Search:
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
“We have the best developers.”
I was sitting in a meeting the other day when the qualifications of a company’s software engineer came into question. The CEO was quick to inform me of something I’ve heard before:
“We have the best developers in Utah.”
I quickly shot back at the guy and told him I’ve heard that line a hundred times (I think I literally have)! I wasn’t trying to be an arse but I’m sick of hearing that line. Everybody thinks they have the best developers in Utah - why is that? Here are the four reasons:
- It makes them feel better about the amount of money they are paying their software engineers.
- They honestly believe that because they don’t know any better.
- They are trying to keep up appearances - deep inside they know they don’t have the best and have no idea what to do about it.
- You’re talking to Josh James who probably has the best developers in Utah.
Most CEO’s I meet are non-technical so its difficult for them to really gage the skill set of their development staff. Phil Windley recently touched on the importance of a good CTO from a technical point of view. While I wouldn’t agree 100% with Phil on the CTO owning the corner on product development - he makes a very compelling argument for the importance of having a good CTO. He specifically outlines what qualifications and skills a good CTO should possess. Its a must read for all CEO’s.
A CTO who can manage is capable of taking away all the doubt and wonder from a CEO. Given all the pressures on a CEO - that’s a huge deal. Without a good CTO, a CEO can never know for sure what’s going on with his dev staff. That can be disastrous and lead to all kinds of problems (like hiring consultants among other things)!
In my own experience, here are some of the things I’ve seen along these lines:
- Find engineers who have a solid work ethic and remember - hard work does not mean good work.
- Find engineers who will commit to a time frame and deadlines (let them set it and make sure they all buy into their set deadlines).
- If you make a promise to an engineer then you better keep it.
- Find engineers who will explain things to you without talking down to you.
- Find engineers who are dedicated to the business and understand that the business needs to make money.
- Find engineers who play nice with others (especially with those outside of development).
- Find engineers who are flexible - sometimes feature creep happens because it needs to happen - deal with it.
- Be flexible with engineers work hours.
- Find engineers who understand the value of working with a marketing group and design people.
- Find engineers who don’t have an entitlement mentality.
- Be willing to pay top dollar to good engineers but dump the prima donnas and well poisoners without hesitation. Its hard to kill sacred cows so don’t create them in the first place.
- Make sure you contribute to keeping a positive attitude inside your dev team rather than being the source of contention.
- Don’t pretend to know what you’re talking about. That really pisses off developers.
- Offer your developers opportunities to increase their skills and stretch their legs.
- (what would you add here?)
At any rate, if you’re going to say you have “the best” make sure you actually do and make sure you know what that means.
Update: ::email box getting crowded:: the Josh James line was a joke, people! Calm down - I know there are other good developers all over Utah. Peace!!!
In my experience, the best software engineers have very specific “engineering personalitiesâ€. Some engineers love to solve difficult problems but they don’t like to get involved with project management. Some engineers have good project vision and great leadership skills but they aren’t good at pumping out the day to day work that must be done. Some are obsessed with the business aspect of the project and they get easily excited about the possibilities. Others work hard from 8 to 5 every day and you know at 5:01 PM they won’t give the project another thought until 8:00 AM the next morning.
When it comes to software engineers, you have to accept some things you don’t like to get the things you need. Really understanding, accepting, and properly leveraging “software engineer personalities†can be a key factor in transforming regular, human developers into a team that can be considered the “best†in the business.
Left by David Bitter on 02/26/2008“We have the best developers…” I’ve also heard this used often but unfortunately in a manner to apply pressure. (ie: “I know that upcoming deadline would be impossible for other development teams, but we have the best developers…”)
Chris, you articulated well many of the characteristics of good developers, and how to filter the effective from the less effective types.
I want to add that finding developers with enthusiasm and eagerness is always good, and a telltale sign of a great developer is the number of computer books they own and have read.
A good interview question to ask is how many computer books have they purchased in the last 12 months.
Good developers are always reading about their industry. Without exception, any developer I have ever hired that brought in several stacks of computer books was an excellent hire.
Thanks for the post.
Mike J. Berry
Left by Mike J. Berry on 02/28/2008http://www.RedRockResearch.com
That was funny. Nice post. My team would be proud.
Best regards,
Josh
Left by Josh James on 03/09/2008