DeveloperBall

Question

Post reply

DeveloperBall

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

SSC Guru

Points: 736212
More actions
January 25, 2016 at 11:18 pm

#311123

Comments posted to this topic are about the item DeveloperBall

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

David.Poole SSC Guru Points: 76000 More actions · Answer 1

Teams are so complex! People with similar personalities may work well together or they may clash.

Some of the oddballs end up being the binding force within the team.

I'm not sure if the chemistry of the team can be captured in Data and if it could how would it be queried? Would a new query language need to be written to provide the necessary abstraction to allow HR departments and programme managers to assemble a working team?

LinkedIn Profile

call.copse SSCoach Points: 18050 More actions · Answer 2

It's a very difficult subject for sure. Some of the tightest team members start out seriously locking horns - is that a male thing? It sometimes seems men need to test each other out by going at it in some manner or another before they can accept each other. That's not been my experience with women coming on board, they'll tend to (for want of a better expression) accept and work with existing authority better. I wish I could understand these dynamics better but sadly I am somewhat stereotypically socially awkward. All I can try is be encouraging to other people when they move our work forwards, which happens a lot.

Gary Varga SSC Guru Points: 82166 More actions · Answer 3

Data can capture the hard skills but not so much the soft skills e.g how does one describe communication skills?

Gaz

-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

kiwood Ten Centuries Points: 1074 More actions · Answer 4

There is a huge issue that is not available in the IT world - stats. The fact is that in sports there are a ton of stats collected on people. Of course there is all kinds of opinion on the significance of those stats. And something glassed over in the whole concept of Moneyball is that there was still a fair amount of opinion used in the end.

The thing is that stats don't tell a complete story of an individual anyway. They tell the story of an individual in a particular setting. Baseball has worked long and hard to remove much of the variability, but it is still there. At the end of the day a person has to decide when to charge an error and to whom it belongs. But again, they have an advantage of collecting tons of stats (which may or not be meaningful).

So how would you start to gather stats about a dba or developer?

Wayne West SSC-Insane Points: 22586 More actions · Answer 5

I love the concept of a team, I just wish I would get the opportunity to work with one. For the last 23 years I've been alone in doing DBA work and development, which is frustrating. I know my skill set is not as varied as it should be because of this, but I'm also not in a position to relocate and I am not currently interested in telecommuting, so some of it is self-inflicted, especially in the area where I now live.

Part of it is timing: starting in a small shop at the dawn of SQL Server, the other part is moving in to shops that had not previously had a DBA even though they had multiple SQL Servers. They were lucky that everything was clean when I arrived and solid when I left, though they still managed to bollix up things after I was gone.

I can accept that teams are great, but I have to accept it on faith as I have no personal evidence.

-----
[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]

Rod at work SSC-Dedicated Points: 34007 More actions · Answer 6

I agree with you Steve, that cross training is important. Its preached at here where I work. But at least at this point, I don't see it happening. Maybe it will. Perhaps I just got to give it time, but so far its a vision statement without an implementation plan.

Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Miles Neale SSChampion Points: 13147 More actions · Answer 7

The assumption is that you can add a football player to a new team and it will function better. We have to look at this objectively and say, not always. Some players cause more harm than they do good, and some players are humble and others do not even understand the word. New guys fight with each other and yell in each other’s faces. It is not always the case that you can substitute in a new guy and all is well. Often there are huge issues and you destroy most of what you have built.

Now does this sound like what happens from time to time when management substitutes skill levels/people in and out of projects in IT without considering the team dynamics? Interesting thought.

M. 🙂

Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!

David.Poole SSC Guru Points: 76000 More actions · Answer 8

I play badminton and have seen a low ranked pair beat a far more skilled opposition simply because the no-hopers worked well together.

I've seen various personality assessment schemes such as Myer's Briggs which are supposed to tell you how to handle of personality 'X' if you are personality'Y'. It can work but like all relationships both parties have to want it to work.

If you leave it too late then the two parties would sooner garotte each other than work together

LinkedIn Profile

Gary Varga SSC Guru Points: 82166 More actions · Answer 9

I had a new guy ask me how I would architect a solution (simple 5 page intranet site with low usage) so I answered. He then explained what he was going to suggest (different to mine) and asked me my opinion of his solution in a very leading way. In short I agreed his was a valid alternative solution to which he responded "So you agree then". If office politics had a smell then I am certain I got a whiff of it at that moment.

Gaz

-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004343 More actions · Answer 10

call.copse (1/26/2016)
It's a very difficult subject for sure. Some of the tightest team members start out seriously locking horns - is that a male thing? It sometimes seems men need to test each other out by going at it in some manner or another before they can accept each other. That's not been my experience with women coming on board, they'll tend to (for want of a better expression) accept and work with existing authority better. I wish I could understand these dynamics better but sadly I am somewhat stereotypically socially awkward. All I can try is be encouraging to other people when they move our work forwards, which happens a lot.

I've found that "locking horns" is certainly not just a male thing. It's why we select new team mates based on both personality as well as skill. But, seriously, how did this become a sexist thing?

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

webrunner SSC-Dedicated Points: 31863 More actions · Answer 11

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (1/25/2016)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item <A HREF="/articles/Editorial/136198/">DeveloperBall</A>

Thanks for this interesting editorial. I think the Moneyball model could be applied to many things, including software development. But you'd probably end up with a sports-style employment marketplace with software-related "superstars" commanding even more money than they do now, once the data analyses were made public.

See this article - it may only be a matter of time and may already have started:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/technology/data-crunching-is-coming-to-help-your-boss-manage-your-time.html

-------------------
A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html

ZZartin SSC-Dedicated Points: 30920 More actions · Answer 12

Hmm... maybe a better title would be AdministratorBall. Development tends to not have as many hard skills that can be measured beyond it works but noone knows why.

call.copse SSCoach Points: 18050 More actions · Answer 13

Jeff Moden (1/26/2016)
call.copse (1/26/2016)
It's a very difficult subject for sure. Some of the tightest team members start out seriously locking horns - is that a male thing? It sometimes seems men need to test each other out by going at it in some manner or another before they can accept each other. That's not been my experience with women coming on board, they'll tend to (for want of a better expression) accept and work with existing authority better. I wish I could understand these dynamics better but sadly I am somewhat stereotypically socially awkward. All I can try is be encouraging to other people when they move our work forwards, which happens a lot.
I've found that "locking horns" is certainly not just a male thing. It's why we select new team mates based on both personality as well as skill. But, seriously, how did this become a sexist thing?

Sorry Jeff - I had no intention to be sexist - just describing my experience. If you think men and women behave the same I can hardly argue with your experience and would be interested in it. I've found more men are likely to be bullish and directly test each other. There's plenty of other dynamics - that was just an example that interested me.

akljfhnlaflkj SSC Guru Points: 76202 More actions · Answer 14

Gary Varga (1/26/2016)
Data can capture the hard skills but not so much the soft skills e.g how does one describe communication skills?

A difficult problem indeed.