Developer Progress

Eric Spiegel has posted an entry over at IT management on why developers are let go. I figured I'd chime in and say that most of what he claims isn't entirely true.

You do not need to promote your code by bragging about it or by any other means. Does the code do what it is supposed to do? Great. Move on. The theme of course being to simply get stuff done. That is what developer progress is. Just continuously make progress whether that is fixing bugs or implementing a new feature. Time wasted bragging about stuff does no one any good.

Documenting everything you do is also a very good idea. But do it in a format that is a useful project artifact as opposed to promotional garbage. Just because you document stuff that you have done in a way that way that is meaningful to others doesn't mean you can't use that same documentation to defend yourself should the need arise. It probably wont if you continue to make progress.

Finally, if your not making progress by simply getting things done, you are not motivated. If you are motivated, you get things done and make progress. If a developer isn't motivated and is still able to get stuff done, who cares.