The Ecetera Employee Handbook

How to survive when you don’t have a boss but have a big

brain instead

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v1.0a 1 of 25 (c)2013 Ecetera

Dedication

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v1.0a 2 of 25 (c)2013 Ecetera

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Table of Contents

1. Welcome to Planet Ecetera

2. Our Vision

3. Your first days...

4. Your Future

5. Your Performance

6. It’s About Respect

7. Your Safety & Security

8. What else?

The Gift of Code

Navigation

This handbook is your navigation tool for your first steps on Planet Ecetera.

It’s intended to help you find the right information, meet the inhabitants,

smell the vision and taste the values. We hope this will get you excited about

your future on this planet.

Along the way, we’ll point you to the special sauce that makes us, well, special

and some of the less exciting but equally important stuff in the Ecetera

Employee Technical Guidelines.

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A word from the CEO

In 2004 we realised how exciting it was solving the big hairy problems that

companies were experiencing developing and deploying web applications.

We then had the awesome idea to combine the latest and greatest software from

around the world with the smartest people we could find.

Finding the technology was easy.

Finding great people was always going to be a bit trickier.

We needed to create an environment that would foster the specialist skills

required to solve specific problems, empower people to do good work, encourage

them to be brave and honest with customers...and protect them from the

consequences.

Then we needed to bring people into this environment who were smart enough and

curious enough to master the skills, proactive enough to make stuff happen and

willing to back themselves in the pursuit of outstanding customer value.

Ecetera is a privately held company with over one hundred employees

headquartered in Sydney with offices in Melbourne and Brisbane.

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1. Welcome to Planet Ecetera

Congratulations on making the decision to join our world.

We hope you like the idea of having the freedom to work on projects you are

really passionate about - we have a unique approach to the way we work to help

our customers sleep at night.

As you already know, you’ll be working with a lot of smart people. You’re also

aware that you’ll be working with some incredibly interesting technology. You

will be making a big difference to the performance of our clients’ mission

critical web and enterprise applications.

We want to give you a smart tool to guide you around our wonderful world...

because you’re worth it...remember everything about your brain is sexy :o)

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2. Our Vision

We view our world in a very different way. We’re on a mission to affect positive

change in our corner of the universe.

We have the power to analyse old problems with innovative thinking and that’s

why you’re here.

So what does this mean?

Ecetera assists companies with technology performance by focusing on two key

capabilities:

1. measurement of performance in all aspects of technology delivery

2. optimisation and continuous improvement in technology delivery

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Our Purpose

Our purpose is to rid the world of badly behaving business applications.

Our focus is on customer outcomes. We’re helping organisations serve their

customers by improving application performance; enhancing user experience.

Being customer-obsessed gives us the edge on our competitors and helps our

clients sleep well at night, but it also gives us our sense of purpose.

Our philosophy underpins our core values which embodies our culture. This

represents our brand, our people, our approach and our vision of the universe

and how we can make a difference.

We identify and fix application performance issues from code to customer by:

providing pre-sales consulting to define problem sources

demonstrating proof of concept solutions

providing application performance education and training

defining application performance issues through systems analysis

designing solutions with our clients

supporting application performance optimisation solutions

Doing this makes our customers better, stronger and faster. And don’t forget The

Robots quote:

“Work It Harder Make It Better, Do It Faster, Makes Us stronger, More Than Ever

Hour After, Our Work Is Never Over”.

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Our Uniqueness

We are determined to make a real difference to the way enterprise applications

provide benefits to businesses and customers.

It’s here where our true points of difference lie. It’s where our (cape) crusading

spirit comes alive and where our passion for innovation and partnership

inspires change. We work together to deliver scalable business applications for

a new generation.

Along the way, we’ve come across like-minded people who understand the

importance of this goal...You.

That’s why the second part of our crusade is focused on attracting and retaining

the right talent and developing their full potential.

On our planet, we’ve thrown out conventional structures, frameworks and

hierarchies. We discovered early on that the world is flat and everyone can be

the master of their own destiny.

