Thursday, May 20, 2010

Why don't you fix the problem?

There's a concept in software developed called "Silver Bullet Syndrome." It's an overly optimistic view of the benefits of adopting a new technology. Switching from PHP to Java will make development 65% faster, switching to SATA hard drives from IDE will make compile times fall, or agile development will make changing requirements easier to deal with.

No. None of those things are true. If you're running into speed issues the tool you've chosen almost certainly not at fault, but the way you've used it. So why don't you fix the problem?

But if software developers are willing to adopt this thinking, it's no surprise their managers do as well. When a project is behind schedule, some businesses will add more people to the team, thinking that the larger the team, the faster work will be completed. But this reasoning quickly falls apart. If a project is behind because the business changes requirements schizophrenically, adding more people to that project will only make the problem worse.

What if your developers are sitting around doing nothing? You could give them more tasks. Except it might be tough to judge if they're actually doing nothing. If someone is holding them up, it would be better to work to unblock them so they can get their assigned work done. Adding more to their plate puts the new work items at risk.

Really, what this all boils down to is the need for thoughtful consideration. The obvious solution isn't always the right one, and if you trying to fix a problem without understanding it completely, you will, predictably, make the situation worse. So, why don't you fix the problem?

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