This guy really is good. Joel recently posted a new article entitled The
Developer Abstraction Layer. While I agree with his points, the article
does not apply to managing only developers, IMO, but to any team of people with a
creative discipline.
I do have one point of differentiation, though. Developers are also smart people who
are capable informing the other activities of the company in constructive ways. Allowing
them to occasionally participate and do so will result in the software being more
relevant to the needs of the customers. Just a thought.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article.
- Nobody expects Dolly Parton to know how to plug in a microphone
-
If a programmer somewhere is worrying about a broken chair, or waiting on hold
with Dell to order a new computer, the abstraction has sprung a leak.. - Like teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.