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Freedomville

The capital city of Planet Ecetera is Freedomville. It’s like Farmville but

without all the clicking and in-app purchasing.

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without

prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their

own customs, privileges or beliefs. This state of mind is not common but it

is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to

become worse than useless.”

Leo Tolstoy

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

Freedomville is a city that harnesses talent, encourages creativity and

promotes professionalism. All doors are open, all ideas are welcome and all

projects are outcome focused.

In Freedomville there are a lot of cool suburbs, Techton, Collaboration Station,

Entrepreneur West, Innovation Town, Motivation South and Autonomy Park East.

In Freedomville, there’s a geeknasium to exercise your mind, a Psych Ward called

Hawk Vs Badger, a coal face to slog away at and an asylum called Ivy or Cookie

where everyone knows your name.

While individuals are great we emphasise accountability and collective

responsibility. There’s no need for a command and control - we like to foster a

common sense approach and we encourage shared responsibility.

If you do get lost here, someone will always be around to help you in the right

direction. Like that time when we went to the wrong bar...another time perhaps.

P.S. the prison in Freedomville is home to badly behaving, unreliable and

difficult to change business applications. Some of these applications are

repeat offenders who need a good talking to.

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Traditional management models are hierarchies that use command and control to

enforce authority; decision-making power is concentrated at the top of the

organisational pyramid. Carrot and stick incentives are used to motivate and

orders are issued to be carried out by subordinates.

Sociopaths and clueless losers drive the company forward...a tempting model

according to the Gervais principle... hmmmm...not really !

*In case you wondered: Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote

over-performing losers into middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths,

and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves.

We challenge this traditional approach, welcome to the 21st-century! The

business environment here is characterised by rapid change and flexibility.

The inverted pyramid is a metaphor for a reversal of traditional management

practices. Our employees who are closest to our clients are placed at the top and

our functional heads at the bottom supporting our client facing superheros.

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Our people are empowered with decision-making authority, accountability and

freedom of action. The functional leader becomes a facilitator spearheading a

team effort. Overall organisational performance becomes faster, more adaptable

and more effective. So we think it’s a pretty good environment in which to work

and flourish.

Our Values

1. Intelligence – we’re all about smart people working with smart technology to

provide smart solutions. We love what we do and that enthusiasm drives us

forward.

2. Customer Centricity – we focus on the best outcomes for our customers. This

means our customers are ready to buy our expertise and our solutions based on

our reputation.

3. Accountability – we’re trusted partners and we take real pride in the service we

offer. It’s tailored to suit the specific needs of our customers and we stand

behind the integrity of our solutions.

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

“Accountability breeds response-ability” - Mr S. Covey

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

4. Innovation – Eceterians love to innovate and always look to improve and

uncover better, stronger, harder, faster solutions...our partners have the same

philosophy.

5. Passion – we want to make a difference. This means being excited about sharing,

learning and growing. We’re passionate about technology and problem solving.

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6. Open Minded

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Are we not (wo)men? We are geeks.

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What we love :-)

We love coffee but we love technology more...

( ) ( ) ) ) ( ) ( ( ( ) ( ) ) _____________

<_____________> ___ | |/ _ \ | | | | | |_| | ___| |\___/ / Soy \___________/ Cap \ \_______________________/

What makes us sad :-(

Spam makes us sad but slow applications make us sadder...

=========================================| ,dP""8a "888888b, d8b "888b ,888" || 88b " 888 d88 dPY8b 88Y8b,8888 || "Y8888a 888ad8P'dPaaY8b 88 Y88P888 || a Y88 888 dP Y8b 88 YP 888 || "8ad8P'a888a a88a;*a888aa88a a888a || ;*;;;;*;;;*;;;*,, || _,­­­'':::';*;;;*;;;*;;*d;, || .­' ::::::::::';*;;*;dII; || .' ,<<<,. :::::::::::::::ffffff. || / ,<<<<<<<<,::::::::::::::::fffffI,\ || .,<<<<<<<<<<I;:::::::::::::::ffffKIP", || |<<<<<<<<<<dP;,?>;,::::::::::fffKKIP | || <<<<<<<dP;;;;;\>>>>>;,::::fffKKIPf ' || \ mYMMV?;;;;;;;\>>>>>>>>>,YIIPP" / || . "":;;;;;;;;;i>>>>>>>>>>>>>, ,' || ­._ ":;;;sP'"?>>>>>=========. || ­­..._______...|<[Viagra]| || =========' |=========================================

