Collective Wisdom from the Experts 71
• Developers are craftsmen and artists. They work differently than accoun-
tants, attorneys, or bank tellers. When they are meeting in pairs and talk-
ing animatedly, they are actually working. When they are bouncing a ball
against a wall or doodling on a whiteboard, they may be crafting a solu-
tion to an architecture problem that can’t be solved by staring at a com-
puter screen. Give them space.
• Your team will work odd hours. We’ve all seen the cashier at the local
food emporium switch with her replacement: she opens the register and
exchanges the money drawer, and the new cashier is up and running. A
programmer can’t switch places with a cohort and just pick up where his
teammate left off. When your team member is feverishly at work, leave
him or her alone. Researchers say it may take an hour or more for the
person to regain productivity if interrupted.
• It is unnecessary to have every person program in exactly the same pro-
gramming language. Some endeavors are better approached with newer
languages that require fewer lines of code to write, test, store on your serv-
ers, and maintain. Don’t refuse to let your developers use the best tool for
the job.Open your mind to this new world of software development, and you can be a
support for your software development team, not the enemy.