> ... and tend to have very little idea how their code actually works.
Or they know how their code works, but do not care. These are the min-max'ers who will MVP their way on every conceivable angle to grab the checkmark from the project management office and run off to get the next checkmark as quickly as they can to rack up enough for the next promotion. They look awesome on paper to metrics-staring management. They are accelerated bit rot to any organization's codebase. And to rein them in, you have to challenge them in such excruciating detail that it starts to appear like bikeshedding to outsiders.
Except the difference from bikeshedding is the code they leave behind is utter crap to maintain, extend, operationalize, debug, instrument, monitor and only tested under the happy path with maybe the handful of sad paths you dragged them kicking and screaming through code reviews to implement. They know they can out-wait you and the impatient business users in these reviews, and will miserly implement only what you force upon them in these painful, political battles.
The only way you can out them is within an organization where operations teams have the power to write out in detail the challenges with their code after taking on operations duties for awhile, and return operations to the developer with literal pager duty attached until the gaps are addressed.
Or they know how their code works, but do not care. These are the min-max'ers who will MVP their way on every conceivable angle to grab the checkmark from the project management office and run off to get the next checkmark as quickly as they can to rack up enough for the next promotion. They look awesome on paper to metrics-staring management. They are accelerated bit rot to any organization's codebase. And to rein them in, you have to challenge them in such excruciating detail that it starts to appear like bikeshedding to outsiders.
Except the difference from bikeshedding is the code they leave behind is utter crap to maintain, extend, operationalize, debug, instrument, monitor and only tested under the happy path with maybe the handful of sad paths you dragged them kicking and screaming through code reviews to implement. They know they can out-wait you and the impatient business users in these reviews, and will miserly implement only what you force upon them in these painful, political battles.
The only way you can out them is within an organization where operations teams have the power to write out in detail the challenges with their code after taking on operations duties for awhile, and return operations to the developer with literal pager duty attached until the gaps are addressed.