RE: Teaching programmers to care RE: Benefits by Level

JB,

> >> >I think that the programmers get something out of it but it's main
> >> >value in my mind is that management sees the programmers getting
> >> >something out of it. IME, management often thinks that programmers
> >> >do not care about giving value to the business.
> >> 
> >> I find it difficult not to be personally offended by management 
> >> making that assumption. By the time I become personally offended, 
> >> I'm too angry to be rational; then I don't get anywhere with the 
> >> whole discussion. Sad, really.
> >
> >I woulder if it would be useful to explore the kinds of statements 
> >or behaviors that could lead managers to form such an impression.
> 
> One way to find out.
> 
> I'll ante with the general perception that programmers would 
> rather play with new technology than work with the technology 
> that the organization has already put in place. 
> 
> I know that I am not jazzed up by new computer technology. I am 
> interested in solving problems using technology. That makes me 
> more generally aligned with the business needs, at least within 
> the narrow context of solving their business problems using 
> technology. The question "Ought we to use technology AT ALL to 
> solve problem X?" is not quite outside the scope of my interest, 
> but I don't find myself amply qualified to consider the alternatives.
> 
> Now I don't know how rare among programmers I am in that way of 
> thinking. My guess is that I'm rare, since if I weren't, there 
> shouldn't be such a general perception of programmers.
> 
> How do managers observe this misalignment? I can think of one way 
> they likely "misobserve" this misalignment.
> 
> Programmer reads about a new technology, decides it can solve one 
> of his team's problems. Programmer does some research, does a 
> little prototyping on the side, beyond work hours. Programmer 
> concludes that this is a Good Thing and presents it to Manager. 
> Manager does not know how much thought and effort Programmer has 
> put into deciding whether to present this to Manager. If 
> Programmer does this often enough, Manager begins to wonder why 
> Programmer does this so often, forgetting that Programmer still 
> gets all his work done. Manager concludes that Programmer is 
> "wasting time" looking at technology, rather than simply using 
> whatever the organization has decided to go with. Manager feels 
> that Programmer is presenting TOO MANY options. Overwhelming, 
> perhaps, for Manager.
> 
> Is Programmer misaligned with the business needs to solve its 
> business problems? Certainly not. Manager may miss this and 
> conclude otherwise.

I've not run into this problem, but I can make some guesses
about how a manager might end up with such a conclusion.

Programmer is making suggestions to improve some team
process 'X' which he sees as critical in his environment.

Manager does not see "improve process X" as a very important
value to the business.

Manager concludes the programmer doesn't understand what the
real needs of the business are. In practice, he may be right
or wrong, depending on whether we agree with the manager or
the programmer about what's important. Of course, if the
programmer were really into what the business considers
valuable, he might be able to present his ideas in a 
different light.

I have a fairly extreme example of this. I worked really
hard to make some improvements to the way a software 
development group functioned and expected to get asked
back to expand the changes I had introduced. It didn't
happen. Where I went wrong was in thinking that improved
software productivity was important to the business. The
manager didn't think it was and what's more I concluded
in hindsight that he was right. The company actually had
other issues to deal with that were much more important
to its survival than improving software productivity and
as much as I didn't like it they probably were right in
ignoring me. For my part, I wasn't clued in on the 
bigger financial picture so I tried to suboptimize in
the software development sphere.

Charlie Poole
[email protected]
www.pooleconsulting.com
www.charliepoole.org




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