Re:Things I have learnt as the software engineering lead of ...
by AFNobody on Saturday December 30, 2017 @11:59AM
(#16036067)
> Fair, although I would say that many positions and teams even, can be toil free (or nearly so).
Yes, and top performers try to move into those positions.
To be honest, in an engineering focused organization it may be possible that tackling technical debt might be viewed positively. Most of the managers I've worked for have been non-technical who don't fully grasp why they are losing momentum due to technical debt and assume its because of the developer(s) assigned being less skilled.
To be honest, I mostly use HN as a sounding board for my own experiences and to see how common/uncommon they are as well as whether there is something I'm legitimately missing.
Well yeah, but in a lot of cases, at least when there's a build of up more than a minimal amount of technical debt, the maintenance of working around the debt-y parts can be a significant drag on development, and itself becomes toil-like. Reducing that isn't something I'd consider toil, and when approached correctly, can be an impactful change.
>Keep in mind, my original definition of "Top Performer" was someone who resented even 10% Toil and basically would rather automate it shoddily than deal with it.
Fair, although I would say that many positions and teams even, can be toil free (or nearly so).