I would agree that people learn from being involved in all phases of a software project at least once. Especially starters.
Starting a project is an exciting, heady, creative time. If the last 10% takes 50% of the effort, the first 90% is where you create and build at a fast pace, enjoy the adulation of your clients who are amazed with how quickly things are going, investigate and implement interesting new technologies and approaches, and revel in the fun of creating something new.
The question is, did you leave the code base in good shape, or did you go on a bender, drinking the champagne but leaving your successors to experience the hangover? My guess is that most people on this board have had to deal with a truly bad code base, in production, inherited from a programmer who flitted off to the next project cause he "enjoys the challenges of creating new things".
Until you've been the debugger who fixes the million little problems, the "architect" (wish we had a different word, cause you will be coding a lot) who refactors the code into something that can actually be maintained, and the finisher who experiences the irritated grousing of clients (who notice that things have slowed down so much since the "starter" left the project... we just asked for it and he did it), you don't know the kind of damage a rogue "starter" can do.
Starting a project is an exciting, heady, creative time. If the last 10% takes 50% of the effort, the first 90% is where you create and build at a fast pace, enjoy the adulation of your clients who are amazed with how quickly things are going, investigate and implement interesting new technologies and approaches, and revel in the fun of creating something new.
The question is, did you leave the code base in good shape, or did you go on a bender, drinking the champagne but leaving your successors to experience the hangover? My guess is that most people on this board have had to deal with a truly bad code base, in production, inherited from a programmer who flitted off to the next project cause he "enjoys the challenges of creating new things".
Until you've been the debugger who fixes the million little problems, the "architect" (wish we had a different word, cause you will be coding a lot) who refactors the code into something that can actually be maintained, and the finisher who experiences the irritated grousing of clients (who notice that things have slowed down so much since the "starter" left the project... we just asked for it and he did it), you don't know the kind of damage a rogue "starter" can do.