Developers – Find Your Voice And Question Everything
Warning: This post may get you fired!
Normally I blog about the latest code I have been working on and awesome or interesting things I have bumped into along the way.
In this post I want to change direction and get a little more political by diving into the day to day life of a coder and blog about “Finding Your Voice”.
How many dev’s can say they have felt bad decisions have been made by their client’s / project managers / other developers?
How many dev’s have spoken up and said that they disagree with decisions being taken?
How many dev’s haven't said anything for fear of looking stupid or just fear of speaking out of turn?
I used to be an obedient coder doing what was asked of me never questioning anything trying to keep everyone happy no matter how flawed the plan or crazy the request (although I haven’t been like this for many years now). Experience has shown all this does is makes you, your co-workers, your company and your clients look stupid in the end.
When starting any project always scope, plan and discuss everything before even opening your favourite IDE (Visual Studio of course) and tapping out some code. This will help iron out any potential flaws in the execution of the project. Well it will if YOU SPEAK UP when you see something that is wrong.
Chances are that your client’s will just want a solution to fit their needs, project managers want to know how long it will take and you will be left to scope the blood and guts of the new super cool ninja black belt application (possibly with a little help from other developers and application architects if you work for a big company).
I have sat in meetings and disagreed with guys who have twice my experience, project manager’s and company CEO’s and have never once been reprimanded for my actions. Always remember that when disagreeing with anyone remain polite, relevant and open to suggestion. People will respect you for helping work towards a common goal. If you don’t question potential flaws you just may find yourself the projects scapegoat ready to be sent off to the slaughter.
All applications start with an idea and if that idea is fundamentally flawed in some way the application will not work no matter how good the code. Chances are you will be more technically competent than the guys or gals who are the think tank behind the application so it is your responsibility to steer them in the right direction technically.
“With great power comes great responsibility”
“With great power comes great responsibility”
With all this in mind remember:-
If you see something that looks wrong question it!
If it makes you look a little stupid don't worry it's better to look a little stupid than really stupid later!
If you don't question something and it turns out to be a project killer you will kick yourself for not doing so!
“Find your voice and question everything”