I had lunch today with one of my former bosses from ICOM. The intention was mostly to trade work stories from the last almost-year and catch up. With a little luck, there may be some contracting opportunities for me eventually.
But what made me really appreciate the meeting was the reminder of what it's like to work in a professional environment with forward motion. I think that's the thing I've been missing for awhile. Working with smart people doing smart things and holding the work to high standards is something I haven't seen really anywhere other than that job and at Progressive. Think about the implication of that realization, that 95% of the work done in your field is shit. Is it any wonder that a third of software projects fail and another half are mostly at risk?
I often wonder how this is possible, that the failure rate can be so high. The usual suspects are part of the problem... poor expectations and requirements, lack of buy-in from stakeholders, no customer input, turnover and lay-offs, etc. But I also believe firmly that people just aren't trained to do the right things, and they don't endeavor to become better at what they do. Last fall I ended up working with a "consultant" that, looking at his work, seemed barely capable of understanding what object-oriented programming was. Yet if you looked at his resume, it would appear he had a lot of "experience."
Most businesses simply don't value process. If you're not exposed to a solid development process or don't care, then you wander around in the dark and maybe get by if you're lucky. How is that OK when hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent and people's living depends on success?
Perhaps that's part of my book motivation as well. I think there's a sales pitch that comes with teaching. It has certainly been true in coaching volleyball, and in mentoring developers I've seen the same thing. You have to make the case that the process and the quality that comes out of it are key to success.
In any case, it gave me a lot to think about. I still feel like I'm sitting in front of some kind of huge opportunity and I just can't see exactly what it is.
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