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I've come to the realization that half the people on my software team...

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OneOfTheseDays

Diamond Member
The last straw was today when someone on my team decided to check in some code that commented out a few extremely critical lines of code that I need to support the features I'm working on. When asked why he did such a thing his response was simply "I'm sorry man, I just code".

The problem with my team is half the people are incredibly smart, well-organized, and capable of writing excellent code. The other half simply does not know how to program or write code. This problem is exacerbated by a manager that has no clue what's going on and thinks one of the dumbest people on the team has great ideas.

Now keep in mind this is my first job out of college. The fact that I can out program people double my age with decades more experience than me is troubling. I can't babysit what other people are doing and really neither can anyone else on the team as we are all trying to get things done on a very short time schedule.

*sigh*

/end pathetic whiny rant
 
Originally posted by: OneOfTheseDays
The last straw was today when someone on my team decided to check in some code that commented out a few extremely critical lines of code that I need to support the features I'm working on. When asked why he did such a thing his response was simply "I'm sorry man, I just code".

The problem with my team is half the people are incredibly smart, well-organized, and capable of writing excellent code. The other half simply does not know how to program or write code. This problem is exacerbated by a manager that has no clue what's going on and thinks one of the dumbest people on the team has great ideas.

Now keep in mind this is my first job out of college. The fact that I can out program people double my age with decades more experience than me is troubling. I can't babysit what other people are doing and really neither can anyone else on the team as we are all trying to get things done on a very short time schedule.

*sigh*

/end pathetic whiny rant
Click to expand...

It's only going to get worse OneOfTheseDays! 😉
 
Originally posted by: OneOfTheseDays
Now keep in mind this is my first job out of college. The fact that I can out program people double my age with decades more experience than me is troubling.
Click to expand...

OneOfTheseDays you'll realize you don't know nearly as much you think you do.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: OneOfTheseDays
Now keep in mind this is my first job out of college. The fact that I can out program people double my age with decades more experience than me is troubling.
Click to expand...

OneOfTheseDays you'll realize you don't know nearly as much you think you do.
Click to expand...

Nah, I'm sure his rant is valid.
 
Originally posted by: OneOfTheseDays
The last straw was today when someone on my team decided to check in some code that commented out a few extremely critical lines of code that I need to support the features I'm working on. When asked why he did such a thing his response was simply "I'm sorry man, I just code".

The problem with my team is half the people are incredibly smart, well-organized, and capable of writing excellent code. The other half simply does not know how to program or write code. This problem is exacerbated by a manager that has no clue what's going on and thinks one of the dumbest people on the team has great ideas.

Now keep in mind this is my first job out of college. The fact that I can out program people double my age with decades more experience than me is troubling. I can't babysit what other people are doing and really neither can anyone else on the team as we are all trying to get things done on a very short time schedule.

*sigh*

/end pathetic whiny rant
Click to expand...

Its funny - I am kinda running into that as well. We have a piece of software that is pretty buggy - the developments idea of fixing issues is always to uninstall and reinstall. I was actually told that they don't know what a lot of the errors are so hopefully the uninstall and reinstall will fix them 😕
 
Usually the fresh grads are the better programmers, especially if you went through a formal CS discipline that taught the latest and the greatest.

Lots of times, you get people with Social Science degrees trying to hack some shit up that cost so much in operation, it just simply ain't scalable at all. There is a reason they teach you run time efficiency concepts in CS.
 
The majority of people on the majority of project teams think that majority of their teammates are idiots. Someone on your team thinks you're an idiot.
 
That's a failure not of the people (though it is that too), but of the process. You should have:

1) Unit testing. You and he would know your build was broken asap.
2) Regression tests. Same as above.
3) Automated builds. A combination of these three means his checked in code breaks your tests and thus the build, so it doesn't get checked in.

Microsoft Team System, Rational Team Concert, CruiseControl.NET, NAnt, NUnit, etc. etc. are all available for management of this.

You're facing a harsh reality of software: Counting on the individual responsibility of the people will always lead to failure. It simply never works, no matter how egalitarian people try to be. Some people will inevitably go off in the weeds, so automated quality control is your only hope.
 
Originally posted by: Imdmn04
Usually the fresh grads are the better programmers, especially if you went through a formal CS discipline that taught the latest and the greatest.

Lots of times, you get people with Social Science degrees trying to hack some shit up that cost so much in operation, it just simply ain't scalable at all. There is a reason they teach you run time efficiency concepts in CS.
Click to expand...

Most CS concepts have very little to do with actually producing quality code and software in the latest technologies, including Java and .NET. Granted, it depends on the type of software you're writing (scientific software, robotics, embedded, etc. leverage more specific CS concepts). Business software, which I believe OP is talking about, has no curriculum in schools that really prepares the students for what to face.

The best programmers aren't just programmers: They're developers, architects, etc. A programmer is often a liability, doing things in isolation without consideration for the softer sides of software.

New grads often think they're the ones that are cutting edge and it's everyone else holding them back. It's really the other way around, and it takes experience to understand that.
 
Descartes you are spot on with your analysis.

Our regression testing is not good enough and I should have contributed some tests that would determine if the features I'm implementing work or not. I will add them in tomorrow because of your post.
 
OneOfTheseDays, do you work for a startup or a huge company?

I have found that many large companies have about 20% great software engineers, 60% mediocre 9-5, work is work type engineers and 20% warm bodies who actually make more work for the first 20%.

The startups I have worked for are usually filled with the first 20% but as the company grows the other 80% creep in.

I don't think the other 80% are stupid or unintelligent I think they just don't have the drive or motivation to excel at their craft. I actually get excited when working with new technologies and/or spending 14 hours tracking down a bug that has been around forever. Most of the 80% crowd could care less and simply want a paycheck.
 
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