How to reach "dark matter" developers
Scott Hanselman has talked about "dark matter" developers (http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DarkMatterDevelopersTheUnseen99.aspx) - the ones working in companies everywhere writing the software that keeps businesses running. They're writing applications in VB6, MS Access, ASP.NET and often using outdated software and outdated practices. They work 9-5 and when they go home at the end of the day the only technology they use is their TV remote.
I'm not disparaging them. I work with them. For them, writing code is just a job and that job helps keep the businesses we depend on working.
But they could be so much more productive if they updated their skills and had opportunity to gain new experience.
There is no shortage of educational information and opportunities on the web, but these aren't the type of people to go looking for it. It needs to come to them, in their workplaces, ideally during their working day.
So, my question is this - if we want to help them enhance their skills and experience, how do we reach them?
9 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 32.3 ms ] threadagain, don't get me wrong: the ones who do it as a job might well have other things that they love and that for them would be a dream come true type of career. doesn't mean they lack passion or are not really good at something else, but programming might just not be the thing that they are passionate about
When the people paying the IT bills have low expectations to begin with, and are often disappointed with the applications they are given, IT becomes devalued.
I'm working with a team at the moment where we have introduced a structured data access architecture (.NET shop, so Entity Framework underpinning a repository model) and it has transformed the productivity of the team. They are no longer writing the same data access code in 5 different places, testing it 5 times and finding 5 different sets of bugs. They are now writing the code once, testing it once and re-using it.
The team hadn't even heard of Entity Framework, despite being a dedicated Microsoft/.NET shop and Entity Framework being around for several years. Getting them to move from their hand-coded approach, which was what they learnt for .NET 1.0 was a challenge but, having done it, they wouldn't go back and love the flexibility and power the new approach gives them.
This isn't a discussion about technologies though. I'm sure that there are many other teams just like this team and I'm interested in how to get to them to introduce new technologies and ways of working. The more productive we are as developers, and the more "delight" the applications we develop are, the more valued we will all be as an industry.
That said, if we can't make people want to be interested we need to find another way to reach them.
Some industries require formal certification and demonstration of ongoing professional development, but IT generally doesn't (although there are pockets which do). Some of the best developers I have worked with have had no formal training, however, just passion, curiosity and a willingness to put in the hours to learn and excluding them would be a mistake. So how do we do it?
They're doing perfectly well. They fill their role, they do their job, they do what they want during their free time. Who are you (or anyone) to say that needs to be changed?
The last paragraph of Hansleman's post captures it perfectly:
> The Dark Matter Developer will never read this blog post because they are getting work done using tech from ten years ago and that's totally OK. I know they are there and I will to support them in their work.