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Hire senior level people part time. That don’t need to spend lots of time getting context. They can figure out how to solve problems matching your team’s coding

Hire senior level people part time. That don’t need to spend lots of time getting context. They can figure out how to solve problems matching your team’s coding style without extra meetings.

yibg 5y ago
You're assuming the team works on something most developers know enough about. Often times that's not the case and it takes time to get familiar.
rtlfe 5y ago
Understanding the problem and how to solve it is harder and more important than matching code style. Unless you're working on trivial CRUD web apps or something where problems and solutions are obvious.
JohnBooty 5y ago
Believe me, don't get me wrong, I would gladly trade 50% of my salary to work part time. But... That don’t need to spend lots of time getting context. They can figure out how to solve problems matching your team’s coding style without extra meetings. I've worked a variety of enterprise-y developer jobs, and I don't find that to be the case at all. I mean, that context is the job. Coding bits of functionality for an existing business is not a matter of "matching the team's coding style." Heck, there are often not even engineering "problems" to "solve." It's a matter of figuring out integration with existing systems and processes, understanding the business itself, etc. That's why part-timers don't make sense. They can't just walk in, sit down, and code. And if you could tee things up for them, to the point where they could just sit down and code, then 90% of the work is already done. And your part-time coder will take longer to deliver... why would management want to wait 2 weeks for a part time person to complete 40 hours of pure coding work, versus 1 week for a fulltimer?
- kodah 5y ago
  Well, I think knowing the business is important on most feature work, but what if part time folks were cleaning up well-defined tech debt? Usually I know exactly what my tech debt is, I roll my eyes at it as I force myself to leave it alone. Then as I get loaded down for feature work or important bug fixes it just rots in my backlog til I notice it sometime later.
  - rtlfe 5y ago
    That would be much less valuable to the business. You'd probably be looking at 10% the salary of a full time dev who's actually solving business problems.
  - JohnBooty 5y ago
    If you were a productive fulltime dev, learned the business, knew the app, knew the tech debt, knew the right people to ask about various bits of the code, knew the stakeholders, etc? Yeah, I think you could step back from that at some point and be a heck of a part-time asset. 1. Your knowledge of the app and organization would likely decay over time. 2. I'm not sure the the organization would love this move. It would be better than losing you entirely, but probably not as valuable as having you fulltime. From your perspective, 50% of your time is better than 100% of nothing. From their perspective, they're probably going to take the "glass half empty" view.

Hire senior level people part time. That don’t need to spend lots of time getting context. They can figure out how to solve problems matching your team’s coding style without extra meetings.

yibg 5y ago

You're assuming the team works on something most developers know enough about. Often times that's not the case and it takes time to get familiar.

rtlfe 5y ago

Understanding the problem and how to solve it is harder and more important than matching code style. Unless you're working on trivial CRUD web apps or something where problems and solutions are obvious.

JohnBooty 5y ago

Believe me, don't get me wrong, I would gladly trade 50% of my salary to work part time. But... That don’t need to spend lots of time getting context. They can figure out how to solve problems matching your team’s coding style without extra meetings. I've worked a variety of enterprise-y developer jobs, and I don't find that to be the case at all. I mean, that context is the job. Coding bits of functionality for an existing business is not a matter of "matching the team's coding style." Heck, there are often not even engineering "problems" to "solve." It's a matter of figuring out integration with existing systems and processes, understanding the business itself, etc. That's why part-timers don't make sense. They can't just walk in, sit down, and code. And if you could tee things up for them, to the point where they could just sit down and code, then 90% of the work is already done. And your part-time coder will take longer to deliver... why would management want to wait 2 weeks for a part time person to complete 40 hours of pure coding work, versus 1 week for a fulltimer?

kodah 5y ago
Well, I think knowing the business is important on most feature work, but what if part time folks were cleaning up well-defined tech debt? Usually I know exactly what my tech debt is, I roll my eyes at it as I force myself to leave it alone. Then as I get loaded down for feature work or important bug fixes it just rots in my backlog til I notice it sometime later.
- rtlfe 5y ago
  That would be much less valuable to the business. You'd probably be looking at 10% the salary of a full time dev who's actually solving business problems.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  If you were a productive fulltime dev, learned the business, knew the app, knew the tech debt, knew the right people to ask about various bits of the code, knew the stakeholders, etc? Yeah, I think you could step back from that at some point and be a heck of a part-time asset. 1. Your knowledge of the app and organization would likely decay over time. 2. I'm not sure the the organization would love this move. It would be better than losing you entirely, but probably not as valuable as having you fulltime. From your perspective, 50% of your time is better than 100% of nothing. From their perspective, they're probably going to take the "glass half empty" view.