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Philosophy

We actively encourage collaboration, learning, sharing ideas and solutions.

Our customers trust us because we recommend solutions that are in their best

interest .

That’s also why we leverage innovative technologies to provide “best of breed”

technologies and services.

In our experience, smart people don’t want to be constrained by too many rules

and regulations. They also don’t want to have to navigate any unnecessary

barriers between them and their customers.

We’ve thrown out the rulebook and instead we have guiding principles (inspired

by Mr D. Pink) and a philosophy which empowers our team to partner with

customers and make the universe better.

Autonomy

The desire for self direction that fosters engagement and freedom.

We recognise and acknowledge that you’re already an intelligent,

self-motivated individual. So we want to give you the tools, the support, and

the encouragement to realise your full potential.

We figure you are the closest to the problem you are working on, so you are best

placed to work out how to solve it. If you need help with something you can get

it.

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

“Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement”

Mr D. Pink

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

We leverage the desire for autonomy with our self-approving vacation system.

We think that you know more about how your absence will affect your

commitments than anyone else so we don’t need to hire a bunch of middle managers

to figure it out.

It’s also why you’re given the freedom to choose projects and solutions that

you’re passionate about and that will make your customers love you forever.

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Mastery

The urge of getting better at what you do. If you have an itch, scratch it. Smart

people are driven and constantly wanting to learn and improve.

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3. Your first days...

Being a new kid can be daunting - you may think nervously about your previous

experiences...you know the one where you felt like you were the bait for the

shark feeding frenzy...please don’t.

To guide and support your first steps with us, we have a 90 Day Integration

Program so you can make friends, understand your role and contribute as

quickly as possible.

Rather than teaching you underwater breathing techniques, the HR Overlords

will spend time with you, walking you through the integration plan as well as

making sure you have shark repellant.

i) Say “Yo” to your Buddy

In your first few days at Ecetera, you’ll meet your buddy, they’ll be the person

who’ll show you around, introduce you to the coffee shop and the rest of the team

and maybe take you to Cookie or the Ivy.

They will also be able to answer most of your questions to provide an insight

into to some of the exciting projects that are in play.

ii) Say “G’day” to the Team

During the first few weeks, you’ll get to meet the rest of the team but with the

majority of our “caped crusaders” out in the field, we’ll do our best to get you

involved in as many catch-up sessions as possible. You can put a face (or voice)

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to a name and start building relationships.

iii) Say “Hi” to our Clients

We work at the enterprise level so our clients are household names. Our website

describes the solutions we have delivered, so check http://ecetera.com.au for

details. We are a critical component of the teams at Target, Telstra, ANZ.

Note: Target may be pronounced Targe-a en Francais - cue Insurance Commercial

here.

iv) Say “Hello” to our Partners

We pursue partnerships with similarly smart companies who have the best of

breed technologies and strive to create strong relationships at the highest

level with leading international vendors like:

AppDynamics

Azul Systems

CA Technologies

CollabNet

Compuware have acquired dynaTrace and Gomez

DynaTrace

Gomez

Terracotta

Strangeloop was recently acquired by Radware

Splunk

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4. Your Future

Longer term, we’ll look to support you in your career aspirations and help you

with further training and development opportunities to allow you to become

the best you can be. We’ll also try to ensure that you have a lot of fun along the

way.

If technology is what gets you out of bed every morning you have come to the

right place. In addition, you can contribute your expertise across a range of

forums including our blog, case studies, white papers and feature & articles.

