Delegate To Create (Read Time: 5 Mins)
Tags: career, productivity, discuss, startup
Published: 2019-02-10 15:36:18

---
title: Delegate To Create (Read Time: 5 Mins)
published: true
description: Importance of delegating your work to interns
tags: career, productivity, discuss, startup
---
![Photo by RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist on Unsplash](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qxehwa8k8gkqhftf5lw7.jpg)

## Introduction
I think when you come across a word like the **delegation**. The first thing that might comes to your mind might be **outsourcing**. 

Which in recent years has become a heated debate and emotional part of the dictionary in development teams, product managers and entrepreneurs in startups

Due to the challenge in finding in a limited pool of skilled developers locally and getting them to be part of your organisation. 

I had friends who choose to go for an offshoring tech team in countries like Vietnam, India or the Philippines to help in building their own startup.

As they were not able to attract local developers because of their limited resources. 

## Why Delegation Matters
As a developer, I won't be talking about the **pains** of this instead it will be focusing on **you**. 

Who is working in an **organisation** or a **startup** that relies on **interns** as part of the **development team**

Since you are a developer, **time** is a **precious** commodity when your focus is writing code to ship and deliver software to your customers' hands.

To delegate **lower priority** tasks to your interns so that you can **focus** on **higher priority** task to meet the **expectation** is key.

## Learning to Delegate is Hard 
Learning on how to **tap** on the **current skills** or **potential skills** of your interns and delegate work has **never been taught** to you even in school. 

It is usually a **hit** or **miss** thing only after multiple interns to have the experience to figure out a process.

I had remembered a few **horror stories** in working with interns. One of which is that they would suddenly **not turn up** for work the following day, due to the **challenge** of the work that they are given. 

That is why I have figured out my own process after learning to manage and delegate work to my interns. 

Which I hope will be useful for anyone who might be managing **interns** during your career in software development.

## Delegation in 5 Steps
Here is a **5 steps** process in **delegation** of your work. Which I had figured out while learning to delegate my work to intern. 

Usually, **very interesting** work for my interns that I want to do but in the interest of time and priority was not able to do.

### Step 1 - Build a Relationship With Your Intern
This is important as it is useful to understand them to build a **friendly** working relationship as they will taking on your work.

Since I have a **diverse team**, I am always **interested** in what are their **favourite food** or even their **education** system in their own country.  

Therefore scheduling a time to chat **30 mins - 1 hour** time or during your **non-working hours** aka **lunch** or **breaks** in no particular order.
* Where are they from?
* What university or school you are from?    
* How did you find our company?
* Why did you want to work in our company?
* What are you looking to accomplish in our company?
* What is the type of work that you would like to do?
* What are your hobbies or favourite activities outside of work or school?
* What are the things that you are proud of?
* What are your strengths?
* What are the technology you know or had worked on before?
* What are your plans in the future?
* When is the last day of your internship? 

### Step 2 - Delegating Tasks
Now you had built a good understanding of your intern, you should spend some time to reflect and review on the task you could give to your interns.

Here is a list of thing to consider:
* **What is the context for the task** -  What is the basic understanding and knowledge to perform the task.

* **Scope** - Forming the scope on what needs to be accomplished will give you a **general** guideline on the **progress** and allows the intern to have **small wins** while reaching the **intended result** of the task. 

* **Duration** - The duration of the task, it has to allow room for learning and understanding.

* **Resources for the task** - Understand what are the **resources** that your intern **needs** to **accomplish** instead of **throwing them** into the **deep end** to find these **resources** by themselves.

* **Reporting of Progress** - The mode of communication in either **slack**, **email** or **scheduling** time for an **in-person meeting**.

### Step 3 - Assurance and Pointing in the Right Direction
This is usually done when you are assigning that particular task to your intern.

**Always** focus on seeking **feedback** and **elimination** of doubts from the intern regarding of the task.

Addressing these **doubts** can help you in **adjusting** the scope or **duration** of the task.

It could even mean that you should **provide** additional resources for the **execution** of the task. 

For example, provide your **personal opinion** on how to **tackle** the task and searching for resources.

### Step 4 - Review & Mentoring
This is usually carried out in a **daily 15 - 30 mins** in-person meeting with your intern to **discuss** the progress of the task that was carried out.

**Assure** yourself that you are in a **relaxed**, **calm** and **positive** mood before going for this in-person meeting.

To allow better **facilitation** in **listening** and **asking** questions regarding the **problem** they had faced while executing the task.

It could even be in the form of sitting with them side by side to execute the task to understand and clarify the problems they had faced so far.

### Step 5 - Documentation
**Always** remind your intern that they should **document** their findings along with **test cases** for the software they had developed. 

Regarding on the problems faced in a **company wiki** while **executing** the task or after they had **completed** it.

This helps in the **transfer of knowledge** and allows anyone to **pick up** the **task** again after the intern has **completed** their internship. 
 
Conduct a **review** of their **documentation** and provide you with a **walkthrough** on what they had **done** before the end of their internship.

## Conclusion
Having been through multiple internships, it can be dishearting as an intern.

Who was given **menial tasks** during my internship who does not **value** your learning to develop your **skills** further

So I wish that when **delegating** a task to your interns. Think in the perspective of your intern when if it is **manageable** and can be **performed** by you.  

If it is not, **do not** delegate to them those task to them. Since your interns besides being there to gain **experience** to learn. 

They are your **evangelist** who  **spreads** your company's **reputation** among peers, professors, academic staff in their school. 

I can think of a few companies I will never join due to their bad reputation from seniors and friends.

Always treat them as **human** and **strive** to build a **great** relationship with them. 

Since we may never know that they might become your future colleagues or a friend who might recommend you to your next job in the future.

## References
* [Learning How To Delegate as A Leader][1]
* [Delegation As a Developer: Building the Next You][2]
* [The Right Way to Delegate & Get Awesome Results][3]

If you like my article either sign up for max [adventurer's newsletter](http://eepurl.com/dOUoUb) or you can **follow** to get the **latest** update of my article on **Dev** 

This post was originally posted on max's blog at [Delegate To Create (Read Time: 5 Mins)](https://www.maxongzb.com/delegate-to-create-ead-reading-time-5-mins/) and [Photo by RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/_Yc7OtfFn-0)

[1]: https://www.oreilly.com/business/free/files/learning-how-to-delegate-as-a-leader.pdf
[2]: https://blog.ndepend.com/delegation-developer-building-next/
[3]: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/startup/right-way-delegate/