>> Give a dev a clear API and a well defined set of criteria
If you've got that - why do you need the developer? Genuine question. If the technology requirements are that well defined why on earth do i need to pay engineer level salaries for such basic work? As you said, and i agree:
>> Give a dev a clear API and a well defined set of criteria, and most will write code that works very well
At that point of having clear criteria, there are only 2 tasks left:
1. write some code that satisfies this outcome
2. write it in a way such that it can be cheaply changed in future
As a business owner, i care about 1 to make bank and as an astute business owner, I care about 2 to keep making bank.
But but but performance! durability! ... <many more of the -ilities of software that an experienced engineer will claim to just take in their stride...>
As a customer of this software developement process, these are just the next cycle of requirements to feed into the machine - hey take this thing you did, make it faster while obeying rule #2 above.
It would not surprise me if ChatGPT were able to cover 80%+ of a problem that well defined.
I totally get the attraction to focus on the fun bit, but it's not how the business world is designed to work in most cases.
For what it's worth i think you nailed the actual value opportunity for a strong dev:
>> no one actually knows what they're building
If you can nail that, you're always gonna be valuable. We talk about programming and coding but actually, this is more of the role. The coding part of the puzzle is easy in comparison.
As for:
>> and even if they do it keeps changing because "agile"
If your understanding of why requirements are in constant flux amounts to pinning it on "agile", you're not even on the field yet never mind winning the game.
You do realize that good specifications and requirements do not necessarily mean trivial and easy implementation?
Also, indeed, not all dev work is equally costly / hard / basic. It’s a crazy thought, but maybe that’s partially the reason why different devs can have different pay grades. :O
If you've got that - why do you need the developer? Genuine question. If the technology requirements are that well defined why on earth do i need to pay engineer level salaries for such basic work? As you said, and i agree:
>> Give a dev a clear API and a well defined set of criteria, and most will write code that works very well
At that point of having clear criteria, there are only 2 tasks left:
As a business owner, i care about 1 to make bank and as an astute business owner, I care about 2 to keep making bank.But but but performance! durability! ... <many more of the -ilities of software that an experienced engineer will claim to just take in their stride...>
As a customer of this software developement process, these are just the next cycle of requirements to feed into the machine - hey take this thing you did, make it faster while obeying rule #2 above.
It would not surprise me if ChatGPT were able to cover 80%+ of a problem that well defined.
I totally get the attraction to focus on the fun bit, but it's not how the business world is designed to work in most cases.
For what it's worth i think you nailed the actual value opportunity for a strong dev:
>> no one actually knows what they're building
If you can nail that, you're always gonna be valuable. We talk about programming and coding but actually, this is more of the role. The coding part of the puzzle is easy in comparison.
As for:
>> and even if they do it keeps changing because "agile"
If your understanding of why requirements are in constant flux amounts to pinning it on "agile", you're not even on the field yet never mind winning the game.