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Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by bmelton on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @09:24AM (#3017414)
One of the greatest hallmarks of the enterprise is ensuring that nobody within their organization is replaceable. They standardize on languages like Java because of its prevalence in the marketplace, they document the dickens out of every task, no matter how small or inconsequential, they ensure that everybody and everything within their company is a commodity.

This enables them to worry about things like dress code with impunity, as they're relatively free to hire and fire without having to worry about who is going to manage that system that only they knew about.

Then they wonder why they aren't able to deliver exceptional or world-class service.

Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by rmc on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @11:39AM (#3017966)
However, all you'll do is reduce the average employee skill to can-just-about-do-FizzBuzz levels. That is not good at all. And since you can raise the 'average skill of the programmer' by just allowing jeans & tshirt (which costs nothing), it seems like a sensible investment to make.
Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by protomyth on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @06:06PM (#3019810)
A lot of huge corps won't care. As long as they can muddle along (with the help of consultants of course). The phrase that I see a lot of for this is "not our core business".
Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by djackson on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @10:47AM (#3017739)
*irreplaceable
Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by bmelton on Thursday September 22, 2011 @01:58PM (#3026992)
Yes, thank you. It's too late to edit it now, but I appreciate the head's up.
Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by mynameishere on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @09:10PM (#3020310)
If you think that using Java by itself standardizes programmers you quite simply don't understand the craft at all.

Literally: Not at all.

Re:Why 80 Percent of Web Projects Are Total Bullshit: A Free... by bmelton on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @10:47PM (#3020528)
Java has, perhaps, the largest talent pool of developers available of any 'Enterprisey' language. If it isn't Java, I'm sure it's some flavor of .Net.

The point wasn't that Java = easy, so let's use Java, rather, that the entire mindset of the Enterprise is that THEY don't understand the craft at all. They believe they can swap out developers as easily as they can swap out help desk workers (which also seems easy in theory, but isn't in practice -- a great help desk tech is worth their weight in gold.)

As their intent is to reduce IT workers to a commodity, I would also venture that it's harder to hire the truly talented (more often than not.) The focus isn't on technical excellence, it's on baseline competence, ability to follow SDLC workflows and, basically, to develop consistent amounts of code so that scheduling is as repeatable a process as possible.

There are exceptions to everything, of course, but I'm speaking from my experience working in and consulting for Fortune 50 companies and Federal Government, where the behavior I described is possibly more prevalent than somewhere like Cisco or EMC (read: technology companies), but I stand behind the position as more the rule and less the exception.