UPDATE: Please notice, the author of the story shared is actually Matthew Heusser, this is what I get for not confirming before posting. Thank you, Matthew, for sharing your story!!
I'm a developer, and inasmuch I am proud of the fact that I rarely wear pants. As I write this now, I am wearing pants, but only because I went into the office today. I have orange hair, and a large assortment of lip gloss. I sleep to 11 most days, and I defy anyone that says I shouldn't. All in all I've embraced the developer's frat guy lifestyle.
I've started a book called the Clean Coder by Uncle Bob Martin. The thing that has made the biggest impression for me was in the forward (written by Matthew Heusser). He tells a story about a development team he was once a part of, I'm paraphrasing quite a bit (the book is still at the office), but he talks about a team in an enterprise company that had been working on a project for quite a few months with a set-in-stone release date on the horizon. As the date approached they worked day/night/weekends to get things done. He had a team of talented coders and under much pressure from management they strapped themselves to their keyboards in order to get the job done on time, and they did.
The Friday before the Monday release date they were stoked. It's so rare that a project gets completed exactly on schedule, but they had done it. They were celebrating and relaxing when they got a call from management. Seems that legal hadn't finished the paperwork needed for the launch, and they needed an extra day to get things done, the meeting was going to be pushed to Tuesday.
"No way" was Matt's response, "we have been killing ourselves over this. They have Saturday and Sunday to get this work done, plenty of time." "Sorry," was the word from above, "these people are professionals, we're not going to ask them to work the weekend. Meeting is pushed to Tuesday." Matt was irate, "Are you serious? My developers have been working around the clock, nights, weekends, you name it. We can ask the guys in legal to put in a little extra time." Management responded, "You don't understand, these guys are PROFESSIONALS."
That's when it sunk in for him, people don't think developers are professionals. They look at us like a bunch of sloppy kids that happen to know how to do something that they need. After reading that story, it sunk in for me too.
Clients trust me to take care of things they don't know how to do. In order to do that, they need to feel I am competent and capable. Disappearing in the zone for a few days, while it may be best for the project, isn't comforting for the client. Up until then I had a dim view of client hand holding, and thought "they just need to trust that I am working on it." However, I have realized that a good working relationship, constant updates, and accountability are just as important as clean code and passing tests.
I still rarely wear pants, and have orange hair, but my client's comfort is much more important to me now. I want them to know I'm here whenever they call, and they can trust that I'm working hard to solve their problems and build their software. The response I have gotten has been great, and I've noticed how much they appreciate being kept in the loop no matter what. That makes my job easier, and that's a reward I didn't expect.
Yeah, its pretty insane when you take a moment to actually think about how most clients/companies think of devs as just a bunch of kids who like computers.
ReplyDeleteIts very important for developers to take a professional stance and actually communicate with clients and their bosses effectively. I also think that its about knowing when to compromise and to stick to your guns.
There have been too many times where devs work 60+ hours and see no benefits except the "Thank's Guys, you really rocked it this weekend" to only be expected to work even more with no benefit.
I think this can be generalized to any situation where "professionals" collide with "creative types."
ReplyDeleteAnd I also think this is a good teachable moment - just because we don't wear suits and keep strict business hours doesn't mean that we're doormats, or flakey.
If anyone were to tell me that "those guys are PROFESSIONALS" they would definitely get an ear-full from me.
Scott Bain, the author of "Emergent Design: The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development" takes the concept of "Professional Software Development" seriously.
ReplyDeleteHe believes that we should consider ourselves professionals, in the same sense as doctors and lawyers. Just as a doctor would never consider working on a patient without washing his hands, we too should should have a collection of behaviors and principles that we will not compromise.
Scott Bain added the word "Professional" to the title of his book because he is on a mission to DEFINE what professionalism means in software development.
There are many reasons to read this book, but read it if for no other reason than to learn what it is to be a software professional!
we are mad professionals ;-)
ReplyDeletewe work like a mad, but we finish the work on time like other professionals.
but we prefer to be like mad without pant and with beard.
i don't think we will be comfort to wear suit wile working :-P
Keeping clients in the loop is just common sense. What do you feel like when an underling closes themselves in a closet and doesn't come out until they're done? No idea how it's going, no clue as to whether you can help and so on ... it's just frustrating!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't think working weekends, nights and not wearing pants cannot overlap with communicating with clients.
In fact that sometimes means you're an even better professional, when servers go up in flames. Do you want the client to lose two days of sales because you're a professional and professionals don't work weekends, or do you fix the damn problem?
its sad and disgusting to even have the notion of discrimination against an area of expertise.
ReplyDeletethe argument that always get thrown for not calling developers/programmers as non-professionals are 'oh you could have studied that without going to school'. i think they are forgetting the fact that any field of studies could have been mastered without going to 'school'.
it is just nobody have ever attempted to become a lawyer without going to school because the subject is just so bloody boring that average human requires the extra motivational push in the form of 'homework', 'project', and 'exam'.
its as though the society is degrading the hardworking, driven, self-taught experts and prefer rewarding the 'rich' in 'school' (if u can get ur ass out of a law uni with a degree i can safely consider that he/she is 'rich' or at least the family is)
@Swizec Agreed! I def still work many weekends/nights/always. I'm not saying that's not professional. It was just funny how the manager looked at it.
ReplyDeleteThat /is/ a great forward. I'm really glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteWho wrote it again?
Maybe you should re-check the cover. :-)
@Matthew - did you write that story?
ReplyDeleteYes, I was pleased to be invited to contribute the forward. It's a true story, and it's me.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased that my writing and Unclebob's are so compatible, and the story flows well. No, really, I'm pleased. It's nice.
Thank you for you comments, I took them in a charitable way.
But my name is on the cover too, ya know! :-)
Matthew, tomorrow morning I will fix this. I love this story, thank you SO MUCH!!! Do you have a twitter ID?
ReplyDeleteMy experience over 20+ years is that, by FAR, the primary reason for this is Management Types who look down on anybody who is different than, or just "under", them.
ReplyDeleteI have BEEN Management, and regardless of how much I kept anybody in the loop, how Professional I was (very) or how well the Team and I performed, we pretty much always got the look-down from the "Suits" types. The closer they were to the Cocktails and Entrées crowd, the less they could give a damn about life in the trenches.