

Companies can tap into such Web-based communities. Places to start include such Web sites as IBM's developerWorks (www.ibm.com/developer), the Oracle Technology Network (technet.oracle.com), and Sun's Developer Connection (www.sun.com/developers).

KEEPING DEVELOPERS HAPPY

Once Java developers have been found, making their jobs challenging, enjoyable, and important to the success of the business is critical to recruiting and keeping them.

"What motivates people, other than money, is satisfaction. Java as a technology is a skill that is satisfying, and those who work in it tend to work on the fun projects," says Eric Brown, an analyst at Forrester Research who specializes in application development. "They have a keen eye for the business impact of their efforts. So spinning them off into Internet-commerce groups is a good idea."

The supply-and-demand gap among high-level Java developers is not expected to diminish anytime soon. By reorganizing their development efforts, outsourcing where possible, and seeking new sources of developers, IT departments can accomplish the Java development they need to succeed in the Internet age without hiring an army of developers -- even if the developers were available.