Timeline for Advice for dealing with a cowboy programmer in an agile team
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 9, 2012 at 10:07 | comment | added | David Espina | What you need to do is a get a job where you have accountability for capability performance against mission, where you are responsible for EVERYTHING: costs, revenue, supply chain, people, tools, EVERYTHING. Do that for five years--no, make it three years--and then let's have this discussion. BTW, the original OP called the coder a "cowboy." The coder earned a nickname. I don't know how you can read into this and determine that, in this scenario, it might be a good idea to keep him. You need to understand scope management and the bad results of gold platting. | |
| Oct 9, 2012 at 10:02 | comment | added | David Espina | Actually, yms, every industry and domain require innovation, research, and development for continued advancement. And there are investment type projects for just such work. And in those projects, those scientists and practitioners can brainstorm, create, and experiment all they want. Out of that comes new ideas that a customer purchases through a development project, where all that is in scope is to develop it. NO customer should ever have to pay for some practitioner to chase an idea, unless the customer agrees, in which case it is no longer rogue. | |
| Oct 8, 2012 at 19:22 | comment | added | David Espina | That's right, yms, talented leaders know how to make tough decisions while treating their team with respect and dignity. Ones that don't know how to do that may not last that long. But don't kid yourself, the analysis to which you are apparently not privvy is cold and unemotional. | |
| Oct 8, 2012 at 15:18 | comment | added | user4771 | Luckily for me, in my 10+ years of experience as a programmer, I have only met a PM that treated me like a hammer once, and he lasted a very short time doing that job. | |
| Oct 8, 2012 at 15:14 | comment | added | David Espina | Therein lies the challenge of being a leader. To make unpopular, unemotional, and cogent decisions where humans are involved, to objectively analyze a problem keeping in mind humans are capability enablers just like a hammer, yet treating them with respect and dignity, unlike a hammer. If it makes your stomach turn, then the job is not for you. | |
| Jan 3, 2012 at 20:58 | history | answered | David Espina | CC BY-SA 3.0 |