Yes, business fulfills needs of customers. Yes, business "uses" people as well as process. But business is only an exchange arangement of work for money. And for this arrangement to be effective there must be demand for the products of the work. But man will work whether or not an exchange arrangement of work for money is needed.
Poking through the articles entries here at developer.* I found Ten Reasons You're a Software Developer by Donna L. Davis. What do the reasons boil down to? We are software developers because we want to be be software developers. We love it. This is the work we would do even if the money were bad (as sometimes it may be). This is the work we would do if there were no "customers" other than ourselves (as sometimes we do in spare time).
We work because we were made to work. It is at the heart of being human. And in order for a business to be human it must be focussed first of all on its people. Mr. Skowronski agrees with me that business is about people, at least, by saying that "business is all about fulfilling the needs/wants of customers." But how, as a manager of a code shop, can I care about my customer and his needs if I am not first taking care of the guys in my office?
]]>Victor Skowronski, an engineer with Northrop Grumman, wrote an article "Do Agile Methods Marginalize Problem Solvers?"(IEEE Computer, Oct 2004). He argues that bright minded problem solvers would not work well on an Agile software project. Isaac Newton and Thomas Aquinas are provided as historical examples of bright minded thinkers, and surely they were. But he defines "the best programmers" as "having the most advanced problem-solving skills"; then in the next several sections of the article states that this may involve extensive personal research, time to mull things over, and an incapability to convince others that the solutions found are "the right thing to do". Yes, the private / shy / introverted personality does sometimes accompany the creative person. But I would not want my team of software developers to be composed of only these "best programmers". We would never get our products to market and would soon be out of business. This person can be an asset to the software team - but only a particular aspect of it; the team of best programmers should be primarily composed of those who can work closely with others.
What we can take home from Skowronski's article is not that we should ditch Agile methods, but that we need to use a method that adapts well the the needs of each developer. If the method cannot be adapted this way, then it violates some of the basic tenets of Agile methods:
The first value listed in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development is "individuals and interactions over processes and tools".
Three of the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto are related to the personality of the developer:
Business is first of all about people: the people who work for the business and then those who receive the product or service. Individuals over processes is the key. Take care of your people. Help them to do the best work they can do.
[I corresponded with V. Skowronski about his IEEE Computer article. In a future post I will provide some of his comments as well as further elaboration on people and work.]
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