4 ms·

> I have no idea why tech companies would pay engineers gobs of money, spend gobs of money on huge office campuses, then inflict open plan or cubicles on said e

> I have no idea why tech companies would pay engineers gobs of money, spend gobs of money on huge office campuses, then inflict open plan or cubicles on said engineers. It's largely due to the conventional wisdom created in the 90s by Microsoft's Jim McCarthy known as "21 Rules of Thumb for Shipping Great Software on Time".[1] Rule 6 (or 8 in his later talks[2]) is "beware of a guy in a room": > Specialist developers who lock themselves away in a room, going dark for long stretches, are anathema to shipping great software on time. Without regard to their individual brilliance, before investing a developer with a significant assignment, it is essential that they understand and agree with the type of development program you intend to run. They must be capable of performing on a team, making their work visible in modest increments and subjecting it to scrutiny as it matures. Some people find this intolerable, and though there is a role for people of this disposition in the software world, it is not as part of a team devoted to shipping great software on time. [1]: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/david_gristwood/archive/2004/06/24/164849.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/david_gristwood/archive/2004/06/24/1... [2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY6BCHqEbyc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY6BCHqEbyc

abalone 13y ago
I remember that one. It doesn't literally mean "don't give engineers rooms." It means there should be regular public (to the team) milestones that force engineers to show their work. The room thing just comes from the visual of a rockstar coder coming into work and locking himself in his office and saying don't worry, everything's fine, trust me I'll have it done in time. Beware of that.
- itafroma 13y ago
  > It means there should be regular public (to the team) milestones that force engineers to show their work. While that is part of the underlying point, "beware of a guy in a room" is very much "don't stick a guy in a room by himself and let him do his thing" (he emphasizes it more in the video I linked to). The larger, more figurative point about having regular, public milestones is rule 4, "don't go dark", of which he claims rule 6 is a special case.
  - abalone 13y ago
    Not to be pedantic but he's making a point about "preeminent developer types" not office space. Specifically don't bet the schedule on one rockstar developer's word alone. It really has little to do with the physical office space configuration. This problem could happen in open plans too, assuming a sufficiently complex project that can't be assessed by merely glancing over their shoulder.
slm_HN 13y ago
I feel strongly that 99% of the people who are responsible for making this decision have no idea who "Microsoft's Jim McCarthy" is, other than maybe Jenny McCarthy's husband.
- itafroma 13y ago
  I agree that it is now conventional wisdom, passed down from manager to manager to entrepreneur to entrepreneur without regard from whence it came. But Jim McCarthy is somewhat of a legend, particularly in Microsoft circles, having led the team that created Visual C++ and helping to form the basis for the Microsoft Solutions Framework. Jenny McCarthy doesn't have a husband, and Jim McCarthy's spouse is Michele McCarthy.
  - rayiner 13y ago
    Isn't Jenny McCarthy married to Jim Carey.

abalone 13y ago

I remember that one. It doesn't literally mean "don't give engineers rooms." It means there should be regular public (to the team) milestones that force engineers to show their work. The room thing just comes from the visual of a rockstar coder coming into work and locking himself in his office and saying don't worry, everything's fine, trust me I'll have it done in time. Beware of that.

itafroma 13y ago
> It means there should be regular public (to the team) milestones that force engineers to show their work. While that is part of the underlying point, "beware of a guy in a room" is very much "don't stick a guy in a room by himself and let him do his thing" (he emphasizes it more in the video I linked to). The larger, more figurative point about having regular, public milestones is rule 4, "don't go dark", of which he claims rule 6 is a special case.
- abalone 13y ago
  Not to be pedantic but he's making a point about "preeminent developer types" not office space. Specifically don't bet the schedule on one rockstar developer's word alone. It really has little to do with the physical office space configuration. This problem could happen in open plans too, assuming a sufficiently complex project that can't be assessed by merely glancing over their shoulder.

slm_HN 13y ago

I feel strongly that 99% of the people who are responsible for making this decision have no idea who "Microsoft's Jim McCarthy" is, other than maybe Jenny McCarthy's husband.

itafroma 13y ago
I agree that it is now conventional wisdom, passed down from manager to manager to entrepreneur to entrepreneur without regard from whence it came. But Jim McCarthy is somewhat of a legend, particularly in Microsoft circles, having led the team that created Visual C++ and helping to form the basis for the Microsoft Solutions Framework. Jenny McCarthy doesn't have a husband, and Jim McCarthy's spouse is Michele McCarthy.
- rayiner 13y ago
  Isn't Jenny McCarthy married to Jim Carey.