The Firepower of Teams
I just finished reading an interesting post by Ben Collins-Sussman. In an attempt to argue that distributed version control is not the silver bullet, he classifies us and puts us into two groups, which he calls the 80% and the 20%.
The 20% folks are what many would call “alpha” programmers — the leaders, trailblazers, trendsetters, the kind of folks that places like Google and Fog Creek software are obsessed with hiring. These folks were the first ones to install Linux at home in the 90’s; the people who write lisp compilers and learn Haskell on weekends “just for fun”; they actively participate in open source projects; they’re always aware of the latest, coolest new trends in programming and tools.
The 80% folks make up the bulk of the software development industry. They’re not stupid; they’re merely vocational. They went to school, learned just enough Java/C#/C++, then got a job writing internal apps for banks, governments, travel firms, law firms, etc. The world usually never sees their software. They use whatever tools Microsoft hands down to them — usally VS.NET if they’re doing C++, or maybe a GUI IDE like Eclipse or IntelliJ for Java development. They’ve never used Linux, and aren’t very interested in it anyway. Many have never even used version control. If they have, it’s only whatever tool shipped in the Microsoft box (like SourceSafe), or some ancient thing handed down to them. They know exactly enough to get their job done, then go home on the weekend and forget about computers.
Ben took a lot of heat for his oversimplification. People, it seems, don’t like to be categorized, a fact I too discovered when trying to make a distinction between Developers and Programmers. They especially don’t like to hear that they’re mediocre, not special, or less worth, which is the undertone of Ben’s 80% category.
During my military service I learned that statistically, only two soldiers in a group of eight would be effective in a combat situation. The rest would be pinned down, unable to return fire. Thus, one could say that the firepower of a squad comes from a fraction of it’s soldiers. I think this is often true for development teams as well. A few members are accountable for a majority of the produced value.
The funny thing is, that some of the best value-bringers I’ve met in my career does not fit the 20% alpha-geek group defined by Ben. And many of the “elite” programmers, the ones that do fit the description, have been remarkably inefficient. One reason for this could be that bleeding edge isn’t always the best strategy to achieve business value.
So, the question we should ask ourselves is not whether we’re in the 20%, it’s: Do I add to the firepower of my team? What can I do to bring more value?