“I like complexity”

Who are the people who are committed to your pension daily? What drives them, what makes their work fun and what gives them energy? In the section The person behind your pension, APG employees give a glimpse into their work and life. This time we speak with Jules Hendriks, DevOps Engineer 4 Scrum Master since 2017. "Often there are people who are much deeper into technical details than I am. I think it's great that I can still make an important contribution from overview, coordination and cooperation."

What exactly does a DevOps Engineer 4 Scrum Master do?

"As a Scrum Master, it is my job to keep the lives of the team members as simple as possible. There is quite a bit of complexity in the work of developers at APG. First, programming technically, but a developer must also know the pension matter for which he or she is programming. In addition, there are a lot of risk control and ISAE guidelines involved. It is important that attention is paid to this, but it does entail a certain bureaucracy. Ideally, as a Scrum Master, I make sure that team members are inconvenienced as little as possible, so that they can just work and make progress."

So you take all the jobs off their hands?

"Haha, preferably not, but sometimes it comes down to that, yes. If someone suffers from a so-called impediment – something that prevents that colleague from moving forward – I make an assessment. Can he or she realistically solve this himself? If not, I try to get that colleague back on track so that he or she can do it himself or herself in the future. But if someone runs into something he or she really doesn't feel like doing, then I'm willing to take over such a job. Everyone has his/her own tolerance for frustration, so if I notice that a colleague is over that limit, I can help. If the team runs better as a result, I'll take care of that."

In what other ways do you free up the team members?

"If there are meetings that a team member needs to attend, I can take over and make the translation for the team. What should they get out of this, what is important? I regularly try to coach colleagues, for example people who are not feeling well at the time or who are getting stuck in something. I then look at how we can get things moving. If a team is a well-running machine, I am the one who ensures that the cogs remain well oiled. Often it also just comes down to coordination. In the event of a major production incident, team members usually understand what is wrong in a technical sense, but I often jump in for the coordination between all those involved. Sometimes I see miscommunications arise and then I bring the group together to clear up misunderstandings."

What attracts you to that role?

"I like complexity, in systems and processes. You can also look at human interaction as a process or a system, in which you can see what works and what doesn't. I like to put my finger on the sore spot, to get complex, difficult things running. Often there are people who are much deeper into the technical details of a subject than I am. I think it's great that I can still make an important contribution from overview, coordination and cooperation."

What qualities are important for a Scrum Master?

"A good Scrum Master must above all have good communication skills and be able to organize well. But he or she must also have a feeling for and affinity with the material. If you miss that, it becomes difficult. Soft skills are very important, but to really help people move forward, you also have to be able to speak from substantive experience."

What do you do outside of work to recharge your battery?

"My preference for understanding complicated things is also reflected there. I like the more complex board games, computer games, but also movies and the like. I like to dive deep into the Worldbuilding (a process in which you design a fictional world or universe for stories, games or art, ed.) of something. I am lucky that the hobbies of my two children have a lot of overlap with mine. A year and a half ago we got new neighbors and the neighbor, and I are also completely on the same page in terms of hobbies. So, on weekends, my son and I often play some complicated board game with the neighbor. And that may take some time. I also like to read."

What genres do you read?

"That's broad, but my preference leans towards science fiction, for example the books of David Brin, or Larry Niven. In addition to a storyline, they build a world with a whole concept behind it. I like to put down such a book for a while and then think further about that concept. How does it work and what implications does it have? So, you are working on several levels. Well, I find that interesting."