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Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Working Environment For a Developer?
New submitter Dorgendubal writes: I work for a company with more than a thousand developers and I'm participating in activities aimed at improving the work experience of developers. Our developers receive an ultrabook that is rather powerful but not really adapted for development (no admin rights, small storage capacity, restrictive security rules, etc.). They also have access to VDIs (more flexibility) but often complain of performance issues during certain hours of the day. Overall, developers want to have maximum autonomy, free choice of their tools (OS, IDE, etc.) and access to internal development environments (PaaS, GIT repositories, continuous delivery tools, etc.) . We recently had a presentation of VMWare on desktop and application virtualization (Workstation & Horizon), which is supposedly the future of the desktops. It sounds interesting on paper but I remain skeptical.
What is the best working environment for a developer, offering flexibility, performance and some level of free choice, without compromising security, compliance, licensing (etc.) requirements? I would like you to share your experiences on BYOD, desktop virtualization, etc. and the level of satisfaction of the developers.
What is the best working environment for a developer, offering flexibility, performance and some level of free choice, without compromising security, compliance, licensing (etc.) requirements? I would like you to share your experiences on BYOD, desktop virtualization, etc. and the level of satisfaction of the developers.
Start with that. The best hardware on the planet is useless if you can't think due to noise and interruptions.
I second this - developers need to remove them selves from their environment and become engrossed in what they are doing.
No headphones? That's would be business suicide, any decent developer will likely move very quickly.
What's the most important thing for devs? IMO being surrounded by like minded devs who enjoy their work. All the fluffy stuff around the office is not going to do anything to keep good devs, we can buy our own fluffy feel good stuff we don't *need* it from our employers (although it is welcome).
Hardware choices? That's not about keeping devs happy, it's a economic decision. Get them the best hardware you can afford if it makes their job quicker/easier/etc. There's nothing more to it..
We have our own toys already, I don't give a hoot what hardware I use at work as long as I'm not slowed down or restricted by it. If I am, then you've failed as an business since you're costing yourself hours of waiting for each dev each week, not a smart move.
Never happened. True story.
Which is why as well as a quiet space, I also think a good environment for developers is one that supports flexible working. I start at 7:30 and finish at 4, because at least I can get about an hour and a half to two hours in of decent code first thing before the office gets too noisy. Some of the other devs prefer later starts and do 10 until 6:30. As long as everyone is in between 10 and 3 then that's ample time for collaboration.
You shouldn't have to work an extra 2 hours over to get your work done, you should be able to come in 2 hours later.
Developers need to be well slept, and able to focus - a quiet working area is only part the equation, not being forced to work extra hours because the working environment is shit is another part of it. Home working at least every now and again can also often help with this for some people.