As throwaway2016a alludes to, title should be changed to "The Types of Software Engineers"
I second that, the title is misleading.
Types of Engineers
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Re: Types of Engineers
#52Re: Types of Engineers
#53Sorry ahead of time for going slightly meta and off topic. I am a software engineer myself but... I find the fact that this blog refers to software engineering practices as if they apply to all engineering disciplines to be a little jarring and best and misleading at worst. I wouldn't expect a mechanical engineering blog to have an article "Types of Engineers" that only discusses mechanical engineering. I refuse to n…
So if he had simply titled the piece "Types of Software Engineers" you would be happy?
Yes
Re: Types of Engineers
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Author here. Your point is valid. I do try to make this clear in this portion: > However, an over-engineer can sometimes perform like an under-engineer or an engineer. Underperformance and overperformance could be influenced by a number of factors including work environment, context, intellectual horsepower, and even personal life. I personally continue to write under-engineered and over-engineered code because there…
I encourage you to keep writing, but it seems you need more research into developer patterns if you want to contribute to an already highly discussed topic. For instance, last month this article[1] gave some seriously good insights to developer checkin frequency based on hard data. It provides a lot more value than the anecdotal, muddy definitions of over/under/engineer. [1] - https://blog.gitprime.com/check-in-frequ…
What is "impact"?
Re: Types of Engineers
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pretty well known term in agile software development.
It is also a pretty well known term in other fields, and was long before agile software development came around.
In this case, other context clues tell us that the article means 'velocity as in software development'.
Agile, for example, is another general term that has a fairly specific meaning in this context.
If you overhear someone in a park say "Oh, you guys are agile? What's your average velocity?" would you assume they are talking about athletics or software development?
Re: Types of Engineers
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Author here. Your point is valid. I do try to make this clear in this portion: > However, an over-engineer can sometimes perform like an under-engineer or an engineer. Underperformance and overperformance could be influenced by a number of factors including work environment, context, intellectual horsepower, and even personal life. I personally continue to write under-engineered and over-engineered code because there…
I encourage you to keep writing, but it seems you need more research into developer patterns if you want to contribute to an already highly discussed topic. For instance, last month this article[1] gave some seriously good insights to developer checkin frequency based on hard data. It provides a lot more value than the anecdotal, muddy definitions of over/under/engineer. [1] - https://blog.gitprime.com/check-in-frequ…
I appreciate the feedback.
That's a very interesting article. However, it does seem suffer from the same issues Joel outlined, namely, the measure of attributes of a commit can be gamed and worked towards to achieve a "prolific" or "senior" status.
What the article you linked does reinforce is the value of iterative development. As opposed to doing large infrequent commits, doing small bits of work more frequently causes a success higher or "impact".
I would say that the article provides a data driven approach to justifying the effectiveness of good iterative planning. However, it doesn't address whether the commits of the "senior" engineer or the "prolific" engineer are of high quality.
Re: Types of Engineers
#57All three of these categories are served by a product team that makes economical constraints explicit. Too often business comes into the conversation with e.g. "We need a disaster recovery system" and no figures on desired RPO or RTO, no figures for what a minute's worth of business data, or a minute's worth of business activity costs or expected incidence or duration of outages from which even the True Engineer coul…
Your points couldn't be more accurate. In any organization, the quality of the function that dictates the work to be done (be it Product Managers or Business Analysts) heavily impact the success of an engineer's work. Some organizations choose to remove this level of management [1], others have ensure only former engineers fill this role.
It's very important but broad topic. I chose to not explore it in the post because it deservers its own discussion.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Does-Stripe-have-product-managers-or-d...
Re: Types of Engineers
#58This reads like a horoscope. I can tut-tut at the over engineers and under engineers while considering myself just right . Anyone to the left or right of me on the spectrum will also think they're just right and I'm one of the former or latter. This recursive confirmation bias then sends the article straight to the front page. This is the most smug article I've read on here in a long time. Why can't we just be profes…
I believe it usually goes something like, "Everyone who drives slower than me is an idiot; everyone who drives faster than me is a maniac!"
Re: Types of Engineers
#59Sorry ahead of time for going slightly meta and off topic. I am a software engineer myself but... I find the fact that this blog refers to software engineering practices as if they apply to all engineering disciplines to be a little jarring and best and misleading at worst. I wouldn't expect a mechanical engineering blog to have an article "Types of Engineers" that only discusses mechanical engineering. I refuse to n…
On the other hand I'd hesitate to call it a mature engineering discipline. It suffers from fad-following and shiny-bauble-chasing like no other engineering field I've ever worked with. It's a bit better outside the valley, but generally there is an amusing over-focus on academic trivia and minutiae from CS.
Re: Types of Engineers
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was a mechanical engineer for five years, now in software: The way programmers tend to default "engineer" to meaning "software engineer" bothers me sometimes too. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised by a mechanical engineering blog doing the same thing. We all focus on our little corners of the world, and if software has it worse than mechanical it's just because mechanical engineers are forced to work with…
Indeed people can be "serious" or sloppy with everything. Yet, software engineering doesn't require a degree and no minimum bar on both depth and breadth of knowledge required. The jobspecs for "senior web engineer" with 3 years of Stack Overflow copypasting experience are an example.
Sloppy or Serious: I have to agree with that. The attitude of the person in that case would dominate their work quality.
However I think you are being overly cynical about the 'Senior Web Engineer' bit.
True, you can make it far by faking it. Very far in some cases. But number of times I have run into developers that only landed the job because of the habit you describe, I can count on one hand. Was there a particular event that shaded your world view so?