Red Squirrel Reflections
Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development
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Red Squirrel Reflections
Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development
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Tue, 14 Jun 2005Patrick Morrison on Resisting the Promotion; I Emphasize the Context Pat has provided some feedback on Resist the Promotion. Pat rightly points out...I think that the really great engineering projects cannot be accomplished with technical talent alone, nor can they be accomplished using managers who are not also technical. There is a vital need for managers who know technology, deeply. This need can only be supplied 'from the ranks' of those who are technical.I completely agree. It seems that Pat has not only taken Resist the Promotion out of context, he has converted it into a context-less principle. As if Ade and I were saying that all programmers were making a mistake to move into management. In an attempt to avoid further confusion, I will address what these apprenticeship patterns are trying to accomplish and who they are written for. These patterns are an attempt to distill concrete, practical advice from the ideals presented in Pete McBreen's Software Craftsmanship, from our own experiences, and from the experiences of the apprentices we are interviewing. Pete's book presents a vision of the field of software development that has inspired many craftsmen, myself included. Yet Pete's book is targeted at an audience that has the power and ability to take on apprentices. I wanted to write something for the apprentices themselves. We believe there is a need for a book that helps aspiring craftsmen navigate an industry that does not embrace the craftsmanship mindset. These patterns are written for new programmers who aspire to become master craftsmen. Tying this back into Pat's feedback, let me state clearly that the pattern is not asserting that there is anything inherently wrong with a programmer accepting a promotion into management. In fact, for those who aspire to become great technical managers, it can make perfect sense to accept the promotion. That said, the implicit context of all of these patterns is that you are an inexperienced programmer who desires to become a master craftsman. The explicit context of Resist the Promotion is that you are being offered a promotion that would have you spending less time programming. In that context, we have found that for apprentices to stay on the path to mastery, it is necessary to resist the promotion in order to continue programming full-time. |
