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| --- | ||
| layout: post | ||
| title: "Are You a Coder or a Developer?" | ||
| date: 2018-01-10 | ||
| place: Moscow, Russia | ||
| tags: management | ||
| description: | | ||
| ... | ||
| keywords: | ||
| - sociotechnical | ||
| - ... | ||
| - ... | ||
| - ... | ||
| - ... | ||
| image: /images/2017/12/ | ||
| jb_picture: | ||
| caption: | ||
| --- | ||
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| Software development and coding are two different things. Usually, | ||
| the former includes the latter, but not always. The coding produces | ||
| lines of code, while software development creates products. Unfortunately, | ||
| the majority of programmers joining Zerocracy now are [coders]({% pst 2014/oct/2014-10-26-hacker-vs-programmer-mentality %}). | ||
| Even though they claim to be developers, in reality they are lacking the very | ||
| important [socio-technical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociotechnical_system) | ||
| skills that differ product creators from lines-of-code writers. | ||
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| <!--more--> | ||
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| {% jb_picture_body %} | ||
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| Let me show the symptoms first. | ||
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| Let's call him Mario. He is a very skilled | ||
| Java developer, as his [resume]({% pst 2016/mar/2016-03-08-pimp-up-your-resume %}) | ||
| says. He is in the industry for ten years or so, | ||
| done a few enterprise projects; he seems to be very seasoned. We give him | ||
| access to the project and assign a few GitHub tickets. | ||
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| In a few hours I'm getting a Facebook message of a page long. It says that | ||
| he is very glad to be in the project, but doesn't understand a thing yet | ||
| and needs help. Here is a list of questions he prepared and is ready for | ||
| a phone call to get them answered. | ||
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| I reply: "Dude, I love you like a brother, but I don't have time to answer | ||
| your questions. Not because I'm lazy or don't appreciate your work... Actually, | ||
| yes, exactly because of that. I am lazy and don't want to answer any questions over Messenger. | ||
| My answers will be totally wasted, if you, for example, quit the project | ||
| tomorrow. Or if someone else joins us in a week and will have | ||
| exactly the same set of question. Will I have to explain him again? I'm too | ||
| <del>old</del> lazy for that." | ||
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| He most probably thinks that I'm an arrogant prick, but what can he do? He | ||
| reads [my article]({% pst 2014/oct/2014-10-07-stop-chatting-start-coding %}) | ||
| on this very subject and says "OK, I got it." | ||
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| In half an hour Mario submits a ticket to another (!) repository. The title | ||
| says "The problem" and the description says "Help me understand the project." | ||
| What do I do, as an architect of the project? I close the ticket with a quick | ||
| message: "Please, make your tickets more specific." My response is just one | ||
| step away from "Get lost," but what else can I say? Mario doesn't know | ||
| how to use ticketing system. He most probably was working all his life | ||
| in a cozzy office, where everybody around was his friend. He wasn't even using | ||
| chats, he was just asking questions across the table. I'm asking him to | ||
| do something he has never done before. Of course, he doesn't know how. | ||
| He feels ashamed, I believe. | ||
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| What happens next? He is right back at me in the Messenger, with the same | ||
| set of questions. Actually, his reaction will depend on his personality. | ||
| It may either be anger, or confusion, or | ||
| [something else]({% pst 2018/jan/2018-01-09-micro-budgeting %}). But the bottom line | ||
| is that Mario is not a software developer, he is a coder. | ||
| He doesn't understand the dynamics of a modern software project, he doesn't | ||
| know how to use its | ||
| [communication]({% pst 2016/aug/2016-08-23-communication-maturity %}) | ||
| instruments, he has no socio-technical skills: | ||
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| * Searching and finding information | ||
| * Submitting questions, collecting answers | ||
| * Adding knowledge to the repository | ||
| * Submitting code changes | ||
| * Arguing in writing, reviewing changes | ||
| * Closing tickets and preventing them from closing | ||
| * Maintaining discipline in repositories | ||
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| The same happens to almost everybody who joins us, unfortunately. | ||
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| A modern software project is much more a social activity than code writing. | ||
| Knowing how to interact with the team and deal with information | ||
| is much more important than knowing how use design patterns. The only | ||
| way to earn that skills is practice. I've [said it](https://www.facebook.com/yegor256/videos/10214943124281537/) | ||
| [many times](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS45LzE3LPQ), | ||
| let me repeat it again: If you are not an open source and StackOverflow activist, you most | ||
| likely won't have those skills. | ||
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