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How could your company improve its support of its software developers?

4 points by samullen ↗ HN
I'm doing research for an article, and one of the sections involves recognizing the need to support software developers.

If there was one thing your company could do to improve its support for software developers (encourage higher quality software or improve morale), what would it be?

5 comments

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arkitaip
I think some clarifications are in order. Do you mean internal software developers or 3rd party developers? What do you mean by support, to what end (happier devs, better code quality, lower costs)?
samullen
arkitaip, I'm more interested in how a company can better support its own staff, rather than contractors.

By support, I mean encourage development teams to produce higher quality software and improve morale.

cauterized
Protect us from open office noise and visual distractions. Hire enough people (or adjust expectations) to move at the desired pace while paying down tech debt instead of accumulating more.
cableshaft
Have easy access to outdoors, and possibly have some trees and nature like courtyards within the building. I get sick of sitting in a chair constantly and need a change of scenery. A sterile modern office environment really doesn't do it for me.

You'd be surprised how many dirty looks I've gotten for stepping outside in the middle of the day at most jobs and not smoking or going to lunch.

edimaudo
To get higher quality code

--Do code reviews

--allows workers to learn from each other as well as other people outside of engineers.

--Have a coding standard

--Use boring technology as most of the bugs would have been found

To improve morale

--Treat people with respect

--Allow people to explore different aspects of the business

--Recognize people when they do a great job

--Allow for constructive criticism

--Don't let management get out of touch with the business