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Ask HN Poll: Developers, how many of you work in a one-developer shop?

8 points by freejoe76 ↗ HN
I have yet to work in a more-than-one-developer shop. I'm curious, of the web (front- and back-end) developers out there, who works in what sized shop.

Also, if you have any tips or perspective on thriving / surviving in a one-developer shop, I'm all ears.

2 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 18.2 ms ] thread
jganetsk
How awesome would it be if there were exactly one one-developer shop. Then, we would all be living in a one-one-developer-shop universe.
felixd
I work in a one developer shop. Short story, nothing nice was setup when I showed up. Here are my tips and what I have done.

1. Force yourself to follow a set of rules.

2. Force yourself to follow a set of rules.

3. Setup a test server.

   - When I took over all the projects were updated on the 
     the production server.

   - The test server should be a clone of the production
     and regularly updated.
4. Setup another server (hardware or VM) for your "department"/yourself. This is your "production" server for yourself/"department".

5. Setup some kind of ticket tracking system. Be sure it supports multiple projects, time tracking, scm tracking, and some kind of wiki/documentation.

   - Start your wiki listing how you are cloning your
     production system.

   - Create projects for the projects currently in production

   - Document those projects
6. Setup some kind of SCM.

   - Pick one. Which one? Mercurial? git? subversion?

     [ commercial ones not listed, because more than likely
       you have a zero dollar budget ]

     It honestly doesn't matter. Just pick one and stick
     with it no matter what people say. When asked why you
     picked one over the other. Just say "I needed it."

   - Learn SCM strategies. 

   - Write policy for your SCM strategy. 

   - Follow your own policy
7. Educate the users on how to submit bug reports.

   - Inform then that emailing you does not get the problem
     fixed

   - Bug reports let them track your progress and allows
     for open two-way communication.

   - It also gives your superiors a way of monitoring and
     measuring your success in the workplace.

   [ if they don't "see" your worth then you are worthless ]
Last, remember that you are a policy maker as the sole developer. Implement policy that helps you set standards and expectations not only for yourself but for your users.

good luck

edited for formatting