As some of you may have notice, I have some interest in the developers’ world. I should definitely add some “About Me” page soon, to describe a little more who I am (and not).

Anyway, this is my first post about methodology (and I hope not the last one). I will here consider the importance of responsibility among developers, and how they like to handle their work till its full completion. My idea could be summarized as: competent developers love to hold full responsibility for their work (until completion).

This idea was reinsured after a little chat with some dev geek I know. The key point for good developers is somewhat linked to the acknowledgement of their work. Indeed good developers are valuable, and it is worth saying out loud (I should probably go a little deeper in a next post). And one of the basic needs of such craftsmen relies on the acknowledgment of their work. But how could you feel happy to be consulted as some expert in a specific field if, over the end, the “evil” manager or CEO ruled you out.

This may sound caricatured but there are many ways, the good fellow would feel excluded from his expertise field: cost-related decision (money first), someone else put in charge instead of you, client’s inability to understand/capture the value of your advice, project manager convinced he knows it better, company policy about some imperative technical requirement/restriction, … and even sometimes your advice may simply be trashed away because of your youth and pretended inexperienced or simply forgotten under specification bible from some external self-proclaimed guru.

So what’s the real problem: this hurts the poor developer’s feelings ! Oh yeah I know he is no Cosette, moreover he is some interchangeable piece of low cost coder. Make no mistake, the guy is a robust geek so he is used to this behaviour. Anyway, I really believe that this will finally appears in bad moon resulting in less valuable experience, lower productivity, unworthy work, … and resignation. And you don’t want to loose your technical mindpower, would you?

So, let’s say you want to keep technical experts within the walls. How could this responsible way help? Because competent people love to take full responsibility. Why so ? Why competent people are not found of hiding behind some pyramidal bureaucracy delegation? Simply because they learned that by doing things you may exposed to problems or responsibilities, but it also worth it all. By taking responsibility of a task or project, there is also a very gratifying feeling along with the accomplishment. You sense your work is useful and appreciated.

Another key point is linked to the philosophical concept of Free Will (libre arbitre). As human being, we mostly like to have control, or at least feel that way. Free will (versus determinism) gathers the idea, that someway we have some power/control on our own existence. I would advance that a developer’s expertise is an expression of its Free Will in the work environment.

The relation between Freedom and a developer’s advice may sound obscure. But think again: if your decisions about some piece of technology is the expression of your ideas (and thus yourself), people should really take attention to what you conscientiously say before torning it apart by throwing your experience away.

Lastly, if you’re still unsure about full delegation of technical matter to technical people, you may be interested in Adhocracy, which in some sort extend this concept to company organization. In a few words: the one to do should be the one most capable of it. But you’re still in the need to define what you hide under “most capable”, and for now I will let this as it.

As a conclusion, I think that letting competent people doing what they are good at, will lead your company’s projects to better highs and produce a wealthy work environment. A place where everyone implies him/her self so that the global effort lead to better results. The hard part may be to delegate your control area, or at least share it with the adhoc persons. This may sounds easy to write, but if you have been a Java Guru for 8 years, and you move to some management position, would you think it’s easy to let go and offer the decision part of a project to someone else? Maybe not, but as it’s sometimes harsh to endorse responsibilities, you’ll have your load too by restricting your area of expertise to your current role in order to let everyone handle its own parcel of freedom…

And after all, “With great power, come great responsibilities“.  So don’t make it wrong within your company