4 ms·
I like to think of the relationship between a developer and the user of their software as being a bit like the relationship between a doctor and their patient.
by arctangent 15y ago
I like to think of the relationship between a developer and the user of their software as being a bit like the relationship between a doctor and their patient. One of them has a problem and the other one has special skills that will enable them to fix it.
Having a person (of whatever job title) between a developer and the user is a bit like having a patient telling the nurse what's wrong with them and the nurse then passing along that description to the doctor so they can write out a prescription.
- wnight 15y agoWith a single developer, yes. With five or six it's still doable to all meet the customer and talk about your issues directly. Beyond that you start acting as interfaces already because not enough people can come to the meeting, etc, so you become like mini-PMs anyways. Might as well get someone who can actually manage (track) and do it right... I think it does help though, for you to know all your doctors/developers, but I don't think you need to manage them day-to-day because a lot of tasks are pretty straight forward and/or can be easily delegated.