Growing Teams
J. Timothy King has a good post talking about trying out new tools and being open to experimentation. This is a great sentiment and really the only way to mature at all as software developers. Try new things and see if they help. If you are having trouble with your current tools and processes, then what is the harm in taking a few days (or weeks) to try something new?
From the post:
A growing team is passionate about growth. And that means they will give new tools a fair chance. They might be skeptical. But because of their passion for growth, they will be able to set aside their skepticism. But they must choose to do so. They must choose to consider that maybe they’re wrong. They must choose to list what would need to happen to prove to them that they’re wrong. They must choose to test this list. They must choose to embrace the results and be excited to discover a new truth, to open up a new righteousness.
Another good point he makes is about slack time.
Of course, before you can take that risk, you need to have slack in your schedule. You need to be able to burn time in order to try new things. Slack is where you grow.
From what I’ve seen, too many companies are focused on the short term “get it done” approach. There is often no slack time built into the team’s process to sit and think and experiment. Research is key in improving both the developers’ abilities and the overall quality of the software being developed. Without slack, there is really no point in trying. You’re liable to be seen as wasting time and if deadlines are missed, “because I was thinking about how we can improve our overall abilities” likely won’t be an acceptable excuse.
on August 31st, 2006 at 8:00 am
Great post, this is something that isn’t done often enough. I always try to build in some time for these types of activities, as not only will it result in a better skillset amongst your team, programmers generally love to tinker and alloting them time to do so will only increase their moral. A happy programmer is a good programmer.
on August 31st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
You’re right that too many companies focus on the short term and push off the long term. That’s something I’m even wrestling with currently. Even when the company says they want to invest more in the future, it’s so difficult to change current practice to reflect that goal.
One of the best examples I’ve heard of investing in the future: It’s said that at Google, everyone gets a whole day every week to experiment. Sometimes I wish I worked at Google.
(Does anyone here work at Google? Is this true?)
-TimK
on October 23rd, 2006 at 3:43 pm
The most effective organizations I’ve seen in person do just what you suggest - they leave time for technical staff to explore, experiment, and learn. It’s one of the things I like about my new employer.
I don’t work at Google, but I’ve heard the same thing from several who do. Apparently they are encouraged to spend a certain amount of 8-5 time doing “just about anything” other than their assigned tasks. It’s a great investment. Really, really cheap for the company, with significant payback (even if it’s hard to quantify directly).