If you’re joining us in a non-technical role we still love you and we know you

have the skills that geeks don’t have. We’ll ensure you have the training and

support to develop your skills.

If you’re a geek, a freak or just chic we want to look after you.

Look at you go!

It’s an exciting time in a kid’s life when they are finally able to go it alone. Yet

we all know that it won’t be plain sailing. There will be bumps and bruises,

mishaps and mistakes and lots of lessons learnt (hopefully).

It’s no different here. We’ll look to give you the tools, the support and the

encouragement to be the best you can be. But we recognise that there will be

challenges and mistakes. And we’re fine about that because we expect them. You

probably do too.

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5. Your Performance

Your Career

We begin by working through our super-duper 90 day Integration Program -

(patent pending) so we all understand the how to get the most value from the

process.

Some of this may happen at the office or at the coffee shop while wondering why

the muffins aren’t so good this week. However, trust us, the review will happen.

In the same way we optimise system performance, we want to optimise your

performance. We also encourage continuing education in all forms. Tell us what

you need !

Rewards

We want you with us because you want to be a part of what we are building.

Making sure you have the ability to pay your bills, get a nice haircut, maybe

learn the trombone is all part of the service. Salary and career development

aside, we have some other pretty neat ways to say well done when we really,

really, really like what you are doing.

Kudos to You!

Kudos is our way of recognising achievement that’s awarded through Yammer.

Who decides who to give Kudos ? You do, I do, we all do.

You see someone doing a great job ? Give Kudos !

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6. It’s All About Respect

While genius is often flawed, smart people have certain common attributes that

enable them to work really well as a team, which in turn support the best

customer outcomes. Here at Ecetera, we operate on the principle of respect. We

believe it’s the first and last word in any Code of Conduct worth its salt.

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

“Respect is a two-way street; if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it” -

R.G. Risch

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

We spend a lot of time working on customer sites as representatives of the

Ecetera team, so obviously it’s incredibly important we operate at all times

with the utmost professionalism. We simply expect that you accord your clients

and colleagues every respect and courtesy that you would hope to receive

yourself. That’s it. The rest we think you’re smart enough to work out yourself.

7. Your Safety & Security

In our experience, smart people are also responsible people. So just like you

wear a seatbelt on your bike or a helmet when driving your car, so you’ll also

need to be vigilant when at work and identify any health and safety hazards.

Unfortunately, Dad jokes are an occupational hazard not covered by Workers

Comp.

In the Melbourne Office, we also have a bike storage area with lockers on the

ground floor and showers also located on the ground floor and on level two.

8. What else? Being an Ambassador

If you’ve reached this far in the document you may have realised that we have a

(bad) sense of humour as well as a philosophy of employing smart people with a

penchant for using quotes to illustrate our ethos.

Predictable cliché:

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

“An organisation’s most important assets are its people”

+ ------------------------------------------------------------ +

....The Right People

In order to sustain our success, our culture, our sense of fun and our passion;

it’s imperative that we continue to hire the smartest people who view the world

in a similar way.

That we continue to hire people like you. This is where you come in.

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You are Ecetera’s best ambassador. You are the best person to carry our brand

into the market and speak of our unique approach and joie de vivre. Who better

to introduce other clever souls to Ecetera who have similar values to us? Who

else truly understands the kind of smart people we look for than our current

valued team members?

So we encourage you to stay alert to potential tech savvy “caped crusaders” out

there who are looking to join an organisation which values innovation,

entrepreneurialism, autonomy and a focus on customer outcomes; an

organisation like Ecetera.

Conclusion

The important thing is that we continue to learn and develop so that we don’t

repeat the same mistakes but move on to new and bigger projects and challenges.

Our success to date is peppered with mistakes and lessons learnt. Our culture

continues to evolve as we grow, new clients are discovered and partnerships

change.

We also recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure we stay an

employer of choice for smart people. There will always be frustrations about

certain processes and our commitment is to resolve them collaboratively.

