

Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt - JabavuAdams
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000332.html

======
JabavuAdams
The last section is especially important, IMHO:

> Strategy 6 Become Invaluable

> None of these strategies work if you're not really an excellent contributor.
> If you don't write good code, and lots of it, you're just going to be
> resented for messing around with bug databases when you "should be" writing
> code. There's nothing more deadly to your career than having a reputation of
> being so concerned with process that you don't accomplish anything.

It took me a few years to learn this lesson. Every so often I have to re-learn
it, when starting in a new environment.

~~~
sofal
" _There's nothing more deadly to your career than having a reputation of
being so concerned with process that you don't accomplish anything._ "

At a government contractor this boosts your career more than anything else
can.

------
silentbicycle
Maybe I'm overreacting here, but if one of my coworkers set up their own bug-
tracking system and used it to _repeatedly nag me_ about bugs I hadn't fixed
yet, it would probably convince me to write them off as a passive-aggressive
whiner long before it would help me to "see the value of bug tracking". Why
aren't they emailing me (personally) or asking me to fix it to my face
instead, first?

Granted, Joel's flagship product is a bug tracker, so maybe that's part of it.
It's hardly a flattering plug, though -- like the time I saw a pulp paperback
in a used book store that had some sort of endorsement deal with HeftyTM trash
bags.

~~~
greyman
Uff, does that work? You really don't have bug-tracking system, and instead of
entering bugs there, you just use email or word of mouth? How do you track the
whole process then?

~~~
silentbicycle
We use a bug tracking system.

If talking about when somebody sets up _their own_ and uses it to nag people.

------
marijn
> Nobody on your team wants to use source control? Create your own CVS
> repository

Oh for God's sake, stop! Create a git repository, a subversion resository, a
darcs repository, but _not_ a CVS repository.

[Edit] Also, I don't get this thing Americans seem to have for private
offices. I guess cubicle farms are ugly, and if your co-workers are all
annoying nerds being able to shut a door might be nice, but I've always
preferred open, multi-desk offices where you can discuss things with the
people around you.

~~~
kylec
_Also, I don't get this thing Americans seem to have for private offices. I
guess cubicle farms are ugly, and if your co-workers are all annoying nerds
being able to shut a door might be nice, but I've always preferred open,
multi-desk offices where you can discuss things with the people around you._

Joel has written at length about the need for programmers to have spaces where
they cannot be interrupted, and from personal experience I agree
wholeheartedly.

From <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000068.html>:

 _Here's the simple algebra. Let's say (as the evidence seems to suggest) that
if we interrupt a programmer, even for a minute, we're really blowing away 15
minutes of productivity. For this example, lets put two programmers, Jeff and
Mutt, in open cubicles next to each other in a standard Dilbert veal-fattening
farm. Mutt can't remember the name of the Unicode version of the strcpy
function. He could look it up, which takes 30 seconds, or he could ask Jeff,
which takes 15 seconds. Since he's sitting right next to Jeff, he asks Jeff.
Jeff gets distracted and loses 15 minutes of productivity (to save Mutt 15
seconds)._

 _Now let's move them into separate offices with walls and doors. Now when
Mutt can't remember the name of that function, he could look it up, which
still takes 30 seconds, or he could ask Jeff, which now takes 45 seconds and
involves standing up (not an easy task given the average physical fitness of
programmers!). So he looks it up. So now Mutt loses 30 seconds of
productivity, but we save 15 minutes for Jeff._

~~~
marijn
Makes sense -- I've probably been guilty of interrupting others, though it's
rarely bothered _me_. Anyway, private offices are _lonely_.

~~~
JabavuAdams
I work in an open-concept room of half-height cubicles where the mean time
between interruptions is something like 10 minutes.

We've got developers, artists, and some loud phone-users in the same room.
Some of the developers yell at artists across the room to make requests.

Anytime anyone in the room looks at a cool video, or something, a crowd
congregates around their desk, and the noise level goes even higher.

To a manager, it looks like the room is abuzz with activity. To the creators
whose jobs require concentration, it's hellacious.

~~~
jamesbritt
"Room abuzz with activity" is _highly_ over-rated, yet, like the count of
lines of code, seems to have magic meaning for some people.

