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Well, I'll be the devil's advocate. What about Adam Smith? He noted that division of labor in a factory will increase its productivity and make the workers much
by fruchtose 14y ago
Well, I'll be the devil's advocate. What about Adam Smith? He noted that division of labor in a factory will increase its productivity and make the workers much more effective. While a software company is not entirely comparable to a factory, why does the same principle not apply? Devs who can concentrate on one part of the stack can become experts in that area, increasing their productivity--and consequently increasing the productivity of the company.
- bslatkin 14y agoAdam Smith was pre-industrial revolution. He had no idea how far this would go. But he probably understood diminishing returns or hidden costs.
- markokocic 14y agoIt's true that specialization is good for company, but you have to have right employees for that to work. If forced overspecialization makes your developers bored, they will be less effective at work, thus diminishing the effect of specialization. In addition, your best people will leave out of boredom, or require much better compensation to stay. Luckily for software developers, right now we have a choice to change jobs, and don't have to put up with things that people in most other professions have to.
- justincormack 14y agoYou should read about the Toyota production process which showed that for more complex operations that was not the case.
- smiler 14y agoNot to mention, in a lot of factories, although the labour is broken down into operations, operators will be trained in every operation and switch between them.