Good programmers should be sacked!

[DimPrawn]

I believe MS were creating an application called MS Paperclip until some bright spark said, "hey, we could add a wordprocessor to this?" and Word was born.


HTH

[expat]

There is a school of thought that the character traits needed to make a good programmer are the same traits that make them poor team players.

Therefore, if you have a team environment, the last thing you want is a scattering of good programmers doing their own thing and being unable to talk to each other.

You make it sound as though it is a given that the team environment is what is important, and the good programming gets in the way of that.

I might say as a corollary, that if the principal goal is the content of the programming activity, the last thing you want is managers and HR trying to impose something called a "team environment" on this already difficult mental activity.

[milanbenes]

nah, he doesn't mean team in the sense of your description with HR and all their cuddly friendly friendly stuff

he just means a team which works together, does their own bits but in a coordinated way

without some loner sat in the corner, doing stuff not related to his own and taking to long on his own cos he thinks he knows best and not communicating, you know, like Unix people

Milan.

[WKnight]

if the principal goal is the content of the programming activity, the last thing you want is managers and HR trying to impose something called a "team environment" on this already difficult mental activity.

Nice. Can we say, therefore, that external values and traits imposed upon programmers are the reason so many projects fail. Not because programmers fail to communicate.

Rather than imposing a solid team structure, managers should be working out how to run a development without a team - you can't turn straw into gold, after all. Perhaps as a loose collection of individuals? With each working on small-grained well-defined services exposing distinct interfaces?

Can technological organisation e.g. SOA, overcome flaws in a good programmer's character?

[bogeyman]

you know, like Unix people

Mmmm. Beards and sandals - worn with socks (shudder)

[Weltchy]

This is why contract project managers get paid so much, have a working life span measured in days and months and always get the pizza's and beers in!!!!

[meridian]

There is a school of thought that the character traits needed to make a good programmer are the same traits that make them poor team players.

Could you clarify which school of thought this is, and what character traits they think make a good programmer but a poor team player? This sounds very old-fashioned.

IMO a good programmer these days is very different from what may have been perceived as a good programmer years ago - these days there is far more emphasis on good communication (both to clarify requirements and to provide support to testers and end-users) and meeting of strict deadlines as part of a project team, as much as actual coding skill.

Can technological organisation e.g. SOA, overcome flaws in a good programmer's character?

Again, you seem to be assuming that a "good" programmer is only good as his/her code, whereas I would argue that a technically weaker coder that has excellent communication and project management skills (and personal hygiene) is a better programmer.

[milanbenes]

meridian,

seconded,

Milan.

[DimPrawn]

A programmer is someone who lives in India and knows C.

A software development consultant lives in the UK, drives a porsche and holidays in the Seychelles.

HTH

[WKnight]

I would argue that a technically weaker coder that has excellent communication and project management skills is a better programmer.

If this is the case, why are job interviews filled with coding tests and not English/communications tests? Why don't companies employ media-studies/business studies graduates and train them to be programmers?