What / where is the quote about a good dev being x times better / faster than an average one? I am having issues outsourcing stuff to junior developers and getting rubbish back, rather than hiring an MS partner level dev in-house, learning on the job and getting excellent quality, maintainable code as a result, for about the same price or cheaper.
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92answers:
4
A:
I've heard it from many people in various forms, I don't think it's a definitive quote by one notable figure.
Wahnfrieden
2009-08-21 16:31:27
What? No unverifiable, improperly cited Wikipedia source? I should vote you down for that! ;-)
James Schek
2009-08-21 16:43:44
A key caveat in that blog: "They found no relationship between a programmer’s amount of experience and code quality or productivity."
Rich Seller
2009-08-21 16:54:56
@James Schek: If wikipedia came up first on the search result, I would have provided it. That link came up first when I Googled it. I'm living proof that any idiot *can* use Google.
S.Lott
2009-08-21 17:16:20
@Rich Seller--you wouldn't find a relationship there. It's like musicians, chances are if you are a good musician, you were one when you were young and will be one when you get old if you have never learned, you might learn at some point and be good, but if you are not good, you probably never will be. You can become proficient, but not good.
Bill K
2009-08-21 18:08:54
+3
A:
Mythical Man Month, chapter on Surgical Teams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Really good book if you haven't read it :)
RichAmberale
2009-08-21 16:43:58
OK, I'll get the book. Is it a study he did though or does he quote some other studay like McConnell?
Graeme
2009-08-22 06:20:04
Not a study - he just mentions it. The book is a collection of articles about building software - especially large software projects built by large teams. I'm not aware of any study that clearly shows the best programmers are 10 x better than the worst. Such a thing is very hard to measure precisely.
RichAmberale
2009-08-22 20:51:39
+2
A:
I believe it's also mentioned in Peopleware which, like The Mythical Man Month, is an older book that is still quite relevant and worth a read.
Eric J.
2009-08-21 16:48:51