Manager Developer Syndrome
What is Manager Developer Syndrome?
MDS is a condition where a manager/developer has a tough time writing quality code because he has become short-term focused due to prolonged exposure to managerial environments and conditions.
What causes Manager Developer Syndrome?
It starts with prolonged experience to the concerns of management, such as generating cash for payroll, pursuing hot deals, and taking care of important customers.
The individual is then exposed to the awesomeness of outside-in BDD/TDD testing methodology and tools, and a world where seemingly thousands of developers on Github who are “doing it the right way”, flaunting their excellent work in plain sight.
This combination of factors triggers the realization that the individual sucks and should do something about it.
What are the symptoms?
- Not refactoring. Without tests, it’s deemed just too dangerous and not enough short-term ROI. Plus there are a million other things to do, including checking your email, since it probably has accumulated 40+ emails since you decided to spend a few hours focusing on code.
- Not releasing code publicly. It’s not tested. No one will use it if it’s not tested.
- Making commits on group projects late at night, when hopefully no one is looking.
How is it treated?
- Stop the bullshit excuses, and just invest the time to finally REALLY learn and use RSpec.
- Start contributing to open source projects, even if it’s just helping to improve documentation.
- Stop adding new implementation code without tests, even in projects where there are no specs presently.
- Bonus points: Stop using TextMate and learn to use a real editor (VIM or Emacs).
Ryan Walker on agile business and web software development
