Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[michael at czeiszperger.org (Michael Winslow Czeiszperger)]

On Sunday, February 16, 2003, at 06:21  PM, Michael D. Thomas wrote:

> In an increasingly competitive employment environment, how do you deal 
> with
> difficult people without becoming one of them? How do you maintain your
> integrity without becoming an example of a replaceable part?
>

At least in my experience the big problems are rarely caused by 
co-workers. It is the job of management to facilitate a working 
environment where people can get their jobs done, which means clearly 
assigning responsibilities, managing project requirements, setting up a 
production coding environment, choosing a design methodology, examining 
code, setting code quality goals and measurement techniques, etc.

Maybe I've been unlucky, but what I've seen most often as a consultant 
is:

1. No formal requirements, just post-it notes on monitors.
2. No assignment of design or architectural responsibilities.
3. No design methodology.
4. No test bed or unit tests at all.

I don't see how any individual programmer's ability to get along with 
co-workers is going to help the average software product given the 
above. Its the main reason I decided to try striking out on my own-- at 
some point if any of this makes a difference its worth the risk to stop 
griping and start competing.

___________________________________________________________________
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