Ask Slashdot: What Makes a Good Work Environment For Developers and IT?

An anonymous reader writes: I've been unexpectedly placed in charge of our small technology department at work. We have three dedicated developers, two dedicated IT people, and one 'devops' guy who does some of both. It's the first team I've managed, and I'd like to do a good job of it, so I ask you: what makes a good work environment? I have my own likes and dislikes, of course, and I'm sure everyone can appreciate things like getting credit for their work and always having the break room fridge stocked. But I'd like to hear about the other things, big and small, that make it more fun (or at least less un-fun) to come into work every day. This can be anything — methods of personal communication, HR policies (for example, how can reviews be not-terrible?), amenities at the office, computer hardware/software, etc. I also wouldn't mind advice on how to represent my team when dealing with other departments.

Comments

bah

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah.

I don't get people.

I don't want free drinks. Video games to play at work. A ping pong table. Any of that.

All of that, just EXTENDS the work day. You're not going to go in, play ping-pong for 4 hours, and then work 4 -- and get paid for 8. Instead, the expectation will be a longer work day.

In reality, all of these silly perks are just non-cash compensation for long work days.

You know what? Keep the free drinks, the catered lunch, the free this and that. Keep the ping-pong table, the toys.

JUST GIVE ME MONEY. Give me MORE money, and keep all of that!

Keep my hours SHORTER, so I can go out and PLAY WITH PEOPLE I WANT TO PLAY WITH. While people at work MAY be fun, when *I CHOOSE* who to play with, *I KNOW I WILL HAVE FUN*.

Re:bah

[garyisabusyguy]

Space-wise
Keep the traffic flow out of the developer work area
Have a meeting room or open space between the dev and ops area, have a big screen tv and speaker that can be attached to laptop. Put in way too many network connections, power plugs, etc... you will need them even if you have a wifi because... just because
If the devs cannot be in an isolated area, then give them high-walled cubes with sliding doors

Work-wise
Limit the number of meetings that devs have to attend, implement an agile method, follow daily stand up religiously and use that to get the info that you will need to attend all other meetings where you represent the team
Look into tools like jira, sharepoint, etc, but use manual methods first to prove it is helpful before spending a ton of money on something that you will be stuck with
This will be a marathon, sure they use the term sprint, but if you keep everybody running day and night they will leave

CYA-wise
Do not forget to cross train people, you cannot put yourself in the position to be entirely dependent on any one person, you will fail
Find a way to document what you do, maybe not full on itsm crazy-train, but know how to find out what goes where when you need it, three ring binders have their place
Test, just don't be a qa-centric d-bag about it. IT does not live for QA, but, performing proper test will save your ass more than not

Don't forget to play, if everybody plays WOW, then be prepared to banter about leveling up and grinding, if people like FPS, then be willing to host shootouts in off hours... hell maybe you can get them to enjoy golfing or spending time at the gym, these will improve their overall health and productivity

Re:bah

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Under 'Space-wise', I'd add "don't be penny-wise-pound-foolish when equipping people". Yes, not all requests are reasonable(you need a color-calibrated monitor that covers at least 99% of aRGB to write code, why?); but most reasonable requests are pretty damn cheap compared to somebody you'd trust to write your code or operate your IT systems. You will not improve happiness or productivity; and (when productivity is taken into account) probably won't even save money by denying people extra monitors, that comfy ergonomic keyboard, etc. Even non-technical generic office function types are often less well equipped than would make sense(yes, 1280x1024 is what Dell was selling in 2007, and that monitor does still work. Do you want to think about the percentage of your accountant's salary that is, in fact, buying 'scrolling horizontally' rather than 'accounting'?); but people writing code or looking a a big pile of configuration and status interfaces generally need the space.

Re:bah

[tchuladdiass]

I like the free soda, because it acts like a canary in a coal mine. As soon as they take away the free soda machine, I know that the place is about to go under, and it is time to start sending out resumes.

Offices.

[jcr]

Open plan is bullshit. Headphones and earbuds aren't an adequate substitute for walls.

-jcr

The best manager I've worked under

[Anonymous Coward]

... was an older man who started by making it clear that his job was to stand between us developers and the management, and to shield us from all the shit that was raining down from above. He was also technically competent and understood what we were doing, that helped a lot. But most impressive was his integrity. He always gave credit to the guys who did the good work, and was always willing to take the blame when things didn't work well.

Trust.

[ranelen]

The most important thing - do not micromanage. Trust your employees.

To be perfectly honest, you want to be in a position where the only thing you're doing is making sure they don't get overworked and aren't doing projects that don't make sense. All you need for that is a simple repeating team meeting where you talk about what you've been doing and whats coming up.

If you have a problem employee, deal with /that/ employee. Don't fuck the whole team because of one jackass.

In short, treat them like fucking professionals.