Thursday 16 October 2008

Stress and code quality

Some managers get the idea that stressed programmers write code faster and that most of the time programmers are sitting around doing nothing. We aren't. Also, stressed programmers write bad code, and bad code costs more. If you want good code, you need to give it some time to form, and you need good people in a good environment to achieve it. If you don't have good programmers, you need a good environment and more time to make them good. It doesn't always work, but what never works is a stressed environment and tight deadlines. That way leads to bad code and the same under-experienced programmers you had before.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - When I say things like this, you must remember that I am not a manager.
PPS - So I'm not speaking from that side of the experience.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe more IT managers should take a leaf out of the Google book, least stressful environment around and their products are great

Chris said...

At one of my jobs, the supervisor didn't give us any deadlines. But he also didn't give us any internet, leisure time, radio, water cooler, or extra 20 minutes for lunch.

We were very productive. :P

John said...

Heh. I don't know what would work exactly - it's been shown that people with no stress at all don't work very hard - and my experience is hardly wide enough to justify even the statements I've made above. Still, it seems like most people don't understand how software development goes.