Make It Matter
The issue of professionalism keeps showing up. I believe there’s a good reason for that: we as an industry really have to put more focus on professionalism.
In his latest article, Michael Feathers raises an important issue on the matter of doing a job right. Even if the code is going to be thrown away in a year, he says, he wants to do a good job; he want to learn from this experience.
“The core of the issue is personal. For me, it has been a long haul, but I find now that I am happiest when I pay less attention to whether code matters to someone else and more attention to how it matters to me.
And: I can always make it matter to me.”
A colleague of mine raised the exact same issue yesterday in response to my Choosing The Right Tool posting. He said that apart from the cost perspective, professionals want to do the right thing. They want to use good techniques and create a good product even if no one explicitly asks them to. Doing a great job makes us feel pride in what we do. It motivates us. This motivation can drive an entire business forward.
The challenge is convincing management. Although I have no historical evidence, I believe the term “quick and dirty” was not coined by a developer. In most cases I hear managers, not developers, use this term. If I do hear a developer use the “quick and dirty” argument, I can usually trace it back quite easily to one of his managers. And the best part is that if you insist in doing your job professionally, you will soon find yourself at the risk of being considered a trouble maker.
I am of course biased, but if you ask for my advice I would have to say: continue to make it matter to you. With more “trouble makers” around, we just might have a chance to make a difference.
