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Comment by JimmyL

17 years ago

You think that three developers and an art designer can singlehandedly write the software that runs a nuclear power plant, let alone Android or Apache? I think you're right in that we will see a continued rise in the prominence and impact of small software shops making single-purpose tools/programs, but large organizations aren't going anywhere, and they shouldn't.

As for getting rid of managers, that won't happen - and nor should it. In a lot of places there is management when there shouldn't be, but when you're working as part of a larger organization - say, more than ten people and/or three "departments" - good management (by someone dedicated to that role) is essential for success.

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JimmyL

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mojuba  17 years ago

You think that three developers and an art designer can singlehandedly write the software that runs a nuclear power plant...

Yes I do and I know a case with a document management system created by one developer and one analyst, which is now used by the Government of one country, including ministries and the PM's office. The competing offers for the same Govt were from a few superhuge and well known software corporations, but they all lost it to that application.

but when you're working as part of a larger organization - say, more than ten people and/or three "departments" - good management (by someone dedicated to that role) is essential for success

Actually no. Producing self-contained, self-sufficient software component has, in principle, very little to do with the size of the organization that creates such components. Small departments can be under the same financial roof, but functionally such small groups will become more and more independent in the future I think.

  • ratsbane  17 years ago

    Agreed. Although the successful one developer and one analyst almost certainly are wise enough to stand on the shoulders of giants - using an image-processing library here, an html parser there. Functional programming at the organization level: if you have to coordinate a lot of global variables nothing ever works right.