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A comment on G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-Up. Parent comment

Re:G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-Up by mwfunk on Saturday August 27, 2016 @02:08PM (#12373436)
I wonder how strongly pair programming is correlated with open office plans. Depressing if true, but if pair programming offsets the distraction of open plans, there may be cases where it's more viable for a company to simply hire twice as many developers and save money on office space, just to get out of having to give people offices.

On the other hand, it seems like people doing pair programming in open plans would contribute to the overall noise and distraction- a warehouse full of pairs of people talking all the time would also be a bad scene. :(

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Re:G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-Up by jacques_chester on Saturday August 27, 2016 @02:42PM (#12373575)
Noise is definitely a problem if the space has poor acoustics. Some Pivotal offices have spent a lot of money on sound absorbing surfaces.

I can't speak for other companies. We don't do open plan for money, it's just that it's easier to work this way for the way that we work.

That said: for colocated teams of solo developers, or distributed teams, open plan is poison.

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Re:G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-Up by dasmoth on Saturday August 27, 2016 @04:15PM (#12373981)
Office space isn't that expensive.

While cost IS a factor, the idea seems to be going round that open plan is genuinely superior. (Although rarely so superior that the executives partake...)

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Re:G.E., the 124-Year-Old Software Start-Up by gaius on Saturday August 27, 2016 @05:00PM (#12374150)
Right, startup companies do open-plan because it is cheap, not because any actual developers are more productive or happier that way. It's supposed to be something you put up with until the company can afford offices... Only that point got lost somewhere along the way.

Hell why doesn't GE just remodel their offices to look like garages, because obviously that's the reason that Apple was successful...

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