The Crisis in the Software Industry

To be fair I have not seen this at any one company. I have seen it at every company I have worked for. And as a software developer with 20+ years experience I can also say, in my more immature days, I was guilty of the same sin.

What is that problem that I observe?

Just the arrogant self absorbed know-it-all behavior of  software development shops. Sure, some may be nice people. Some even care.

However I have a slightly different perspective. I have this perspective because I have been within development teams and outside development teams. I was known as the software developer/architect that talked to QC. Talked to support. The response I received from these teams that this was rare behavior.

My observations of development teams are as follows:

1. Do not consult, even if others outside development may have more experience on the technical issues they are working on.
2. Get easily impressed by "cool" technology. Nay, they are a slave to it.
3. Only address problems in how that cool technology can solve it.
4. Are easily impressed by technology that they think the "cool" kids are using.
5. Cannot address the core problem or use case. Unless it is in terms of that cool technology.
6. Cannot address problems with humility and respect. Are treated like unicorns and as such behave like unicorns.
7. Some even have a know-it-all behavior to the point of absurdity - such as the time a colleague announced that HE was a breast feed expert. (His wife was expecting and he read a book on it).

The end result of these issues is a product that has security (amongst other) flaws. By design. Combined with a FISI (F*ck it ship it) management methodology you can understand why shipped or cloud based software is garbage that customers end up becoming the quality testers.