Software developer profiles

In my last post I talked about how a developer could improve his skillset by breaking it down in 3 areas: Principles, Technology and Industry knowledge. So depending on how the time is invested, chances are that he will fall in any of the following stereotypes (T=Technology, I= Industry, P= Principles. Order indicates depth of expertise):

T+I+P

This is by far the most common type of software developer that I have found on my interviewing experience. These are students that graduated from school using visual basic (or any other RAD) and then went on to create forms over data kind of software with not really complex rules. Even when they move to JAVA, they’re still coding with a VB mindset. They can create something out of thing air quickly, but often it’s a BBOM and very hard to maintain. Depending on the time and the kind of projects he/she can start to evolve towards a more principles focused practice. Or just continue doing the same thing for the next 10 years. I usually try to figure out where on the spectrum between these 2 poles is the candidate.

I+T+P

I have seen more and more developers of this kind lately. They are usually people like the accountant that learnt SQL on it’s own. As the final user of the software, he can create and tweak the software to adjust to his necessities. Since they lack any formal engineering education the resulting code is often no better than that of a student. I have worked with this kind of developer but have never interviewed one.

P+I+T

These typically are software developers that spend a lot of time on an enterprise, creating level enterprise software. This forced them to look to better ways to create software that’s stable, maintainable and robust ultimately leading to a better understanding of the principles, patterns and practices. However the rate of adoption of new technologies in the enterprise is rather slow (some are still running on AS400) so they are behind the technological wave. Nevertheless they understanding of the more general principles allows them to pick up quickly on new technologies and languages. Whenever I came across this kind of candidate I usually recommend him/her on the spot.

P+T+I

This is the typical software developer that graduates school and enter to work in a software workshop, creating software for other clients. He understands the importance of creating good software and try to improve his skills as time goes. However unless he/she is assigned to a customer for a very long time, his understanding of the industry is limited to the scope of the projects assigned to him. Whenever I came across this kind of candidate I usually recommend him/her on the spot.

where are you now and where are you heading?

Final thoughts

In my experience the seniority of a software developer is dictated by the deep of his understanding of the principles, patterns and practices. The reason being that the quality of the overall software is deeply affected by this. You can always correct a DOM manipulation done by JQuery to use the Angular mechanisms, but correcting an faulty architecture or a leaking abstraction is a far more complex matter. That is why is important to take these decisions with a solid understanding of its consequences.
So you can have a developer with a good understanding of principles and 0 experience using Angular and expect him to write better software than a developer with 5 years of Angular and a poor understanding of the principles. The latter may be quicker, but the former will create something of a higher quality. Uncle Bob has reiterated this more than once and asked for us as software developers to raise the bar. If you follow on his works (talks and books) you’ll see that his emphasis is on the principles, not the technology.

As always, let me know what you think.