The Programmer's Dilemma

The problem here is that managers think that writing good software is like baking a cake, if you have the right ingredients, the right process, the right environment and the right people, then you are 99% likely to end up with a satisfactory cake. This is absolutely not the case with building software.

It could very well be the red tape in the office, the politics, maneuvering, posturing, noisy programmer area, the tools programmers were given, time-wasting meetings, and thousands of other reasons.

My feeling is the blame falls on the guy claiming the problem space consists of "the programmer" or "the methodology". The manager figure delivering the bad news to the programmer is a kung fu master of politics and the art of war, he's trying to get blame placed on anywhere but himself.

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#5

Post by gwern » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

o1iver wrote: post #2

Sounds a little bit like the prisoner's dilemma...

1. It's pretty much isomorphic, yes

2. The title gestures to that (notice that programmer and prisoner both have 3 syllables, even)

3. The article links straight to the SEP article on the prisoner's dilemma

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#6

Post by Mz » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 2:43 PM UTC

o1iver wrote: post #2

Sounds a little bit like the prisoner's dilemma...

A little, except in the prisoner's dilemma, if they both agree and don't blame each other, you get the best outcome. That isn't really the case here. And if they both betray each other, they are both screwed.

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#7

Post by spenrose » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 2:46 PM UTC

Now you need to write the followup, which shows how agile and Scrum are so often used to shift power from the business people to the developers without actually solving the underlying problems. (You'll have to edit parts of this piece where you imply otherwise.)

Unless, of course, agile is that magic bullet Fred Brooks stopped looking for 25 years ago.

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#8

Post by wallflower » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 3:03 PM UTC

A colleague of mine - his wife was a 3rd grade teacher.

One day, he mentioned to her the process that we were doing.

And she laughed. She showed him the daily progress report. "What I did today? What I want to do tomorrow?" That her 3rd graders had to fill out everyday.

Are programmers adults that need to be self-managed + micro-managed like 3rd graders?

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#9

Post by raganwald » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 3:04 PM UTC

spenrose wrote: post #7

Now you need to write the followup, which shows how agile and Scrum are so often used to shift power from the business people to the developers without actually solving the underlying problems. (You'll have to edit parts of this piece where you imply otherwise.) Unless, of course, agile is that magic bullet Fred Brooks stopped looking for 25 years ago.

Nothing in the way of a methodology stops underlying problems of a culture that thinks careers are a zero-sum game and that actually delivering the software is secondary to advancement.

But FWIW, all I claim is that Agile does a poorer job of blaming people. The other stuff you're talking about is your point of view, which suggests to me that you are the right person to write the blog post.

Re: The Programmer's Dilemma

#10

Post by dustingetz » Sun, Jun 05, 2011, 3:06 PM UTC

"And this could be why Waterfall survives: It's the process that optimizes for blaming other people."

nah. Waterfall survives because it lets business development share world-views with the customer.