IT in Malawi and Developer to Manager Career Change – Birmingham Branch

International IT Consultant Herman Fung will be talking about his experiences working in a developing country and his recent transition from a developer to a manager.

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SPEAKER
Herman Fung: IT Consultant

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AGENDA
18:00 – Refreshments and networking
18:30 – IT in Malawi – Herman Fung
19:00 – Developer to Manager Career Change – Herman Fung
19:30 – Q&A – Herman Fung
20:00 – Close

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SYNOPSIS
Presentation 1 – IT in Malawi
An introduction to the iHRIS Malawi project and insight into the challenges of working in a developing country, with its own unique culture and circumstances.

Rolling out a brand new web-based open source system in a country with limited and very expensive internet connectivity was an exciting and difficult challenge. Adapting to the culture and ways of working of the ministry was an initial culture shock and a sign of things to come. There were very few working computers and no working email system. different offices communicated with each other via handwritten internal memos which were physically delivered by runners!

Presentation 2 – Developer to Manager Career Change
Having made the transition from a graduate developer to a project, test, dev team, and service manager, Herman is writing a book to share his experience of his career journey so far.

An introduction to this book and some of its key highlights will hopefully help anyone who is thinking about making the change from techie to management. From being an “accidental manager” to understanding why the idea of “managers know best” is a myth, it is honestly not as bad as you might think!

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SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Herman Fung is an international IT consultant with a breadth of experience across the software development lifecycle, in a variety of business sectors. Including public and healthcare services, banking and financial services, automotive manufacturing, fast moving consumer goods, as well as global aid and development.

In 2012-2014, he was a volunteer IT Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Health and part of a team which implemented Malawi’s first national, open source Human Resources Information System for the health sector, called iHRIS.

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FURTHER READING
VSO Volunteer Scrapbook – IT in Malawi
https://stories.vsointernational.org/memories/it-malawi

ICTworks article – Lessons Learned From Working Firsthand in Malawi’s ICT Sector
https://www.ictworks.org/lessons-learned-from-working-firsthand-in-malawis-ict-sector/#.XNvwpY5KhQJ

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For overseas delegates who wish to attend the event please note that BCS does not issue invitation letters.

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THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
BCS Birmingham Branch
Visit birmingham.bcs.org
Email birmingham.contact@bcs.org.uk