So yeah, I have not updated in quite some time. But now that things are calming down I am going to try to post a little more regularly. If nothing else I have a bunch of things to ramble about.
Time ran an article today that, while not directly related to, actually applies in a rather important way to software development.
Does Power Corrupt? Absolutely Not
The basic idea goes like this. Give someone power, and they care more about their job (since they feel more in control of it), and thus they are more efficient and make fewer mistakes. Take power away from people and they start messing up.
It was a blind study. Wide group of people split into 3 groups, each encouraged to think of themselves as dominant, submissive, and neutral. What the found was that comprehension and mistakes ended up being quite different between the groups.
It pointed to the idea that if you want people to work well, give them power over their own work. It also suggested that the roles people have ended up in are a cause rather then an effect.. that it isn't 'efficient people bubble to the top, inefficient sink' but instead the role you drop someone into actually effects how they preform.
So what does this have to do with software development? In writing software, building a game, etc, reducing mistakes and increasing emotional investment are absolutely vital to a product going well. You could easily say that the difference between a success and a failure in a design is directly related to how well people preform and how much investment they have in things going well. No amount of 'process' will overcome people who just don't care.
Looking back, I think this played a bigger role in why I left Merit then I had realized. I went from having significant power (small in the big scheme of course, but still it made me feel in control of things that I was involved in) to being shoved pretty far down the chain to the point I was, well, just programming. I think it REALLY effected my work. Looking at everything I did over the last year, I can't say I'm overly proud of any of it. I lost efficiency, I checked in more and more bad code, my designs got worse, it just stopped mattering. And that effected the whole product indirectly.
