3 ms·

What I've seen kill code quality is a) management putting out fires and b) cocky programmers who boast they can do X in a few hours. Ok, sure, any of us can but

What I've seen kill code quality is a) management putting out fires and b) cocky programmers who boast they can do X in a few hours. Ok, sure, any of us can but why don't you take longer and properly refactor the code. Problem is, they've already opened their mouth so now management expects it in a few hours.

rorykoehler 11y ago
Business people care about instant revenue generation therefore the fastest programmer is the highest value one in their eyes. Maintainability and technical debt is an abstract and far off cost through this lens. Agile methodology was developed in response to this but in my experience the move fast and break things mindset it brings usually translates into move fast, break things and then put the broken things onto a ever growing bug database where only the most critical bugs ever get fixed.
- jcoffland 11y ago
  If you're afraid you're going to break things then you need to refractor. Fear that changes will break things is a sign of code fragility.
  - rorykoehler 11y ago
    I agree but there is little you can do about the code of your peers especially when they have seniority and you're not doing the code reviews. It's a cultural issue and I'm sure it's not like that everywhere but it is definitely prevalent. Everyone talks a good game about code quality but in practice moving fast is valued more by the money men.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- golergka 11y ago
  You either have a very bad luck with "business people" or talking about a stereotype that is about as close to the truth as similar stereotypes about programmers are. Business people are very familiar with terms like "infrastructure", "extensibility", "maintenance" and the like. They're not idiots. May be you should try explaining why refactoring and good architecture is good in business terms instead of programming?

3 ms·

What I've seen kill code quality is a) management putting out fires and b) cocky programmers who boast they can do X in a few hours. Ok, sure, any of us can but

by JustSomeNobody 11y ago

rorykoehler 11y ago
Business people care about instant revenue generation therefore the fastest programmer is the highest value one in their eyes. Maintainability and technical debt is an abstract and far off cost through this lens. Agile methodology was developed in response to this but in my experience the move fast and break things mindset it brings usually translates into move fast, break things and then put the broken things onto a ever growing bug database where only the most critical bugs ever get fixed.
- jcoffland 11y ago
  If you're afraid you're going to break things then you need to refractor. Fear that changes will break things is a sign of code fragility.
  - rorykoehler 11y ago
    I agree but there is little you can do about the code of your peers especially when they have seniority and you're not doing the code reviews. It's a cultural issue and I'm sure it's not like that everywhere but it is definitely prevalent. Everyone talks a good game about code quality but in practice moving fast is valued more by the money men.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- golergka 11y ago
  You either have a very bad luck with "business people" or talking about a stereotype that is about as close to the truth as similar stereotypes about programmers are. Business people are very familiar with terms like "infrastructure", "extensibility", "maintenance" and the like. They're not idiots. May be you should try explaining why refactoring and good architecture is good in business terms instead of programming?