Top Ten Things That Annoy Developers

Mitch Denny recently passed this link around an internal tech list.  Now, as developers (or software engineers) we do have some odd eccentricities.

We typically work in far different environments to the contrast of many traditional industries/work environments, and the challenges of day to day life seem to be somewhat different.

My list has ‘Requirement Creep’ at the top – there’s nothing more frustrating than to have to go back and rewrite or modify a piece of work which you’ve slaved laboriously over for weeks (often donating personal time).

What’s missing from the list? 

  • Lack of good infrastructure (what is more annoying that being forced to work on sub-standard equipment),
  • Lack of development/support process or methodology,
  • Lack of proper software licensing (don’t you love making do on some free/unsupported/undocumented tools?), and,
  • Long work hours.

However the list doesn’t need to be so clean.  Even the little things add up:

  • Access to a decent coffee machine,
  • Larger cubical,
  • Shorter commute to work

When we become closer to purists(!) I think we probably look more for quality within our environment (like stable environments and build and release processes which work).

What really annoys you in your daily work life?  Is it something you can influence or change?  /R

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