What developers hate

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2024-05-06 13:30:03

By Matt Asay

Contributor, InfoWorld |

No one thinks software development is easy, but who would have thought it could be hard in so many different ways? Evans Data estimates there are 26.9 million software developers globally. Recently more than 100 of those developers weighed in on Ali Spittel’s question, “What’s the most difficult part of your job as a developer?” I expected the answers to mostly coalesce around a few key themes, but the responses were highly varied. It’s worth digging into them to see how your company can improve life for your developers.

Sometimes we love our developers too much. We rely on them (the new kingmakers and queenmakers) to innovate and to keep innovating. As Kyle Shevlin notes, “The constant threat of scope creep from product and design” makes life difficult for developers. This stems from a healthy confidence in developers’ talents, but scope creep translates into bloated software, which is hard to maintain, something Sofiene Salem highlights. Couple this with “unrealistic deadlines set by non-developers,” as Brian Shimkus stresses, and you end up in double trouble.