Comments on: “Work Creators” versus “Work Doers”

By: linda

linda — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:41:18 +0000

I think the problems arise when your “work creators” are:
- out of touch with the business, the product and the end users. They create chaos and churn.
- not able to take their work far enough that a “doer” can take over and create what was intended.

Not all “work creators” are created equal, just like all “work doers”. It’s been my experience that unfortunately most “work creators” are just bad at their jobs or unqualified, and hence statements like everyone should write code appear

By: danny

danny — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:44:42 +0000

this makes sense to me and i have zero experience – except as a consumer – in the tech industry

i think there is value in any organization in members of that organization having a broad range of skills and experience – walking in each others shoes so to speak.

working in the non-profit arts industry – i have found a similar disconnect exists between administrators and production crew or artists…

working in the private sector – retail and service – there is a similar disconnect between managers and staff – administrators and service clerks…

as soon as an administrator or manager spends some time in the trenches – or on the front lines – waiting on people, they see what the clerks really need and adjust or adapt policies and procedures accordingly (hopefully).

i think it’s a fairly common communication issue in any organization – and i think it makes sense to have everyone code – that said, your programmers might be well served spending some time not coding…working in some other way for the organization…

just a thought

By: JB King

JB King — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:32:17 +0000

For companies where technology is its backbone, there is something to be said for everyone having some basic understanding of how difficult creating software can be. This is a step back from Rodriguez’ point but I think it may go down it a bit easier on both sides to have a bit better understanding of each other. That code has to cover so many possibilities, with such thoroughness, and pain-staking attention to detail may be lost on a lot of people initially, but the value in having a common base of how complex software can be could be rather useful, IMO.