4 Jul
2024
4 Jul
'24
2:23 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 03, 2024 at 05:29:26PM -0600, Marc Rochkind wrote:
On Wed, Jul 3, 2024 at 9:27???AM Vincenzo Nicosia
<katolaz(a)freaknet.org>
wrote:
> ...
>
> The programmers considered as "fungible workforce" by mainstream
> software engineering and project management theories are *paid* to to
> their programming job, and they mostly have to carry that job over
> working on prescribed objectives and timelines which have been decided
> by somebody else, managers who know nothing at all about software
> development. Personal interest in the project, passion, motivation,
> curiosity, creative power, sense of beauty, the joy of belonging to a
> community of likeminded people, are never part of the equation, at any
> point.
>
>
[cut]
I have never met a programmer or group of programmers who were always
right. Most often, they are ignorant of financing, regulatory constraints,
product schedules, commitments, staffing issues, and everything else that
isn't coding. (There are exceptions, but they are uncommon.) Management, by
definition, is the art and science of using resources to reach an
objective. Programmers generally are concerned only with themselves as a
resource and with their own personal programming objective. It is unusual
to find a programmer who understands management.
I agree my view is cynical. Maybe that's because I cannot find anything
romantic or poetic in "financing, regulatory constraints, product
schedules, commitments, staffing issues, and everything else that isn't
coding". Maybe because I have learned on experience that those things
are just there to ensure that the clients pay their invoices, while they
rarely contribute to anything durable, well-engineered, great, or
beautiful. Anything that can be considered a truly good case study of
software development. But I am sure I am just too cynical here :)
HND
Enzo
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