Programmers often have an old-fashioned view of their trade. They enter the profession imagining that they will spend most of their time puzzling over complex algorithms, developing dazzlingly creative and compelling applications, writing operating systems in their spare time and secretly working on their own computer language. In fact, of course, most programmers’ lives consist mainly of moving sticky pieces of paper from one side of a whiteboard to the other, and making sure the focus moves to the correct control when you press “tab”.

It is instructive to examine the desks and book cases of your fellow programmers, especially the slightly older ones. In some cases they will reflect healthy programming aspirations, if not day-to-day reality, holding such lofty titles as “Purely Functional Data Structures” and “Concurrent Programming in Windows”, as opposed to “Getting Agile with Post-it Notes”.

On many other bookshelves, however, one can find ample evidence of programmers trying to escape programming as fast as they possibly can, by becoming managers. Every time I see a copy of “The Results-Driven Manager” on a programmer’s desk, it sends a light shiver down my spine.

However, this obsession with moving into management is perfectly understandable. As an industry we dislike employing older programmers, and provide them with little career progression. You can become a senior developer after five years which means that, if you are a successful graduate, you will get there by the time you are about 26! After a few more years, unless you dye your hair and lie about your age, you begin to feel more or less obliged to start climbing the greasy pole into management. The net result is that the profession as a whole retains little in the way of experience. It is little wonder then that, in Europe for example, the annual cost of IT project failure is a breathtaking $200 billion.

As an industry we have to understand that becoming a manager is not a career progression but a complete change of job. Being a good programmer does not make one a good manager. Often, the reverse is true. Why do we value management skills more highly, anyway, when a good programmer will make just as much of a contribution to an organization as a good manager?

Good programmers should be encouraged to remain programmers, and to continually refine their craft. They should be constantly seeking ways to improve their algorithms, get their applications to scale more efficiently, optimize their memory usage, and so on. Instead, many programmers, by necessity, seem more intent on learning the latest management techniques and buzzwords, and dropping phrases like “bottom line” into conversations. Meanwhile, seven out of eight IT projects fail.

As always, we’d all love to hear what you think. The best contribution to the debate, added as a comment to this blog, will receive a $50 Amazon voucher

Cheers,

Tony.