Chapter 15: Book in a Book - A Guide for Programming Bosses

Overview

In this chapter, I’m talking especially to you bosses and managers. (However, I don’t mind if you’re a programmer and want to read this chapter too!) I understand that bosses and managers have unique needs when it comes to developing highly useable software. For example, the managers have to oversee the programmers and try to keep them on course and working together as a team, in an effort to build great software.

Before moving forward, however, I want to point out that if you’re a manager or boss and are starting out the book by reading this chapter, I do encourage you to read the entire book. If some of the areas are too technical for you (with apologies to the managers who are technically adept), you can skip those sections. But the idea behind this entire book is to help you build the absolute best software you can build so that your company can be as profitable as possible. But who is building the software? The programmers are.

REAL WORLD SCENARIO: The Most Important People in the Company?

Back in the mid-1990s, I was good friends with a woman who worked for the marketing department of the company where I was working. I was a programmer. She told me that the people in the marketing department knew that they were the “most important people in the company.” She was very proud to have such a label.

Why were they the most important people? Because they were selling the products. Without them, no money would come in and the company would not profit. I, of course, pointed out that if it weren’t for me and the other programmers, she wouldn’t have a product to sell. (I didn’t add that I was more important; I let her draw her own conclusions.)

For many years up until perhaps the 1980s, my grandmother worked for a power company. She said the president of the company had a huge office and fancied himself the most important person in the company. Yet he could take as many vacations as he wanted, and all would be fine. But the day the “mail boy” (as the fellow was called) called in sick, the whole company was in chaos. My grandmother talked about how, in fact, the mail boy demonstrated himself to be far more important than the president.

But in a modern software company (or in a big company that includes a software team), who is the most important person?

The answer is everybody. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking somebody is more important than somebody else. Even if you, as a manager, have a programmer who seems to be the best you’ve ever seen, you still can’t build the product without everybody involved, including the programmers and the testers. Value all the positions in your teams. And let them know how important they are.

And so in this chapter, I talk about how to recognize different types of programmers and work with them accordingly to help them build the most useable software possible. I also talk about other nonpersonnel issues such as when (and when not) to use the latest technology.