Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths
To   : comp.programming,comp.software-eng
From : Phlip
Date : Fri Jul 01 2005 04:00 pm

shelley wrote:

> How do you evaluate the performance (not just their CV) of a good
> programmer? (Real question here - I find this hard to do and have made
> mistakes) Is it good design skills, low numbers of defects (almost the
> only measure of software quality - which can't be right), lots of code,
> great personality... what?

That list of suggestions betrays latent assumptions. Some things are
implicitely considered impossible.

Good programmers provide short & accurate estimates with a narrow spread
between the optimism and pessimism. Then they consistently achieve these
estimates by rapidly turning feature requests into code. Over time, the
defect rate of this code goes down, the quality goes up, the team
involvement goes up, the estimates become more accurate, and the time per
feature becomes shorter.

Good programmers sustain and scale.

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand

.