Timeline for Inspiring a co-worker to adopt better coding practices?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
33 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 16, 2020 at 10:01 | history | edited | CommunityBot | Commonmark migration | |
| Apr 12, 2017 at 7:31 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 16:40 | history | edited | gnat | http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/7285/structured-tag-cleanup-initiative-phase-ii | |
| Apr 18, 2016 at 16:40 | history | protected | gnat | ||
| Oct 6, 2011 at 9:34 | comment | added | Grastveit | @Aaronaught Have you gotten experiences now that you can share? | |
| Jul 22, 2011 at 20:50 | answer | added | HLGEM | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jul 22, 2011 at 20:37 | answer | added | Martijn | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 23:14 | comment | added | anon | Please be a lead in my company. They're still in the Hungarian phase and they don't know why! | |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 17:10 | history | edited | Aaronaught | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 1897 characters in body |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 9:54 | answer | added | user1249 | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 2, 2011 at 9:41 | comment | added | user1249 | @Aaronaught, it was my understanding that you had tried approaching him already. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 20:18 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Thor: I haven't tried to be an inspiration. I haven't even approached him yet. What do you think this question was about? I quote, "I think that is largely an issue of how the topic gets broached, and I want to be prepared." | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 20:12 | comment | added | user1249 | @Aaronaught, either you have failed miserably to be an inspiration (which cannot be ruled out) or he doesn't want to be inspired. Would you consider coding your unit tests in Lisp or Haskell if there was a younger colleague telling you that this is much smarter than what you do now? | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 20:05 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Thor: So you think it's absolutely impossible that his style is simply the product of low expectations, no peer review, and a busy life which doesn't lend itself well to independent learning during one's own personal time? Not caring isn't a hardwired personality trait, it's a product of one's environment, and it can be changed. Not knowing is even easier to change, but it still has to be approached with some level of diplomacy. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 20:02 | comment | added | user1249 | @Aaronaught, either he is good but thinks his current style is fine (in which case he doesn't care and you cannot inspire him) or he is not so good and very accustomed to his current style and does not want to spend a lot of mental effort for learning new silly things in which case you cannot inspire him either. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:59 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Thor: Why not? Have you had some experience with this in the past that led you to this conclusion? That's what I really want to know here. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:37 | comment | added | user1249 | @Aaronaught, in short then, you cannot inspire him. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:34 | comment | added | SoylentGray | Are you the coders direct supervisor? If not then can you get management buy in on establishing coding standards? | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:16 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Thor: I think you're getting ahead of me. It's not a "problem" at all at this point, and I'm trying to avoid making it into one. Maybe that effort won't succeed, and if so, I'm obviously prepared to take more assertive action; but there are already enough questions here about that, and I know how to deal with political problems already. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:15 | answer | added | user29079 | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:13 | answer | added | maple_shaft♦ | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:13 | answer | added | GrandmasterB | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:12 | comment | added | user1249 | @Aaronaught, since his code works, this is not a technical but a political problem, and probably one that needs to be imposed from above if you want to change anything. In other words from your boss. Have good arguments ready! | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 19:00 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Thor: I haven't, yet. I don't escalate issues unless I know that I can't solve them myself. Even if I did, he isn't a programmer; most software decisions are left up to me. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 18:54 | answer | added | Ken Brittain | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 18:39 | comment | added | user1249 | What did your boss say when you raised this concern with him? | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 18:38 | comment | added | IAbstract | I have a friend who's boss is like this co-worker. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 18:36 | answer | added | DKnight | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 18:00 | answer | added | jimreed | timeline score: 10 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 17:55 | comment | added | Aaronaught | @Jeremy: That may indeed be the case. I maintain that it's worth a try to get positive buy-in before bringing down the hammer. The key phrase in your comment is the one at the end, "...if they contribute to a project"; it's not always an easy thing to convince people of, if it looks to be, in the short term, like more work. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 17:43 | answer | added | Wayne Molina | timeline score: -1 | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 17:40 | comment | added | Jeremy | I've been in this situation and never seen it really resolved successfully. Many people such as you described quit thinking about programming years ago; at this point they are only interested in solutions for their business domain. I am not going to join the bandwagons on this site who condemn such people; indeed I think they are the salt of the earth. If they are working in your code you should push to at least get your conventions adhered to. I haven't had a hard time selling that people should follow existing conventions if the contribute to a project. | |
| Jul 1, 2011 at 17:27 | history | asked | Aaronaught | CC BY-SA 3.0 |