December 30, 2008 at 8:33 am
I think the business of corporate software development has gone crazy. The lack of common sense is astounding. Here's one example of many possible examples...
I have encountered several corporate software development environments over the last two years. They all seem to have two things in common. One, they no longer have full height (six foot) cube walls, if they have any cube walls at all. Two, they are using instant messaging (IM) among developers, or they are planning to implement it soon.
I believe the removal of cube walls, or the use of half height cube walls, was done to foster collaboration and face-to-face communication between developers. Personally, I strongly prefer a little privacy while I work. The lack of full height cube walls makes me feel like I'm constantly on display. It makes me feel uncomfortable all day, every day. The lack of privacy strips away any dignity. Even barn animals often have their own stall.
Is face-to-face communication more prevalent because of the removed/lowered cube walls? I believe the use of IM answers the question. IM might be tied for the worst form of communication, along with text messaging. I recently had a senior database architect proudly tell me that he often sends an IM to the person in the next cube (with only a half wall between them) instead of talking with that person. Brilliant! It's the worst of both worlds!
Does anybody else see the lunacy of this situation?
December 30, 2008 at 8:54 am
I've had everything from private offices to working in basically an open fish-bowl with several other developers. I don't really care either way. I think any company making a concerted effort to foster collaboration between it's developers - regardless of how - is thinking in the right direction.
If you are in a company that broke down all of the walls between the developers, you are probably in a place that is at least open to discussing why this is or is not a good idea. You need to be open-minded as well, someone smarter than you may actually exist.
As far as IM - email and IM are really useful as far as I am concerned. I have had little trouble working with teams spread around the world with these tools on-hand. I cannot imagine how I would have gotten through a 7 month project in which half the team was in Ireland if we could not email and IM.
Yes, there are times that face-to-face communication is better, but you can hardly blame the tool when someone mis-uses it. There are times when it is better to email or IM the guy next to you, but as a person, you should make the decision to use the proper tool and let someone know when they have made the wrong choice communicating with you.
December 30, 2008 at 12:06 pm
As far as IM is concerned, think about it this way, If you have to ask a colleague a question and don't want to interrupt them, why wouldn't you email or IM them even if they are only a few feet away. It lets you move onto something else while you await and answer and allows them to not be interrupted. There have been numerous studies that state just how long it takes to get back on track after even the slightest disruption.
That and If I'm having issues with a piece of code I want someone else to look at, I may IM it to them and then say "hey I just sent you something I need a second set of eyes on" etc.
That said I prefer to work in a dimly lit office as I am prone to migraines and I find the darkness quite comforting, allowing me to continue working instead of needing to take sick leave. Of course, having no privacy is bad when you feel a need to smack your head on the desk after reading some particularly atrocious code sent to you by a coworker.
-Luke.
December 30, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I guess I have never mastered the ability to overcome a seemingly natural human tendency to be self-conscious. It's a component of what makes humans different from animals and I'm unable to turn it off when I go to work. Some people might be willing to sacrifice any/every form of human dignity in an attempt to foster collaboration and productivity, but I think it's a self-defeating goal and the self-defeating aspect is exacerbated when the sacrifices are coupled with measures that encourage people to remain distant.
What part of Instant in Instant Messaging is not to be considered even the slightest interruption? I wonder if there are also studies about the effectiveness of various forms of communication. I never mentioned email in my original post, but the responses sound like I lumped it in with IM. I think email is generally better than IM or text messaging, but it's not as good as a phone conversation, which is not as good as a face-to-face conversation. Of course, there are situations where the most effective forms of communication are not possible/practical, but the less effective forms of communication are not being reserved for those situations.
My original post was not intended as a comment on the effectiveness of IM. It was intended to question a common combination of two factors that seem largely contradictory in purpose. The removing/reducing of cube walls (with the obvious loss of privacy) is supposed to bring people closer together, but the introducion of IM encourages people to engage in shallow remote/virtual conversation while staying apart from each other.
December 30, 2008 at 7:45 pm
RE-reading my post, I may have sounded a bit harsh - sorry about that.
The point I was trying to make about the cube walls is that while this may not be the best solution, it is an attempt at a solution, and companies trying to get developers to collaborate is a good thing. I don't think it is at all less dignified to work in an open setting with others. There was a time that having a private office was a status symbol, but I think that is somewhat passed. This is clearly just my opinion, but companies have to look for solutions for a wide variety of people. You may be in the minority - I really don't know.
As far as the IM / Email thing - the reason I lumped email in with it is that it is one of the other recent technologies that many people argued reduced effective communication by leading people to not talking face-to-face. In fact, this argument was used for the telephone, fax, telegraph, etc. I think history has shown us that all of these technologies are far moe likely to help communication than they are to hinder it. I actually think companies implementing IM solutions are as forward thinking as those that first installed telephones at peoples desks. Yes, having a telephone at your desk means you may call the person in the next room rather than walking over and warmly greeting them, but it is hard to argue that it's negative impacts measure up in any way to the positive ones.
It sounds like you are frustrated, but I think you are looking at the technology a bit backwards.
December 31, 2008 at 3:45 pm
1. Many studies have proven that communal settings improve software development productivity. Get keyed on 'Agile'.
2. Put on your iPod headphones and you can be in a different world.
3. If you don't like that environment, start your own company and do it your way.
4. I once had a consulting gig where the CIO put my workstation right in front of his desk, backwards, so he could look over my shoulder. I just laughed and got busy. By the end of the day he was scrambling to find me more work and he moved me to my own office because I was driving him crazy. In other words, if you are good, don't be chicken.
