Dan North tells the story of Tim, the worst programmer he’s ever labored with (who additionally occurs to be “a heck of a programmer”). Tim scored zero factors on the corporate’s productiveness metric and virtually received fired, however…
“You see, the rationale that Tim’s productiveness rating was zero, was that he by no means signed up for any tales. As a substitute he would spend his day pairing with completely different teammates. With much less skilled builders he would patiently allow them to drive while nudging them in the direction of an answer. He wouldn’t crowd them or railroad them, however allow them to take the time to study while rigorously crafting moments of perception and studying, typically as Socratic questions, what ifs, how elses.
With seniors it was extra like co-creating or sparring; bringing completely different worldviews to bear on an issue, to provide one thing higher than both of us would have considered on our personal. Tim is a heck of a programmer, and also you at all times study one thing pairing with him.
Tim wasn’t delivering software program; Tim was delivering a staff that was delivering software program. Your complete staff turned more practical, extra productive, extra aligned, extra idiomatic, extra enjoyable, as a result of Tim was within the staff.””
Two takeaways from this wonderful submit: Measuring developer productiveness is tough, and be like Tim.
