Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

[Posted December 9, 2010 by jake]

On his blog, Dave Neary has some suggestions on helping developers get more comfortable with interacting in public forums like those typically used by free software projects. He points out a number of barriers that some developers face when considering participating in a mailing list along with some ideas on how to surmount them. "In community projects, peer review is expected — in fact, it is a best practice, one of the things that separates successful community projects from the crowd. Developers expect to hear about features before they are developed, and have an opportunity to suggest better ways the feature can be implemented. They expect new contributors to submit patches that they can review — it is the way a new contributor builds trust before getting the keys to the house. It is such a recommended practice that the only treatment I can suggest is that you should help your developers to get over their nervousness & embrace peer review, by making it the norm in your team." (Thanks to Paul Wise.)

Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

Posted Dec 9, 2010 17:04 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (3 responses)

"Communication & marketing are not my job"

Thing is, I think the developer might be right on this one. I've been lucky to have jobs doing things I personally endorse, so I've fewer qualms about my forum comments being personally linked to me - now or tens years in the future.

If I was in a less ideal job and my employer asked me to associate my name with their product, I'd be reluctant.

Maybe developers should be allowed to choose a pseudonym. To do this correctly, the company would have to have explain to employees that associating someone's pseudonym with their real name or personally identifying info is a serious infraction of company policy.

I participate in certain projects under pseudonyms, so I know this works. (Although for me it's for other reasons - I don't want differential treatment when engaging in my hobbies; I want to maintain some separation of work/activism and private life.)

Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

Posted Dec 9, 2010 21:15 UTC (Thu) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

people need to recognise that what people work on is not necessarily what they would like to work on. So just because a person worked on a product, and posts answers about it on a public list doesn't mean that they think that that product is the best thing to use.

even if they do think that it's the best product ever, that opinion can change over time (as they learn about limitations to that product, other products, or just plain learn more about the problems)

Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

Posted Dec 10, 2010 9:22 UTC (Fri) by dneary (guest, #55185) [Link] (1 responses)

Hi Ciaran!

My point is, participating in a community project is not communication. Letting other people know what your working on is not a marketing announcement, it's simply avoiding duplication of effort.

I have also come across developers in a big company who were reluctant, as you say, to be associated with a project, because they were worried that their inbox would be flooded with personal mail, and they knew this was just one project assignment & they fully expected to move on afterwards.

The best you can do in this case is allay their fears, but at the same time, help them understand that the best way to avoid private emails about their software is to ensure that the software is maintainable, and developed in the open, so that the bus factor for the code is >1.

Dave.

Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

Posted Dec 10, 2010 16:24 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

Hey Dave,

For me, it wouldn't so much the annoyance of getting mail but the annoyance of having my work follow me around, along the lines of "It's none of their business what I do for a living".

When I leave the office at 6pm, my work should have no more relevance until the following morning. Same when I quit a company. I might choose to tell people where I work/worked, but it should be a choice, and I should be able to choose how much I tell people about my work. Having mailing list posts and maybe even cvs commits might be too detailed. Maybe waaay too detailed.

In my current an previous job I've chosen to disclose lots about what I do, but that's because it's also my hobby. I "live" my job, to an extent. I wouldn't expect co-workers to automatically also publicise this much about their nine-to-five life.

I agree that public discussion *shouldn't* be seen as an endorsement or an announcement or an official communication, but it often is. Fixing that from the recipient's end requires changing modern culture / human nature - a big ask :-) Fixing from the sender's end will be easier IMO, and maybe pseudonyms would mostly fix it.

Neary: Curing "Shy Developer Syndrome"

Posted Dec 10, 2010 12:10 UTC (Fri) by janpla (guest, #11093) [Link]

Thank to Dave Neary for a very worthwhile and thoughtful article.

In my experience, managers of technical teams are far too often lousy at people development and neglect it; and the morale suffers because of it. And at the core of it is, perhaps, this "shy devloper syndrome".