hi,Jeff.
I used your article in my blog.
http://www.atdream.com/blog/article.asp?id=450
your article give me the answer
That’s why i feel some puzzle When i am working alone.
Thanks!
One can do both, probably at different stages of the life, start in a team and later on do your own stuff. An other thing to consider is if you are employed by someone or self employed or even an employer (you do the main job and some others, payed, do the rest)…and also if you work on a commissioned, defined project or you make reasearch, eperimental projects. I mean…it’s not that easy to find a general rule…
Hey, just thought you might like to look up the term “anti-social” and compare it with “asocial.” It’s big.
Hello,
I didn’t read the full post above, however I see that the subject here is if its worth being the sole programmer of a project.
I am the president of an electrical controls company and do minimal administrative work for this company as we have opened a high tech division. I am designing electronic devices which involves electronic circuitry, C processor programming and later some VC++ for the PC side. The devices will be able to communicate between themselves and are innovatively modular. All this to say that its been four years that I am working on this alone. I will admit, at times it gets very stressfull based on the many points that have been mentioned by all fellows that posted their opinions above.
However, the personal satisfaction I get back from all my hard work is priceless. I think it comes down to this, if you are extremely passionate about technology, I believe working alone is the way to go. For example, I may be watching TV and an idea comes up which merits to be integrated in my project. I run down to my basement lab and one half hour later, that idea is electronically designed, built, respective programmation is coded tested and documented… where else can anyone get this type of effeciency and personal gratification?
If I were working with a team, my idea would have to be presented at a meeting bywhich would be further challenged and contested by my fellow teamates and I would probably walk out of this meeting with 25% of the original idea. The 75% that would be altered from my original idea might have a positive impact on the overall project, but this often dillutes your personal drive. I guess it has to do with how much control you want in a project. But lets face it, when a prgrammer has a vision, it is the personal satisfaction that he gets from it that makes coding fun.
regards
Bob
Hi,
I am one of the unlucky person who has been programming alone for quiet a long time.I assure you what you have said is true.
This is very true. Working alone can be a relief in some ways, but all those hats start to get heavy after a while.
I think a team of 3 talented developers is the best, at most 5. That way you get to share the workload and bounce ideas but you (generally) don’t have endless distractions and conflicting visions.
Of course, good luck trying to build a team like that. If you’re a micro-ISV, people are apprehensive because they fear for their job security, and if you’re in a business sector, the offer from upper management is rarely attractive enough to get the attention of talented prospects. And if you’re in a software shop with 50 people, you’ve already lost that battle.
So if you can’t get the so-called “surgical team”, then which is the lesser of two evils? I honestly don’t know.
From my experience, the ideal is a small team working closely together - at least 3 people, no more than 10. Enough to get a good variety of experiences and ideas, not so many that they’re all getting in each other’s way - both in terms of code changes, and idea conflicts. And 10 assumes pair-programming - I’d say no more than 6 or 7 if they’re all coding independently.
Mariusz,
Working on a team isn’t always that big of a change. If/when you start to work with a team the one thing I can suggest is to look at how your teammates code or do design work. It might take some time and you learn to work with everyone to produce great work. The biggest thing though that I think comes from working with a team is you can sometimes ways to make yourself a better programmer by looking at the ways that other people work.
Also something I was thinking about asking how to you work together and join it together later one. I would say Source Control is probably the easiest answer to that. It is good to know that you can have multiple people working on the same application in different parts. Sorry it is kind of all over I have way to many things running through my head at the moment.
I am the sole software developer for a small company. In the past, I would have agreed with your article if I was developing in a language such as Visual Basic of C++. However, I’m developing web applications in Ruby on Rails, with test-driven development, and I couldn’t be enjoying it more. I use a great open-source project planning application called ‘retrospectiva’. I also have regular meetings with my boss (code illiterate) where we plan out the development iterations and prioritize features. So there definitely CAN be a “process in a team of one”.
P.S. test-driven development isn’t just for Ruby… check out http://www.slideshare.net/amritayan/test-driven-development-in-c for C developers, or http://www.devx.com/vb/Article/21529 for VB developers. It will change your life 
@Cameron - Use this one it works for me Dumbest-guy-in-room via waybackmachine
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://markeseremet.blogspot.com/2006/12/dumbest-guy-in-room.html
or
<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20071018050405/http://markeseremet.blogspot.com/2006/12/dumbest-guy-in-room.html”">http://web.archive.org/web/20071018050405/http://markeseremet.blogspot.com/2006/12/dumbest-guy-in-room.html"
Interesting read.
Well, being a one-man-does-it-(almost)-all, for over 10 years in my dev/entrepreneur career, i confess, it has not been easy to work mostly alone, sometimes its borderline depressing. Only a few times i had the chance to work with people who are really passionate/talented about coding puzzles and it was awesome. BUT, most people I’ve worked with or hired, were bored developers, lacking passion, or just plain incompetent…
So i’d say it depends… It’s great working with people, that are both better than you AND passionate about coding. If surrounded by incompetent/bored/depressed/negative people, i’d rather be alone.
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