Dogs eat Homework, Cats eat Source Code
September 1st, 2008 by Trilobyte
In short: no they don’t. Students are making up excuses for not doing their homework and developers do the same when their work isn’t done either. People, in general, blame anything but themselves for not getting their work done.
The truth, however, is that everyone is responsible for their own actions. As developers we should provide solutions instead of excuses. Of course we are allowed to make mistakes or an error in judgment, but we have to admit that honestly and try to offer options.
We can blame clients, project leaders, our lead developers, our architects, our office manager or that new trainee but in the end you, and only you, are responsible for your own work.
So next time you think about making up an excuse, think about solutions first. You will sound smarter that as a matter of a fact you will be smarter!
I wanted to write this post a long time ago, but since this is a very difficult subject, I never knew what to write exactly. Although I learned a lot about software quality lately, I still don’t know exactly how to achieve it effectively. I am starting to believe that this is the biggest mystery in the software development business.