May 29, 2013 at 7:22 pmInvestment Banking Projects: Is it Good or Bad for an Engineer?
Now in Ukraine there are more and more projects from world-class investment banks. Leading Ukrainian IT companies are becoming more visible on the world market, more and more willing to invest in obtaining international certificates and, as a result of all this, are becoming more and more attractive as service providers for the financial industry. In view of this, I want to understand the main features of such projects from the point of view of interest in them from real engineers.
The basis of banking is stability. Therefore, the main emphasis is on technologies that have proven themselves from this point of view. Yes, the percentage of cutting-edge technologies used is not as high as in other industries (e-commerce, for example). However, it is safe to say that decisions that have proved their right to life will come here sooner or later. Even 10 years ago, the use of new-fashioned, at that time, Java in the banking environment was difficult to imagine. And now, banking projects are the main employers for Java specialists. However, life here does not stand still: Gigaspaces www.gigaspaces.com , MarkLogic www.marklogic.com today these are already real trends that are used quite widely.
Everything is simple here. As in other large corporations, banks are in full swing a program to increase the share of IT service providers. Therefore, from year to year the number of people working for such companies is more and more. And for a person interested in building a career - this is the surest sign that he has found the right employer ;-)
Well, what can I say: as in any other large organization, it is. But sometimes it not only complicates life, but also makes it easier. You just need to spend a little time to figure out HOW the processes actually work. After that - just remember to control them in certain stages, and everything will happen automatically.
The main users are the business units of the bank itself, therefore, budgets for IT projects are regularly allocated, developed and increased. Agile practices have long come into the banking sector. Neither SCRUM nor Kanban is new here. And yesterday’s avid “waterfall only” managers adapted to Agile, and learned how to use SCRUM boards to correctly report the situation to the higher management on projects. It is also worth noting the number of Agile trainings in which banks invest as eagerly as they did in PMI.
Each bank has a whole set of IT service providers in different countries. Therefore, almost everyone has the opportunity to participate in global projects in which several countries take part simultaneously. And this means regular business trips - as an opportunity to visit different countries. The budget for business trips is annual and stable. Yes, and English is the standard for any modern financial project.
Despite conservatism, IT is not a major source of income for a bank. Therefore, they are very open about the fact that IT service providers take decisions in the architectural aspect. Indeed, using any Open Source solution will require a number of permissions, but these are just precautions, and, in reality, most rational proposals are accepted. For example, the use of Scala (http://www.scala-lang.org) where it is due to technological benefits.
What is now included in the standard set of required technologies? In my subjective opinion, the standard (> 80%) set is as follows:
- Java Core
- Spring
- Hibernate
- JMS
- Groovy
- Oracle
- HTML5 / XML / XPath
- Web Services (REST)
- GWT
- BDD / TDD
For example, I have a very positive attitude to the issue of security when it comes to my valuables, and very negative when it imposes any restrictions on me. Unfortunately, security and restrictions are interconnected. And you have to put up with it. Somewhere there are more restrictions, somewhere less. As a rule, now mobile phones are not taken away at the entrance, and cameras are not hung above each employee. They also learned how to mask data, and there is no need to work in rooms without windows with upholstered walls of lead ... But no one canceled the pin code on the card, and, unfortunately, bring relatives to the workplace (“I'll show you what monitor I have at work ! ”) Will not work either.
Virtual machines
Not all projects, but such relationships are found when employees work in virtual machines.
The essence of this decision is that physically all the computers of the employees and the server are in the network of the bank itself. This greatly simplifies scalability and information security. And for the developer, it looks like a regular computer. For the organization of such systems, Citrix technologies are used, a high-speed dedicated network connection, therefore, with a competent approach to the organization, there are no performance problems. For those who have never encountered this, it can sound frightening: “How can I not go on Facebook to read the tape?” But those who have adapted to this get their benefits: you can not read the mail on weekends and holidays, no one will call in the middle of the night to fix something urgently, etc.
For some, the financial domain looks less attractive than, say, NASA Spacecraft. This is probably due to the fact that physics for a mathematician looks more romantic than economics. However, since there are many projects, it is quite possible to find a project with less influence on the subject area and with greater technical complexity. And there are enough of these technical difficulties: these are high load mission critical systems, real-time data, and speed requirements for algorithms of varying complexity for processing large collections. Also now they are increasingly moving away from heavy solutions, such as the full J2EE stack, regardless of whether it is really needed there or not. Instead, lightweight technologies, rational decisions, and a gradual increase in functionality are adopted. If some technology is used, it will be used to the place and in full.
