3 ms·

How many shoe retailers and state governments even know how to recruit and retain the type of talent that produces great software? IMHO, this is the truth nugg

How many shoe retailers and state governments even know how to recruit and retain the type of talent that produces great software? IMHO, this is the truth nugget. Where the rock stars go is where you will find great software and the company culture that works is "stand back and let the rock stars do their thing". That culture can't exist in the enterprise. It doesn't even exist in most startups. I never wanted to believe this but after years of first hand experience, I find the conclusion inescapable. Agile methodologies can't extract excellence from mediocrity, but they might allow half-decent software to be made without the use of rock stars, by plugging the holes that mediocre developers typically fall into. But is half-decent software even worth making?

jazzdev 17y ago
Where the rock stars go is where you will find great software and the company culture that works is "stand back and let the rock stars do their thing". That culture can't exist in the enterprise. XBox is an interesting counter-example. Microsoft completely let that team do their thing. They had total freedom to design and market it. Notice they didn't even have to call it Microsoft Gaming Console. Source: Chris Capossela's talk at the Business of Software 2009 conference.
- jimbokun 17y ago
  From what I've read, Microsoft's original corporate culture wasn't that far removed from "stand back and let the rock stars do their thing." For example, Spolsky likes to talk about how management's job at Microsoft was to keep people from bothering the developers so they could keep writing code. I think he also told anecdotes about developers coming into a manager's office to resolve a technical dispute, and the manager responding "Why are you asking me? Of the people in this room, I'm the one who knows the least about it." Then the manager sent them away to work it out between themselves. That attitude probably had a lot to do with Microsoft's success.

jazzdev 17y ago

Where the rock stars go is where you will find great software and the company culture that works is "stand back and let the rock stars do their thing". That culture can't exist in the enterprise. XBox is an interesting counter-example. Microsoft completely let that team do their thing. They had total freedom to design and market it. Notice they didn't even have to call it Microsoft Gaming Console. Source: Chris Capossela's talk at the Business of Software 2009 conference.

jimbokun 17y ago
From what I've read, Microsoft's original corporate culture wasn't that far removed from "stand back and let the rock stars do their thing." For example, Spolsky likes to talk about how management's job at Microsoft was to keep people from bothering the developers so they could keep writing code. I think he also told anecdotes about developers coming into a manager's office to resolve a technical dispute, and the manager responding "Why are you asking me? Of the people in this room, I'm the one who knows the least about it." Then the manager sent them away to work it out between themselves. That attitude probably had a lot to do with Microsoft's success.