Section 1.4. All Software Engineers Are Created Equal

1.4. All Software Engineers Are Created Equal

A software project requires much more than just writing code. There are all sorts of work products that are produced along the way: documents, schedules, plans, source code, bug reports, and builds are all created by many different team members. No single work product is more important than any other; if any one of them has a serious error, that error will have an impact on the end product. That means each team member responsible for any of these work products plays an important role in the project, and all of those people can make or break the final build that is delivered to the users.

There are many project managers who, when faced with a disagreement between a programmer and a tester, will always trust the programmer. This same project manager might always trust a requirements analyst or a business analyst over a programmer, if and when they disagree. Many people have some sort of a hierarchy in their heads in which certain engineering team members are more valuable or more skilled than others. This is a dangerous idea, and it is one that has no place on an effective project team.

One key to building better software is treating each idea objectively, no matter who suggests it or whether or not it's immediately intuitive to you. That's another reason the practices, techniques, and tools in this book cover all areas of the software project. Every one of these practices is based on an objective evaluation of all of the important activities in software development. Every discipline is equally important, and everyone on the team contributes equally to the project. A software requirements specification (SRS), for example, is no more important than the code: the code could not be created without the SRS, and the SRS would have no purpose if it weren't the basis of the software. It is in the best interest of everyone on the team to make sure that both of them have as few defects as possible, and that the authors of both work products have equal say in project decisions.

The project manager must respect all team members, and should not second-guess their expertise. This is an important principle because it is the basis of real commitments. It's easy for a senior manager to simply issue an edict that everyone must build software without defects and do a good job; however, this rarely works well in practice. The best way to make sure that the software is built well is to make sure that everyone on the team feels respected and valued, and to gain a true commitment from each person to make the software the best it can be.