Programmers hate worthless tasks.

English Original: Software developers Hate worthless Tasks

Most programmers, as far as I know, are excellent, and the more they hate worthless tasks.

　　Find the value of their work

Over the years, I've seen a lot of successful software developers switch to managerial positions, or other completely different professions. Sometimes the reason is simple, just want to get a higher salary. But it's also because you're tired of always having to learn to keep up with the pace of software development. The most common reason, of course, is boredom, or the loss of interest in the job itself. These people are usually because the job is not enough for them to challenge, that they are putting their time and energy into almost worthless work.

My career in software development also had a low point: I spent a lot of time, energy and creativity on a project or task that was terminated for some reason or was greatly reduced in its functional range. Although I received the same monetary remuneration, but the expectation of my job was to deliver a successful product, my feelings were not satisfied but very depressed. It made me feel that the time and energy I had paid was worthless.

Canceling a task is not the only reason for the value of work being disillusioned. Some unnecessary tasks or other heavy work can also exacerbate the difficulty of software development. These things always seem to be useful or helpful to the task, but they are of little value.

　　Process

From the perspective of many software developers, the biggest enemy of software development productivity is the process of redundancy. In "Process kills Developer Passion", James Turner writes, "Blind application of best practices in the entire development process has transformed us from a creative process into a kind of imprisonment." "Turner says that all developers have different capabilities, so they can't be treated exactly the same way." "Companies need to understand that there are essential differences between developers, so you have to make sure that the weights you set for everyone, at least not compromising overall morale and team efficiency. ”

I think most people who have been in this row for many years understand that a certain level of progress is reasonable and even beneficial. But this "degree" depends on the project, the developer's experience, and the size of the team. There are many advantages to standardizing and code conventions. The benefits of unit testing and other quality processes are well known. It can be said that the best developers are able to determine what kind of process is appropriate and how the situation is not appropriate.

　　Meeting

Only those short, well-run meetings can make a huge profit for us, and most meetings are just a waste of time, especially if the meeting is delayed or overtime. Good meetings should start on time and only solve the problems that need to be solved. For example, some team members are not accustomed to expressing their opinions, so some short, informal meetings are necessary to exchange work. Some difficult design decisions and architectural tradeoffs can also be discussed at the meeting. As you can say, a well-run meeting produces positive results: it helps the developer to establish a clearer direction and improve the overall efficiency of the team.

I've also posted a post on how to hold a valid meeting. The point is that you should learn to take notes, write down what time people are involved, record important decisions for future reference, or borrow them as a material for those who are not present.

　　Not every idea should be implemented

Not every idea has value. When developers are forced to implement some bad or useless ideas, they tend to produce impatient emotions. In other words, it's hard to make ourselves willing to make something that may never be used, or worse, to directly affect the user experience.

　　Tedious script-writing tasks

Many developers tend to find ways to solve particularly tedious scripting tasks, rather than manual execution, even when the time for manual execution is similar to the time it was written. This is one of the best examples of how most developers hate tedious tasks. This is a typical way for developers to have a positive side. First of all, perhaps this is a one-time task that we thought was once again in need of implementation. Second, scripting behavior is much more valuable than just completing a task: it can improve the familiarity of scripting language and provide a good idea or case for solving related problems later.

　　Using the general configuration

Only if the configuration information and general configuration are not the same, the developer needs to provide detailed configuration information, otherwise only need to use the general configuration. This saves developers time and reduces the number of tedious configuration tasks.

　　It looks worthless at first.

Most of the cases, we are generally right to have worthless judgments about the task. But there are tasks that seem useless at first, but then find that it does provide tangible benefits that are indeed valuable. This also reminds us of the need to keep an open mind about the value of new ideas, not beat him, and should carefully analyze its impact. So what the software development manager has to do is assign valuable tasks to the developers and make sure they understand the value of these tasks.

　　Execution force

Even a very potentially valuable idea, if not implemented correctly, will greatly reduce its value. Similarly, if the correct use of code review and code quality tools can create great value, and vice versa is a negative effect.

　　Conclusion

When we like the work we do, when we think we are doing something worthwhile, we often get the job done perfectly. Tasks that are worthless or low-value are more likely to be considered redundant tasks and are not well done. All in all, if developers do not have to be forced into worthless tasks, then it is obvious that they will be more motivated and more passionate about development and happier.

Link: http://www.geekwww.com/software-developers-hate-worthless-tasks.html

Translation Geek Net – John

Programmers hate worthless tasks.