
A Hierarchy of Needs for Software Development - ingve
https://spin.atomicobject.com/2016/04/27/software-development-hierarchy-of-needs/
======
aji
Decent article but it's missing a lot of the things I expected to see, given
the introduction. This seems really focused on the things I'd consider most
analogous to "physiological" and "safety" needs. Writing code is a very basic
part of software development, like chopping vegetables is a basic part of
cooking.

To me, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is interesting because it tops out at
"self-actualization". Maslow is effectively saying that the most important
need a human can fulfill in their own life is the need to have a purpose and
to live out that purpose.

The top of the analogous hierarchy of software development needs in this post,
on the other hands, fizzles out at "patterns". What about understanding how
different patterns are used to make a working piece of software? What about
fitting separate software systems together to make a functioning product? What
about shaping a product to fill some kind of need in the world?

My hierarchy would look something like this (with less bad ASCII art):

    
    
               /-----------\
              / Meeting requirements
             /---------------\
            / Designing software architectures
           /-------------------\
          / Manipulating software systems (e.g. implementing an HTTP service, setting up a database, etc.)
         /-----------------------\
        / Writing code (e.g. accessing APIs, implementing a function, etc.)
       /---------------------------\
    

with "meeting requirements" at the top since that is the most important thing
to be done as a software developer, and it can't be done without addressing
the needs below it. It's not as lofty of a name as "self-actualization",
though.

~~~
npunt
I like yours better, especially wrt reqs and the reason for the software to
even exist, as it's not just in service of itself. To simplify even more, the
pyramid goes What -> How -> Why

------
marssaxman
"They should know 'the web'" \- what!? I thought we were talking about
software development in general here, not about web development specifically.

