Comments on: Why your company should buy you a new dev machine today

By: Mike Ohlsen

Mike Ohlsen — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:17:37 +0000

We are trying to make the same argument for new machines here. The response from management was “why are you building so much? Just build less often.” I posed this question the Stack Overflow community:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1229611/explaining-software-development-to-management

By: Jon Kruger

Jon Kruger — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:50:04 +0000

@Matt,

So dumb! If I were on a project like that, I would be willing to let them install an OS on a VM that can connect to their domain and be locked down however they want it to be locked down. But I’m sure they wouldn’t go for that either.

By: Matt Casto

Matt Casto — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:45:06 +0000

I’m currently on a project for the state of Ohio and they won’t allow any other hardware on their network. They also don’t allow remote access or copying source files to or from their machines.

I’ve got one of the most kick-ass laptops available collecting dust because I can’t use it on the project.

By: Kyle Tolle

Kyle Tolle — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:03:54 +0000

In some industries, the computers, networks, tools and everything else is heavily regulated by the government, ie. defense contractors. You can’t even move a mouse to another machine without permission. You can’t bring *any* software, flash drives, cds, cellphones or the like into a classified environment. Win2k and scroll-wheel mice are the standard, unfortunately.

If the developer were in charge of buying and maintaining their own software and machines, would the developer be paid more to reflect the lowered costs to the company? I’d hope so.

@Pete - On large projects, functional managers are there to manage costs, schedules, write proposals, etc. Technical leads are the ones who keep up to speed with the actual source code.

By: pete gordon

pete gordon — Wed, 12 May 2010 03:10:59 +0000

Great comment Todd! I came here from Twitter to post the same thing, you think I could drive the virtual Snap-On truck to all the development shops? My father-in-law drove the Lancaster, Ohio snap-on route for 35+ years, and just recently retired.

I totally believe devs and arch should be buying their own tools. And if there are any IT app dev Managers out there that aren’t also devs/archs, find a new career, please. If you haven’t written coded or debugged in the past 3-6 months what value do you bring? Please all IT app dev Managers sit down for some paired programming within the week.

Sorry for the soap box rant.

By: Todd Kaufman

Todd Kaufman — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:40:44 +0000

I agree with your premise that it is penny wise and dollar foolish. But, maybe we should take a hint from the mechanics out there and buy our own tools. You fashion yourself a craftsman, then act like one and buy yourself a laptop that you can take from client to client, employer to employer.