5 Initiation ↑

No. 34 — Sharpen Your Axe

Software developers continue to develop better tools with which to do software development: better languages, better compilers, better source control, better task management… and the list goes on. Not everyone needs to develop new tools, and not everyone needs to be on the cutting edge of the latest advances, but you generally shouldn’t fall too far behind the state of the art when it comes to development tools.

As with all of these ideas, application is something of a balancing act. If your developers still swear by a version control system that is 30 years old, when more modern solutions are available, then you are probably falling too far behind the curve, and have to wonder if your developers are really keeping up with recent advances in technology. On the other hand, if your developers are spending more time trying to install, configure, debug and integrate the latest language or tool than they are directly creating value for their customers, then it’s safe to say the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

Next: When Estimating, the Whole is Definitely Greater than the Sum of its Parts