Alain Fontaine’s Jabberbox

This might sound bizarre at first, if looked at from an employee’s point of view, but is very logical from a manager’s position. Personally, as a manager, I want the value of my team or company to be an available and accessible asset inside the company.

No single item of knowledge or know-how should be limited to a single person, but shared among the group. That gives me a good starting point for business continuity and it makes sure that the business can run without interruption even if one or more people are not available, be it for illness reasons, for holidays, or anything else.

The best situation in my eyes is when the absence of a team members is not noticed. That shows that he has done a professional job and that he has taken all needed actions to make sure the business can run fine whilst he enjoys his holidays.

By well documenting his code, a developer makes sure that another developer can take on the work he might have left unfinished. By applying company coding standards, he makes sure that his team mate doesn’t need hours to decrypt the code before he can fix some bug. And by using an architecture and design that fits the company’s level of knowledge and competence, he can make sure that other developers can actually understand what has been done.

It is not an asset to have a solitaire “rock star programmer” on your team who plays solo, even if he seems to do a great job at first looks. What happens if he leaves the company? Are you comfortable with thousands of lines of code that seem greatly innovative but no one else in your team can understand or re-use ?

Personally, I would trade a bunch of rock star programmers with a well balanced team, that can work as a team and not a set of individuals, any day. Luckily, this is what I have today, and I wouldn’t want to miss a single one of them!

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