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posted by janrinok on Monday October 10 2016, @04:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-only... dept.

There is an interview with Joel Spolsky on GeekWire which reports that companies should Just shut up and let your devs concentrate:

If you want to attract and keep developers, don't emphasize ping-pong tables, lounges, fire pits and chocolate fountains. Give them private offices or let them work from home, because uninterrupted time to concentrate is the most important and scarcest commodity.

That's the view of Joel Spolsky, CEO of Stack Overflow, a popular Q&A site for programmers, who spoke this morning at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle.

"Facebook's campus in Silicon Valley is an 8-acre open room, and Facebook was very pleased with itself for building what it thought was this amazing place for developers," Spolsky said in an interview with GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. "But developers don't want to overhear conversations. That's ideal for a trading floor, but developers need to concentrate, to go to a chatroom and ask questions and get the answers later. Facebook is paying 40-50 percent more than other places, which is usually a sign developers don't want to work there."

[Continues...]

Spolsky, who in 2011 created project-management software Trello, said the "Joel Test" that he created 16 years ago is still a valid way for developers to evaluate prospective employers. It's a list of 12 yes-no questions, with one point given for every "yes" answer:

  1. Do you use source control?
  2. Can you make a build in one step?
  3. Do you make daily builds?
  4. Do you have a bug database?
  5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
  6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
  7. Do you have a spec?
  8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
  9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
  10. Do you have testers?
  11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
  12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

"The truth is that most software organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need serious help, because companies like Microsoft run at 12 full-time," Spolsky said when he created the test. He said that remains true today.

How well does your organization support its developers? If new or better equipment would improve your productivity, is it made available to you? How is your work environment? How well does your organization score on the 12-point "Joel Test"? What is the biggest thing blocking your company from improving?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday October 10 2016, @06:06PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Monday October 10 2016, @06:06PM (#412551) Journal

    One of the big government labs had an open house recently, and were trying to showcase how hip and current they are. Except they're being lame-ass followers by blowing out all their nice, quiet, and productive offices so people will like collaborate, man. Apparently seeing the sea of headphones in most zero-privacy offices isn't an obvious sign that open floor plans aren't universally popular. I wonder what their staff turnover will be?

    Collaboration has its place, but too much distracts the strong while hiding the weak.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 10 2016, @07:39PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 10 2016, @07:39PM (#412600)

    I hear you. I started working 6 mo ago for a major federal agency that was on a modernization kick. They had to be all "agile"'and following the fads that others abandoned 6 years ago. It was all paper Post-It notes on a kanban board when we all had Jira licenses already. Our team finally abandoned the hipster retro paper based system a month ago. I pulled off the sad, out of date Post-Its from our wall and replaced them with a single one saying, "We've gone paperless!"

    I also managed to weasel out of a govt "hackathon". (Jeez!)

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday October 10 2016, @08:53PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 10 2016, @08:53PM (#412632)

      I also managed to weasel out of a govt "hackathon".

      I normally have a tough stomach AC, but that part of the story made me cringe.

      Honestly I think some SV fads are in the spirit of "I strongly encourage my competitors to ..." and then some dumbass actually does it and ruins their employees lives.

      I'd love to see accounting dept talked into attending a "BeanCountAthon" That would be epic.