Technology
The basis of banking is stability. Therefore, the main emphasis is on technologies that have proven themselves from this point of view. Yes, the percentage of cutting-edge technologies used is not as high as in other industries (e-commerce, for example). However, it is safe to say that decisions that have proved their right to life will come here sooner or later. Even 10 years ago, the use of new-fashioned, at that time, Java in the banking environment was difficult to imagine. And now, banking projects are the main employers for Java specialists. However, life here does not stand still: Gigaspaces www.gigaspaces.com , MarkLogic www.marklogic.com today these are already real trends that are used quite widely.
Career
Everything is simple here. As in other large corporations, banks are in full swing a program to increase the share of IT service providers. Therefore, from year to year the number of people working for such companies is more and more. And for a person interested in building a career - this is the surest sign that he has found the right employer ;-)
Bureaucracy
Well, what can I say: as in any other large organization, it is. But sometimes it not only complicates life, but also makes it easier. You just need to spend a little time to figure out HOW the processes actually work. After that - just remember to control them in certain stages, and everything will happen automatically.
Development Planning and Methodologies
The main users are the business units of the bank itself, therefore, budgets for IT projects are regularly allocated, developed and increased. Agile practices have long come into the banking sector. Neither SCRUM nor Kanban is new here. And yesterday’s avid “waterfall only” managers adapted to Agile, and learned how to use SCRUM boards to correctly report the situation to the higher management on projects. It is also worth noting the number of Agile trainings in which banks invest as eagerly as they did in PMI.
International teams
Each bank has a whole set of IT service providers in different countries. Therefore, almost everyone has the opportunity to participate in global projects in which several countries take part simultaneously. And this means regular business trips - as an opportunity to visit different countries. The budget for business trips is annual and stable. Yes, and English is the standard for any modern financial project.
Architectural freedom
Despite conservatism, IT is not a major source of income for a bank. Therefore, they are very open about the fact that IT service providers take decisions in the architectural aspect. Indeed, using any Open Source solution will require a number of permissions, but these are just precautions, and, in reality, most rational proposals are accepted. For example, the use of Scala (http://www.scala-lang.org) where it is due to technological benefits.
Gentleman's Standard Set
What is now included in the standard set of required technologies? In my subjective opinion, the standard (> 80%) set is as follows:
- Java Core
- Spring
- Hibernate
- JMS
- Groovy
- Oracle
- HTML5 / XML / XPath
- Web Services (REST)
- GWT
- BDD / TDD
Security
For example, I have a very positive attitude to the issue of security when it comes to my valuables, and very negative when it imposes any restrictions on me. Unfortunately, security and restrictions are interconnected. And you have to put up with it. Somewhere there are more restrictions, somewhere less. As a rule, now mobile phones are not taken away at the entrance, and cameras are not hung above each employee. They also learned how to mask data, and there is no need to work in rooms without windows with upholstered walls of lead ... But no one canceled the pin code on the card, and, unfortunately, bring relatives to the workplace (“I'll show you what monitor I have at work ! ”) Will not work either.
Virtual machines
Not all projects, but such relationships are found when employees work in virtual machines.
The essence of this decision is that physically all the computers of the employees and the server are in the network of the bank itself. This greatly simplifies scalability and information security. And for the developer, it looks like a regular computer. For the organization of such systems, Citrix technologies are used, a high-speed dedicated network connection, therefore, with a competent approach to the organization, there are no performance problems. For those who have never encountered this, it can sound frightening: “How can I not go on Facebook to read the tape?” But those who have adapted to this get their benefits: you can not read the mail on weekends and holidays, no one will call in the middle of the night to fix something urgently, etc.
Subject area
For some, the financial domain looks less attractive than, say, NASA Spacecraft. This is probably due to the fact that physics for a mathematician looks more romantic than economics. However, since there are many projects, it is quite possible to find a project with less influence on the subject area and with greater technical complexity. And there are enough of these technical difficulties: these are high load mission critical systems, real-time data, and speed requirements for algorithms of varying complexity for processing large collections. Also now they are increasingly moving away from heavy solutions, such as the full J2EE stack, regardless of whether it is really needed there or not. Instead, lightweight technologies, rational decisions, and a gradual increase in functionality are adopted. If some technology is used, it will be used to the place and in full.