Revenge of the nerds (Getting Real)

När jag läste den här boken för ett år sedan så valde jag att inte kommentera den men eftersom den blivit en guide för så många nya utvecklare så vill jag ändå skriva några rader.

"Getting Real" en bok av 37Signals vinklar ett utvecklarperspektiv och ser det inte alls från en beställares. Den andas "Revenge of the nerds" och hyllar Agile Software Development, vilket är en metodik som är en reaktion mot UML-diagram, funktionsspecar, RUP, möten med chefer och kunder. Det går ut på att aldrig skriva ett dokument som beskriver hur en leverans ska se ut, utan istället hålla frågan öppen och se vart åt det barkar. Passar säkert jättebra när man utvecklar första versionen av en produkt där det än så länge inte finns en beställare. Men om det finns en beställare, en budget och beroenden från andra grupper så är Agile helt förkastligt. Det finns inga garantier att man ska få det man önskar utan är bara en utvecklares önskan att få sitta ostörd och jobba utan krav.

Boken har många absoluta påstående och är ibland skrivna som religiösa sanningar:

• "If you can't fit everything in within the time and budget allotted then don't expand the time and budget. Instead, pull back the scope. There's always time to add stuff later — later is eternal, now is fleeting."
• "Don't follow the leader"
• "You don't need to nail that perfect shade of green in week two. You don't need to move that "submit" button three pixels to the right in week three. Just get the stuff on the page for now. Then use it. Make sure it works. Later on you can adjust and perfect it."
• "Don't be a yes-man", "Make each feature work hard to be implemented.", "Every new feature request that comes to us — or from us — meets a no. We listen but don't act. The initial response is 'not now.'"
• "Don't expect to get it right the first time. Let the app grow and speak to you. Let it morph and evolve. With web-based software there's no need to ship perfection."
• "There are too many meetings. Push back on meetings that do not make sense or are unproductive."
• "So don't hire. Really. Don't hire people. Look for another way."
• "When it comes time to hire, don't think you need a guru or a tech-celebrity. Often, they're just primadonnas anyway. A happy yet average employee is better than a disgruntled expert."
• "Don't be afraid to say no to feature requests that are hard to do. Unless they're absolutely essential, save time/effort/confusion by leaving them out."
• "Don't just pick tools and practices based on industry standards or performance metrics. Look at the intangibles: Is there passion, pride, and craftmanship here?"
• "Don't worry about design, if you listen to your code a good design will appear...Listen to the technical people."
• "Don't write a functional specifications document"
• "Don't Do Dead Documents"
• "Avoiding functional specs is a good start but don't stop there; Prevent excess paperwork everywhere."
• "Build, don't write. If you need to explain something, try mocking it up and prototyping it rather than writing a longwinded document."
• "Don't waste your time typing up that long visionary tome; no one's going to read it."

Det finns även rätt självklara saker som man kan skriva under på:

• "Don't use acronyms or words that most people don't understand. Don't use internal lingo. Don't sound like an engineer talking to another engineer. Keep it short and sweet. Say what you need to and no more."
• "You don't need to be a swiss-army knife. You can just be a screwdriver. You don't need to build a diving watch that's safe at 5,000 meters if your customers are land-lovers who just want to know what the time is."
• "Be as open, honest, and transparent as possible. Don't keep secrets or hide behind spin. An informed customer is your best customer."
• "Also, don't create a culture of fear surrounding bugs. Bugs happen. Don't constantly seek someone to blame."