Ethics of software development industry
Cross post from my technical blog .
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The software development industry is still very young. Every time a new society or industry arises, the invention of Colonel Colt or its equivalent is used to solve all the problems that have yet to find solutions in ethics or legislation. Then, the members of the new community work out a common ethic, a set of rules about what is good and what is bad. And then the most stable rules of ethics find their way into the laws, that is, what the community not only approves or condemns, but also what it forces its members to do.
For example, at the beginning of slavery, the slave was just a prisoner of war. So the slaughter of a slave did not cause anyone the slightest emotion. Well, yes, the prudent owner would sell, stupid, but why not. Well, let's say, how to throw the old phone book in the trash, and not in recycling / waste paper. Actually, throwing out the old phone book in the trash instead of waste paper somewhere in Germany will now cause much greater public condemnation (or even a fine) than killing a POW slave in those same places, say, in the days of the early Roman Empire. But by the late Roman Empire, rules had already taken shape condemning the slaughter of slaves, with the exception of a small, well-known list. For some forms of killing a slave, the owner could even be responsible under the law.
However, we digress. So, the sofware industry is still very young, its ethics are still being formed, and today I would like to suggest thinking about some rules that it would be good to have in a hundred years from now ...
Let's start with the supers - overtime. Actually, honestly, unpaid overtime is theft. The company simply steals the time of your life. Unfortunately, overtime is just as common in the software development industry and in general IT, as they were on sweaty conveyor lines of Ford’s factories about a hundred years ago at the beginning of the last century. Worse, most firms even do not often have so many choices - free overtime is perceived by management as an industry standard, without which it is simply impossible to survive in the competition.
')
Of course, there are studies (read, say, Tom DeMarco) that overtime does not actually increase the productivity of programmers, but until it reaches top management ... Meanwhile, mere mortals like you and I can only take them for granted or leave in another profession. Well, or look for rare islands with smart managers.
But what I absolutely hate and do not accept are freeloaders, managers who not only force people to work 10-12 hours a day, but also consider this to be due and not worth any compensation. When people work for you every day for wear, they sacrifice so much for you. Have the dignity of paying your bills, at least in part. Give a few days of additional leave after the release of the product, or, say, make the Christmas week a holiday, or give a good bonus to people. Yes, it does not compensate for all that they have lost, but at least a part. And it will show that you are grateful to them. If all that they receive in return is a beautiful plaque on the wall ... I think our industry should develop to a state where it would be equated with public going to the toilet, if not stealing at all.
Another generally accepted aspect of our industry, which I think should alone be considered in court as a sign of guilt, is the release of products by time, or even worse, by a certain date - time-based releases. If you read my article about AIM - its cause is product releases by the deadline. The release of products by the deadline is the main enemy of software quality, it is the cause of breaking programs, it is the reason why products are released with fatal and completely unacceptable bugs, although people knew about them in advance. In the automotive industry - which, as already mentioned, is a hundred years older than the software industry - not only the manager who launched the product, but also the head of the company would go to trial and jail. In the software industry, this is still perceived as commonplace.
And what else do you think should be included in the ethics of software development and, perhaps, even in the legislative framework?
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The software development industry is still very young. Every time a new society or industry arises, the invention of Colonel Colt or its equivalent is used to solve all the problems that have yet to find solutions in ethics or legislation. Then, the members of the new community work out a common ethic, a set of rules about what is good and what is bad. And then the most stable rules of ethics find their way into the laws, that is, what the community not only approves or condemns, but also what it forces its members to do.
For example, at the beginning of slavery, the slave was just a prisoner of war. So the slaughter of a slave did not cause anyone the slightest emotion. Well, yes, the prudent owner would sell, stupid, but why not. Well, let's say, how to throw the old phone book in the trash, and not in recycling / waste paper. Actually, throwing out the old phone book in the trash instead of waste paper somewhere in Germany will now cause much greater public condemnation (or even a fine) than killing a POW slave in those same places, say, in the days of the early Roman Empire. But by the late Roman Empire, rules had already taken shape condemning the slaughter of slaves, with the exception of a small, well-known list. For some forms of killing a slave, the owner could even be responsible under the law.
However, we digress. So, the sofware industry is still very young, its ethics are still being formed, and today I would like to suggest thinking about some rules that it would be good to have in a hundred years from now ...
Let's start with the supers - overtime. Actually, honestly, unpaid overtime is theft. The company simply steals the time of your life. Unfortunately, overtime is just as common in the software development industry and in general IT, as they were on sweaty conveyor lines of Ford’s factories about a hundred years ago at the beginning of the last century. Worse, most firms even do not often have so many choices - free overtime is perceived by management as an industry standard, without which it is simply impossible to survive in the competition.
')
Of course, there are studies (read, say, Tom DeMarco) that overtime does not actually increase the productivity of programmers, but until it reaches top management ... Meanwhile, mere mortals like you and I can only take them for granted or leave in another profession. Well, or look for rare islands with smart managers.
But what I absolutely hate and do not accept are freeloaders, managers who not only force people to work 10-12 hours a day, but also consider this to be due and not worth any compensation. When people work for you every day for wear, they sacrifice so much for you. Have the dignity of paying your bills, at least in part. Give a few days of additional leave after the release of the product, or, say, make the Christmas week a holiday, or give a good bonus to people. Yes, it does not compensate for all that they have lost, but at least a part. And it will show that you are grateful to them. If all that they receive in return is a beautiful plaque on the wall ... I think our industry should develop to a state where it would be equated with public going to the toilet, if not stealing at all.
Another generally accepted aspect of our industry, which I think should alone be considered in court as a sign of guilt, is the release of products by time, or even worse, by a certain date - time-based releases. If you read my article about AIM - its cause is product releases by the deadline. The release of products by the deadline is the main enemy of software quality, it is the cause of breaking programs, it is the reason why products are released with fatal and completely unacceptable bugs, although people knew about them in advance. In the automotive industry - which, as already mentioned, is a hundred years older than the software industry - not only the manager who launched the product, but also the head of the company would go to trial and jail. In the software industry, this is still perceived as commonplace.
And what else do you think should be included in the ethics of software development and, perhaps, even in the legislative framework?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/17207/
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