I am working in a company which consist of 3 offices. In my office, I am working with ~20 devs. In the whole company, it is about ~200. In terms of a project I am working on, we have 10 devs. So it depends on what scope you are asking :)
Again, in my office, it would be 10 - 50. In company - > 100.
4 years after graduation.
I am asking myself, very often, how to evaluate my influence on a project, or on a company. Is there a proper tool or method for this?
Thanks for posting, your articles are very helpful to me, to understand some mechanisms which rule projects in long terms.
I'm a small business programmer. I love solving tough problems with Python and PHP. If you like what you're seeing, you should probably follow me here on dev.to and then checkout my blog.
I don't think there's one right way to evaluate your influence on a project. But when I interview software developers for positions with our company I ask them if they've ever "moved the needle" for their company. Some people have but most haven't.
But that's how I evaluate my own influence. I ask myself how much positive change I've had on the direction of the company. If you can point to a graph of your company's revenue stream where it suddenly jumped up and say that you caused that, then you moved the needle. Refactoring to patterns and code cleanups rarely move the needle. But coming up with an idea for a new product line or a new market for an existing product can definitely move the needle.
For example, I once implemented a cost accounting system so we could make pricing decisions based on math (instead of making educated guesses) and that definitely moved the needle. I once created a GIS predictive model (machine learning), which a division of my company used to land a big new client, which also moved the needle.
The truth is that very few things you do as a dev will move the needle unless you are actively looking for the constraint in your company and working to increase your effectiveness. It's a deliberate act vs just showing up and doing what you're told.
Cheers.
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Hi Blaine,
I am working in a company which consist of 3 offices. In my office, I am working with ~20 devs. In the whole company, it is about ~200. In terms of a project I am working on, we have 10 devs. So it depends on what scope you are asking :)
Again, in my office, it would be
10 - 50. In company -> 100.4 years after graduation.
I am asking myself, very often, how to evaluate my influence on a project, or on a company. Is there a proper tool or method for this?
Thanks for posting, your articles are very helpful to me, to understand some mechanisms which rule projects in long terms.
Hi Pawel, thanks for your kind words.
I don't think there's one right way to evaluate your influence on a project. But when I interview software developers for positions with our company I ask them if they've ever "moved the needle" for their company. Some people have but most haven't.
But that's how I evaluate my own influence. I ask myself how much positive change I've had on the direction of the company. If you can point to a graph of your company's revenue stream where it suddenly jumped up and say that you caused that, then you moved the needle. Refactoring to patterns and code cleanups rarely move the needle. But coming up with an idea for a new product line or a new market for an existing product can definitely move the needle.
For example, I once implemented a cost accounting system so we could make pricing decisions based on math (instead of making educated guesses) and that definitely moved the needle. I once created a GIS predictive model (machine learning), which a division of my company used to land a big new client, which also moved the needle.
The truth is that very few things you do as a dev will move the needle unless you are actively looking for the constraint in your company and working to increase your effectiveness. It's a deliberate act vs just showing up and doing what you're told.
Cheers.