I tend to spend my time as a software developer taking in anything I can get my hands on – The old ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ adage. While I appreciate opportunities that exercise various skills (and develop new ones when possible), I find it very difficult to multi-task as a developer. Developers at the very least, need time blocks in order to manage the complexities of developing software systems. It is too expensive and inefficient to have developers context switching all of the time. Some will handle it better then others, but none will handle it optimally.
That said, there are many professionals in our industry that are more than happy to not be developing. They may have a passion for Support or for Testing, or for coordinating Builds and Releases, or for Business Analysis. Yet, they will be tasked with development efforts just like every one else on the team. So while all of the developers on the team are juggling all areas of software development, there are actually specialists on the team that would be thrilled to focus their energy on one task consistently.
I’m not saying the roles should be so well defined as to disallow any overlap because there will be those who like to move around (like myself). I’m just saying that it is important to recognize specific skills and desires on the team, and embrace them in a way that increases project velocity whenever possible.
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