A passion for programming. Chapter 22. Remember who you work for

About transfer

This is a translation of the 22nd chapter of the book The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development. Its author, Chad Fowler, is a talented Ruby developer, a renowned speaker at conferences dedicated to Ruby and IT in general. Former saxophonist, and now - CTO 6Wunderkinder.


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22. Remember who you work for

It is easy to say: “Check to see if the goals you are working for are the same as the goals of your company's business.” But to do it an order of magnitude more difficult. Especially if you are a programmer, deeply buried in the depths of the organization, who hardly understands what your company does.

At the beginning of my career, I worked on the accounting system in an organization that was involved in cargo transportation. The organization was huge. Because of the most complex internal hierarchy, I could not see anything in my work that would be at least a little connected with the delivery of goods. I can not forget those feelings of alienation and detachment that arose with our team on all corporate holidays, held at the end of each quarter. What achievement have we celebrated? What did all those metrics mean?

Fortunately, in those days I was more interested in creating first-class systems, and besides, I spent a lot of time studying the source code of various open-source products (I confess, I still spend a lot of time on these things). It is unlikely that I thought at least a little about the organization of the business of transportation. But if I really wanted to align my work with the needs of the organization, I would hardly know where to start.

There is nothing wrong with statements about the need to align their work with business needs. Indeed, it is great to be confident that each of us at his level contributes to its development. This is all wonderful, but in truth, many do not even know how they can affect something from the level where they are. We do not see the forest for the trees.

Perhaps this is not our fault. Rather, we are simply too demanding of ourselves - after all, from our position, all these attempts to influence the company are reminiscent of attempts to boil the ocean. I think it is worth looking at the company more closely: break the business into separate, boiling puddles.

The most obvious element to start with is your team. Most likely, it is relatively small and not too dispersed, so that you can fully capture it with your attention. I believe that you know the problems that the team faces, and you know what to focus on, be it productivity, financial control, reducing the number of bugs or something else. If doubts are plagued - it is always possible to clarify them in the office of the boss - this is exactly the place where exactly the right answers should be.

In the end, in a well-structured subdivision, the goals of the boss coincide with the goals of the team: by solving one of the problems of the boss, you will also solve one of the problems facing the team. In addition to this, if the head is guided by the same principles, then, by solving the problems facing him, you actually solve the problems that face his leader. You can continue this chain further until we get to the top manager of the company, the general director, the founders and even the clients.

By completing the small tasks you face, you contribute to the work on the enormous tasks that the whole company faces. Perhaps this will help you to feel your role and breathe meaning into your work.

Some may not like this strategy: "I am not going to do the work for him!", "He just takes the cream off my work!".

Well yes. Something like that. The world is arranged like this, and the work of a good boss is not, as Lister and DeMarco say in “Peopleware” [1] , “to play for everyone”, knowing how to do the work for any member of his team and replace him when goes wrong. The job of the boss is to set priorities so that the team is guaranteed to do the work, and do everything to maintain the level of motivation and productivity. The qualitative result of the team’s work is the merit of the manager for the excellent work.

The successes of your boss are your successes.

If the work of a manager is to form priorities instead of doing all the work yourself , then your task is directly performing. No, you do not work for your leader - you fulfill your role.

If you are seriously worried about who gets the thanks, remember, your manager is the person your career depends on (at least in the organization where you are working now). In most companies, it is the immediate supervisor who makes decisions related to performance appraisal, salary, bonuses and promotions. This means that the gratitude you are looking for is entirely related to your manager.

Remember who you work for. It is important not only to coordinate your actions with the needs of the business, but also to adjust the business to suit your needs. If you intend to take on the execution of your work, you need to make sure that you are doing the right things.

Act!

Make an appointment with the immediate supervisor. On the agenda is to understand the goals of the authorities for the current month, quarter, year. Ask how you could help. After the meeting, check how your daily work meets the goals of the team. Let them be a filter for everything you do. Set priorities for your tasks depending on these goals.

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1. Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister. The human factor: successful projects and teams. Symbol Plus, 2009.