We’re not perfect but change starts with a conversation, engagement and

dedication.

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Acknowledgment

A big thank you to Mr D. Pink who helped us gather our thoughts in a structured

way.

Particular thumb up to Zenco Effiong who kick started the imagination of this

new world and adventure.

Another big thank you to Elise Andrew (IFL Science) who inspires us daily.

Thanks to Shahed Syed for the Batman physics lesson and Hugh MacLeod for the

Sociopathic advice.

Many thanks to Ricky Gervais for steering us clear of the pyramid.

Reading List

We’d like to encourage you to e-read some ebooks or, if you insist, some actual

books that are thought provoking, inspiring and bloody interesting:

Drive, Dan Pink

From Good to Great, Jim Collins

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

A Hacker Manifesto, McKenzie Wark

The Cuckoos Egg, Clifford Stoll

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Alan Cooper

First, Break All The Rules, Marcus Buckingham

The Hacker Crackdown, Bruce Sterling

Getting Naked, Patrick Lencioni

To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being,

Martin E. P. Seligman

The Future of Management, Gary Hamel

We’d also strongly encourage you not to read the following:

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, George Lucas

Elvis Favourite Recipes, Elvis

The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien

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Appendix: The Gift of Code

//

import java.io.*;

public class WordCount

//

// ************************************************

//

// Author Unknown or Anon or someone else

//

// Handy: Counts number of words in a text file

//

// Which everyone needs for reading and stuff

//

// Not stoeln from teh intawebs at all

//

// ************************************************

//

// code in java.lang or glass houses shouldnt throw exceptions

public static void main (String[] args) throws IOException

// badly described int vars for char index and Number of Words found

int i, NumOfWords = 0;

// string vars for Scanned Line, file name and stream fluffers

String ScanLine, inputStr = "";

BufferedReader inputFile, br;

// char var for the next character in the Scanned Line which rhymes

char NextChar;

// bool vars for whether Start of Line or Looking for Next Word

// both initialized to true at beginning of each scanned line

// because its true because I said so

boolean StartOfLine, LookingForNextWord;

// display intro message and prompt for file name

System.out.println("This program was definitely not stolen and it counts the

number of words in a text file");

////////////////////////////// really well commented line

System.out.println("Enter File Name:");

// get the string file name from user and hope they dont use a rude word

br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader (System.in));

inputStr = br.readLine();

// when I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing

// now, God only knows

System.out.println("Reading file named " + inputStr);

inputFile = new BufferedReader(new FileReader (inputStr));

// get first line of file to start, where else would you start

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ScanLine = inputFile.readLine();

// if we do not have a NULL, we can continue reading

// if we do have a NULL you are looking in the wrong place

// now I’m not sure if we need this, but too scared to delete

// why does NULL always shout?

while(ScanLine != null)

// initialize bools to true

// we ARE looking for next word, and we ARE at start of line

// drunk, fix later

LookingForNextWord = true;

StartOfLine = true;

// evaluate each character in the line looking for spaces

// thats called a delimiter on planet ecetera

for (i=0; i <= (ScanLine.length() - 1); i++)

NextChar = ScanLine.charAt(i);

// if we found something other than space

// and we are looking for the next word

// then we found a new word

//

// increment counter for number of words

// set looking for next word and start of line to false

// if you find a dirty word dont add code here

if (NextChar != ' ' && LookingForNextWord)

NumOfWords++;

LookingForNextWord = false;

StartOfLine = false;

// if we found a space and we are not at start of line

// then set looking for next word to true again

// could also be a dirty word, look out

if (NextChar == ' ' && !StartOfLine)

LookingForNextWord = true;

// END OF FOR LOOP

// no comment

ScanLine = inputFile.readLine();

// END OF WHILE LOOP

inputFile.close();

// all your base are belong to us

System.out.println("Kind of done reading file now, was named " + inputStr);

System.out.println("I think the number of words was " + NumOfWords);

// END OF MAIN

// END OF PROGRAM AND MY CAREER

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