So you wouldn't have a single screenshot of code to show for the past year either?
So, you DO understand what we're trying to say on this thread. I don't get why you are defending this measure as a valid way to measure engineers
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No, I completely disagree with the premise here that only a minority of the software organization should actually be expected to deliver code.
As a manager, it’s not in my job description anymore. And when I put on an architect hat, my output is design docs and aligning many different opinions between teams. Also, the senior-most people on my team are no longer coding 100% of their time (they’re designing, reviewing, mentoring) and that’s obviously ok and good.
...But if >50% my team spends every week only mentoring others and attending meetings and writing design docs (as someone else suggested here), I think it would be appropriate to ask what the heck is going on. The idea that for a typical rank-and-file developer (not the TL, manager, architect, etc) that they should be seen as productive software developers without being able to show even a handful of code examples over the course of a year, I’m sorry but I just don’t understand how such a software org would ever actually function.
> only mentoring others and attending meetings and writing design docs (as someone else suggested here)
If you are mentioning a previous comment of mine [1] in this thread I think you're grossly misrepresenting my words. And if so I definitely take offense in that as it's not only uncharitable, it's completely missing the point and reducing a brief expansion based on one of your questions to "only attending meetings and writing design docs", something I've never mentioned in the hypothetical scenario you raised.
I expect my assumptions are wrong because if not I'd definitely say you're not fit to be a leader or architect of anything.
No, that was about someone else who posted that they would not expect even half of software developers, to be actually writing code. I found that statement bizarre.
Like, yeah of course the top engineers find themselves less and less hands-on-keyboard as they turn more to technical leadership roles. But some people seem to be arguing that code isn’t the bread and butter work for majority of developers. Who’s doing the actual work then, is my question for them.
>someone else who posted that they would not expect even half of software developers, to be actually writing code.
I don't think anyone actually said that.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33660042
I wrote:
> In an org with thousands of software engineers, shouldn’t most of them be writing code?
And this person's reply was:
> no, I don't think most of them should be writing code
Read more than one word answer you expected to find.
> I wouldn't put any kind of quantifier on it. I'm willing to bet most, if not all Twitter developers were above average across the industry and were producing work of value.
He literally says he doesn't expect most software engineers to be coding. That's outlandish, and his follow-up that thousands of Twitter engineers somehow can still be "producing work or value" without coding is ridiculous.