Cube of Japanese software engineering

Story 1:

ProgramYang Shufeng finally resigned. For this reason, he thought about it for almost half a year. Prior to this, John developed a software company in Japan, mainly outsourcing enterprise application software in Japan and embedded development of industrial products (such as automotive control software ).

The reason for Xiao Yang's resignation is not simply because of the treatment problem, but because, as a professional programmer, he was deeply troubled by the growth when planning his career.

"I did it for a year and a half.C LanguageI have developed some information software for Japanese enterprises before. To be honest, I really don't know what I am doing every day. I develop Japanese documents every day to implement functions that have been defined in great detail, as well as interfaces that have been clearly drawn on the documents, even the fonts on the control are well defined. What else can I do?"

This may be another reason. More of my thoughts also come from a group of developers from Xiao Yang.

"Some friends who started to work with me on software, they stayed in some smaller companies to work on Project software. When we were together, they all talked about their software design and architecture and about platforms, let's talk about some popular technical terms they are using. I think I am behind them, even though I am much higher than them in terms of income ."

"I have to consider future development and want to learn more. I hope to develop towards project management in the future ."

 

Story 2:

Mr. Wang has been engaged in software development in Japan for nearly three years and has recently returned to China for development. At a technical seminar, I asked him about development in Japan.

Mr. Wang replied, "playing games ."

"Which game did you play on the market ?"

Mr. Wang replied, "I don't know. To be honest, I have been developing software in Japan for two years and have no idea what I am doing? Every day, the course director is sent to my desktop to complete the task !"

The story above actually contains many meaningful topics. One is the growth of programmers, and the other is the coding development mode of Japanese software enterprises.

 

(The path to a Chinese programmer's pathological growth!

1. Why is there such a growth path?

Programmers over 40 years of age are everywhere.

2. Why do programmers do not know what they are doing in Japanese software companies?

A due to enterprise costs, Japanese software companies have a clear division of labor. There is a company dedicated to design, and almost no one in the company writesCodeProgrammer.

B. Many small software companies depend on large companies to survive.

C Japanese software company has formed a good biological chain. As long as you find your position on this biological chain, you don't have to worry about survival issues .)

 

I. Growing troubles

"The soldiers who don't want to be Marshal are not good soldiers", can they say, "the programmers who don't want to be project-related (or management personnel) are not good programmers? Over the years, our IT media has been promoting and planning their professional lives for programmers. In fact, this has become a pathological growth path for Chinese programmers. In Europe and America, programmers over 40 years old are everywhere. Just like Dai Xi, he has been developing the underlying layer for most of his life. He has been 45 years since Microsoft retired. In China, if you are more than 30 years old and still writing programs, it seems to be regarded as a shame.

Xue Feng: the career planning of employees in Japanese software companies is indeed quite different from that of Chinese programmers. There may be several reasons for this: Japanese software companies are not only software companies, but also other industrial enterprises. Their Employees are generally "loyal" and "professional sense of honor. Of course, these enterprises have some corresponding systems for protection (Annual Work System). For example, if you have been in this enterprise for a lifetime, you will have a huge pension when you retire.

Ma Yue: In addition, I think it has a lot to do with some corporate and even national cultures in Japan.

Xue Feng: Yes, that's the problem. For example, if you are a child in Japan, what do you want to do when you grow up? He or she may answer that I want to become an employee of NEC or Panasonic when I grow up. The answer for Chinese children may be "scientists or writers ".

Reporter: The criteria for judging a successful life are different. If two of them are both 40 years old, one is a project manager, and the other is a Senior Programmer, in the eyes of the Chinese, they must think that the former is successful, right?

Xue Feng: this can be said in China.

Reporter: I once saw a story about two people returning from Silicon Valley to start a business. One is an Indian and the other is a Chinese. Ten years later, they met in Shanghai. The Indian has become the boss of a very successful software company, but the Chinese company is unknown and in danger. The Indians are surprised that he thinks the Chinese are more capable than him and has more opportunities than him in China. The Chinese replied that there is no other reason, because in China, everyone is quite a boss. No matter how high your salary is, he will eventually leave. I think we should reflect on it.

Xue Feng: Japanese enterprises should say that their levels are relatively strict. Technical and management personnel are eager to get promoted, but I feel that they are very angry. For example, one of my superiors, who has been in NEC for 10 years, is now a very happy director.

Reporter: In addition, should some Chinese enterprises reflect on this? For example, in the recent Lenovo layoff incident, even some laid-off employees on the Internet post "Lenovo is not my home. In my opinion, from the response of netizens, we can fully see that some Chinese enterprises are eager, ugly, and hypocritical.

 

The world in the second cube

Reporter: Do you think this development mode is normal for the materials in the previous two background stories?

Wang Yongshun: I think nothing is abnormal. As an electronic product power in Japan, a large part of the software is being developed for such products, such as the following generation of smart home appliance products and consumer electronic products. This type of software pays more attention to the preliminary design, and pays more attention to the clarity and details of documents. When the design documents are distributed to many programmers for implementation after the design is complete, it is certainly difficult for individual programmers to know what they are doing.

REPORTER: You may be talking about the development of such products and software. Is it normal for the development of project software?

Wang Yongshun: the same should be true. We should analyze the reasons for this development mode. Japan is a country with a strong division of labor, both industrial enterprises and software enterprises. Many links in the software process, such as requirement definition and analysis, software functional design, software coding implementation, and software testing, are generally completed in at least different departments of different enterprises. After your work in this company or department is completed, you must leave clear documents so that you can enter the work of the next company or department.

Reporter: Can we say that Japanese software companies have formed a good biological chain from upstream to downstream?

Wang Yongshun: Yes. Many small software companies in Japan depend on large companies to survive. They do a very simple job, which may be code implementation. It does not support a system analyst. Another company may be specialized in software design, and there may not be a programmer who writes code. A company can survive only by finding its position in such a biological chain.

Reporter: Can you analyze how this biological chain is formed?

Wang Yongshun: I personally think it is the cause of enterprise costs. Another factor is that every company will eventually develop to be only good at one thing. For example, if our company raises a large number of programmers and a large number of system analysts and architects, the cost of the company will undoubtedly increase. In addition, we cannot concentrate on one thing. This is unfavorable in the fierce competition of enterprises.

Reporter: I was shocked when I first saw the "style table" (the domestic software specification) in the Japanese software process. As a project owner, I also did System Analysis and Design and wrote the "requirement specification ". I think it is too detailed. In the UI design section, I wrote clearly what "controls" should be placed on the form, the length of the controls, the text on the controls, and even the color of the text. In addition, the description of the function is also very clear. The function name, input parameters, and output results are all very detailed.

Wang Yaqing: Maybe the Project software and product software are quite different ....

 

Reporter: How much creativity can individual programmers exert in this case? Is it highly industrialized? In an Engineering Society, the personal creativity of the bottom-layer operators will be ignored more or less, and they will only be used as machines (coding machines?

REPORTER: We have noticed that Chinese enterprises are very keen and keen on pursuing some software engineering methodologies in Europe and America. What attitude does Japanese software enterprises have towards Software Engineering Standards and software methodologies in Europe and America?

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