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Have you ever worked on a project where management considered developers as pretty much interchangeable and added folks to the team that did more damage than go
by zenlikethat 10y ago
Have you ever worked on a project where management considered developers as pretty much interchangeable and added folks to the team that did more damage than good? If so, do you want to repeat that experience?
- ktRolster 10y agoI'll say this: if you aren't writing code in a way that someone else can pick up the project when you leave, then you are being an irresponsible coder.
- doki_pen 10y agoThe problem is, that's 98% of coders that you've described.
- crdoconnor 10y agoThis only makes sense if the compensation isn't tied to your replacement value. If it's tied to replacement value... well, too bad - the company shouldn't create an incentive to ramp up technical debt.
- logfromblammo 10y agoIrresponsible coding follows naturally from irresponsible management.
- ktRolster 10y agoTake responsibility for your own code. Be a man, or be a woman. Stop blaming other people. Your life becomes better when you take control.
- logfromblammo 10y agoI take responsibility for my own code. Code that belongs to the company is ultimately the responsibility of the stockholders and their board. As an at will employee with no equity, I will give them exactly what they ask for in their code. At each job, I will go above and beyond the call of duty once, to gauge the reaction. At some jobs, I get a cash bonus. At others, I just get a pat on the back. The last two jobs in a row, I was told to not do that again. So I didn't. Don't be an apologist for bad management. I'm not going to do the right thing if I could get fired for it.
- zenlikethat 10y agoThat's exactly the point. Developers aren't "mostly interchangeable". Some are much better bets than others.
- slg 10y agoMy post had the condition of "competent developer". There are certainly some developers that aren't competent. In my experience those developers get weeded out of the industry relatively quickly. This cuts off the bottom of the bell curve leaving most most developers with something close to an average skill set or above. I also won't discount the frictional costs of changing teams. If you take two identical developers and switch their jobs, each of their teams would see a temporary hit in performance as each one gets acclimated. But they will eventually get to the point were their team is exactly as efficient as it was with the other employee.
- crdoconnor 10y ago"There are certainly some developers that aren't competent. In my experience those developers get weeded out of the industry relatively quickly." That gave me a chuckle.
- eru 10y agoIf you define competence as being able to hold down a job.. (Though, of course, some social intelligence goes a long way. No need to actually know how to code.)
- sheepmullet 10y agoIn my experience even something as simple as effort varies greatly between two equally skilled developers and results in very different outcomes.
- zenlikethat 10y agoThey don't get weeded out. They might even sit in one place for years at a time before management catches on and does something, if they even catch on at all. Or, they will bounce from job to job infecting various roles with their poor work until the immune system of each company slowly wakes up and does something about them. Sadly, this gives them more "experience" and industry credibility, making it even easier to trick future victims.