Economic growth as perceived by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations is rooted in the increasing division of labour. Each labourer specialized

Alienation and its effect on Software Engineer

submited by

Style Pass

2024-11-18 00:30:05

Economic growth as perceived by Adam Smith in his book The Wealth of Nations is rooted in the increasing division of labour. Each labourer specialized in a particular set of skills can perform an individual task more effectively. In his famous Pin factory example, he showed how the division of labour can create a highly efficient factory. Following the footsteps of Adam Smith, Frederick Taylor tried to make man as machinery in the factory. His idea was an average worker is lazy and stupid thus some other imaginative and intellectual should provide the blueprint of the mechanism to the worker. The workers should follow the pre-approved procedures blindly. This will make the whole system efficient. The workers won’t have any say in the process. These two theories have shaped the 19th and 20th-century labour world. We end up having a high division of labour and very specialized labourers. The software industry initially has taken up this model. There is a project that requires 5 engineers, 1 software development manager and 1 product manager. The business will find these people by hiring and providing them with a blueprint. There will be a design phase and then everything is locked down. Engineers will execute the plan as it is. This is the so-called waterfall model.

The problem is software development is that is a very complex and non-repetitive work. It is not like following a simple guideline and process step by step. Every problem is new. Every requirement is different. Thinking of all possible edge cases in software development is next to impossible. Moreover, the engineers are highly skilled and not “lazy”. They are highly paid and educated. The monotonous, repetitive work which doesn’t need any imagination makes them non-productive. The high division of labour doesn’t work in this domain because the number of engineers is not so high compared to any other labour factory and due to the high complexity of the execution process, it requires multiple people to brainstorm a particular issue for hours to figure out the solution. The blind execution of a pre-planned process in the software world is impossible due to the sheer complexity of the execution process itself which requires very highly skilled engineers. Another important point is making a change in software is a much simpler process than changing the plan of a big building. The late changes provide a competitive advantage. Imagine a world in the software industry where a group of engineers doesn’t know what other groups are doing. They are completely shunted by the end user and the end product. What would happen in this case? The software would lose the diversity of opinion. The set of people can’t take advantage of the different vantage points. They can’t use the vast knowledge that other people have gathered.