5. I love working in communal settings where I can see and talk to everybody. I use IM extensively. I wear my headphones a lot. It is just a consideration. You can get used to it.
6. As a caveat, the American software industry is the most productive in the world, and I am sure one of the reasons is because we reward individual, not communal, achievement. I'm not sure where that fits in with Agile software development techniques. Perhaps it does and perhaps it doesn't. We shall see.
January 1, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I've worked in both bullpens, offices, and cubes. The cubes were the traditional 5ft walls, 3 sides, but I also worked in a place where we had two rows of cubes, 5 foot wall on the back, 3 footers on the sides next to each other, and nothing behind us, making for a fairly open environment.
What did I prefer?
Working with people I liked. If I had a good team, it didn't matter. As gcopeland mentions, I could put on headphones and work in my own world, or I could listen to ambient noise, or I could interact.
In offices, it was quieter overall, but it was also more distant. I missed the interaction, and I still put on headphones since office walls aren't that thick.
I think it is different for different people and when you hire, you want to try and determine if the person will fit in this environment you have. Most people probably just fit in, but if someone really doesn't like offices or open environments, I might downgrade them on my interview sheet since it might affect their productivity.
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January 1, 2009 at 1:13 pm
We have the 3 foot cube wall thing... it's great for communication. So far as IM goes, it's ok when it's not abused. I find it totally stupid and incredibly annoying when the moron that's sitting in the short cube next to me (her head is less than 4 feet from mine), sends me an IM asking me if I can answer a question instead of just standing up and talking over the bloody "fence".
The other thing I find annoying about IM is when someone wants you to walk them through something via a thousand freakin' IM's... get up off your butt and walk the 10 or 12 feet to my cube you moron!
--Jeff Moden
January 2, 2009 at 6:27 am
I have recently moved from a company that was completely IM-integrated to one that does not utilize it at all, and it shocks me how much I miss it...of course we used it for the business-critical functions like making sure someone was in their office before going to see them (you could call, but then you alert them you're coming - seeing them "online" is much more stealthy):)
...and of course the ultimate business function....commiserating with other IT staff while we are sitting through conference call after conference call led by people who don't understand the topic or problem at hand:
AndyG>> Can you believe he said that?
DBA Boss>> We'll never make that deadline anyway...odds are the project will just get cancelled before then.
AndyG>> I hope so. 😀
...and so on.
AndyG
January 2, 2009 at 7:56 am
Again, my original post was not intended to say that IM has no legitimate uses. Instead, I was commenting on two things in combination, one of them being IM and the other being cube walls. Please allow me to try again by borrowing comments from two other posters and putting them together.
Jeff Moden says his company has three foot cube walls and adds that it's great for communication. AndyG says IM is business critical for making sure somebody is in their office before going to see them. Think about these things in combination. IM tells you somebody is "online", but it does not ensure they are at their desk. Is it really business critical to use IM for this purpose in this setting? You could simply take your eyes off your screen for a second, look up, and see if somebody is physically in their chair.
January 2, 2009 at 9:15 am
I can't tell you how many times I have sat in my cube praying for the guy/gal next to me would get off the phone and get back to work. When you have a group of developers in a room, under the gun to finish a project, you need to be able to trust the guy next to you is going to get, what he says he can get done, finished. Conversations are noisy... no matter what they are about they require you to speak and that in itself is an interruption to those around you. Typing and reading, are not.
While an IM is an instant message in transmition to the person you are sending it too, that does not mean that the message has to be responded to immediately. This is where both IM and email are very useful tools. IM seperates itself from email in that if you are both available to have a conversation you can. It would be quite difficult to send a snippet of code over to a colleague to ask for a review through the phone. I know you are not mentioning doing that, but your comment about the senior developer sending the guy next to him an IM seems actually very considerate of him. I dislike interuption when I am in the middle of something. IM helps in that I don't have to switch gears to send a message, i.e. I am typing code, then need to communicate with someone else I can just keep typing and move forward. Stopping to look up the persons extension, calling them up, then getting off the phone after you have an answer that may or may not require a second quesiton is time consuming. Think about the typical IM intercahange. Lets say you ask a question, the person responds with a clarification question, you reply with an answer and they anser you. That can be a few messages typed in a box that never require you to move as the person responding to the questions. Where as, if it was a phone or a person walking over, you have to stop, give the person your undivided attention to be able to fully grasp what the person is asking, (we only catch 30% of what people say and they generally come at you with the question where their mind is at one the question, i.e. not enough background or context for you to answer it.) So now that the person has walked to your desk you have stopped what you are doing and started this dialogue which requires immediate attention, there is no telling what or how long you are going to be interrupted.
IM gets my vote, no interuption to those around the conversation, no set required speed at which you have to respond, and not really a switching of gears to get the task done.
January 2, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I like IM, though I like my Trillian account. New messages don't pop up, but they highlight in the task bar, so I can notice them, but they aren't in my face.
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January 2, 2009 at 3:29 pm
DBAdmin (1/2/2009)
Again, my original post was not intended to say that IM has no legitimate uses. Instead, I was commenting on two things in combination, one of them being IM and the other being cube walls. Please allow me to try again by borrowing comments from two other posters and putting them together.Jeff Moden says his company has three foot cube walls and adds that it's great for communication. AndyG says IM is business critical for making sure somebody is in their office before going to see them. Think about these things in combination. IM tells you somebody is "online", but it does not ensure they are at their desk. Is it really business critical to use IM for this purpose in this setting? You could simply take your eyes off your screen for a second, look up, and see if somebody is physically in their chair.
In my eyes, no. In fact... IM becomes the distraction because people abuse it simply because they think it won't actually be a distraction.
--Jeff Moden
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