Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!

Just let the programmers do their work?
I am always being told to just let the designers do their work, and just let the programmers do their work. But, whenever I am not watching, they do things wrong and go off on expensive tangents that cost me hundreds in lost labor. They will fail to follow directions, or on a vaguely discussed point, build things in a way that I either don’t like or simply cannot use. Watching programmers can save you hundreds, thousands, or your life. So, why would people tell me to back off?

It is annoying to have someone looking over your shoulder.
I believe it is a nuisance to people to always have someone looking over their shoulder. But, if they would do their work the way I want it, I wouldn’t be looking over their shoulder in the first place. If a software developer generally does what they are supposed to, I don’t need to inspect their work that often or as carefully. But, very few of these software developers follow directions well. It has gotten to the point where I just won’t work with someone who has a track record of following directions any less than 80% of the time which is still a low figure.

So many people do not want me watching their programmers.
But, Steve Jobs watched his programmers much more than I watch mine. If you want to be successful, the evidence points to paying more attention, not less. I believe that I have been dealing with very negligent people who just want me off their back and don’t care much about the quality of the work.

Fire people who don’t want to be watched – immediately
The moral of my little article here is that if people want you off their back — fire them. Find people who are on your team, who are willing to be watched if necessary. Find people who care about following directions and getting things done on time in a reasonable amount of hours. Doing a long search to find good people might be difficult, but it is easier in the long run than hiring people who are evasive, dishonest, difficult, or who just don’t follow directions.

Good luck finding cooperative people
Unfortunately, to find a software development firm that generally does things right, they are less than 1%. Happy hunting! It might be better to hire your own programmers so that you are in control if you can’t find another company who cooperates 100%.

Tweets:
(1) If Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, why shouldn’t you?
(2) If your programmers don’t want u watching over their shoulders, watch over their butts as you kick them out of there
(3) Your workers won’t mind you watching over their shoulder as long as you give each shoulder equal time
(4) Watch carefully over your programmer’s shoulder, or shoulder blame for shoddy work they do on their own.
(5) If Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully, so should U. Come back for upgrade of this tweet a year from now.

You might also like:

What are your work standards? When do you fire substandard workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/12/what-are-your-work-standards-when-do-you-fire-substandard-workers/

Hiring people with a good attitude does wonders!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/07/09/hiring-people-with-a-good-attitude-does-wonders/

How do big companies get big? It is not an accident!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/20/how-do-big-companies-get-big-it-is-not-an-accident/

The mindset of a millionaire!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/05/the-mindsetof-a-millionaire/

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2 Responses to Steve Jobs watched his programmers carefully — so should you!

  1. Jens says:

    I am a programmer, and I don’t mind being watched or listening to suggestions. Having said that, most bosses I ever worked with didn’t really know what they were doing, so they were just bothering me and bringing nothing to the table.

    On the other hand, I like to watch what other programmers do and give suggestions to them if I think they could do it better (better means cheaper, more maintainable, whatever the goal is).

    So I think your title should be “watch your programmers carefully, but don’t interfere unless you really know what you are doing”.

    If you know how to program it’s weird that you are not programming yourself. You don’t have to just “know how to program” you also need to know the code you are working on, if you never had to touch that code you will not know better that some who has been working on it for a long time.

    If you just want to be the boss, but don’t know how to program or haven’t done any work on the code, then please don’t watch my code, just tell me what you need and let me do my work.

  2. John Marland says:

    I’ve been doing this for a very long time – programming. I don’t recognize the people you are talking about.
    Your post is a little like the whole Illuminati thing. Programmers, when not watched, will run off and do what they want instead of what you want, IT’S A CONSPIRACY!!!!

    Goodness — they have pills for your condition.
    ….JW

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