Comments on: What’s the Developer’s Incentive to Ship? http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/ The blog that helps you build great software Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:13:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Angelo Coppola : Set the Leopard Free http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-274 Angelo Coppola : Set the Leopard Free Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:37:40 +0000 http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-274 [...] its earliest days, Axosoft has promoted its version of Google's "20% Time" -- time developers are encouraged to explore side projects and new technologies.  This time, [...] [...] its earliest days, Axosoft has promoted its version of Google’s “20% Time” — time developers are encouraged to explore side projects and new technologies.  This time, [...]

]]> By: Putting it All Together: PureChat « Ship Software OnTime! http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-209 Putting it All Together: PureChat « Ship Software OnTime! Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:07:17 +0000 http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-209 [...] What’s the Developer’s Incentive to Ship? [...] [...] What’s the Developer’s Incentive to Ship? [...]

]]> By: Tom http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-38 Tom Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:15:40 +0000 http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-38 Let's say for a moment that the Product Designer and Sofware Engineer make critical contributions to the value of the product (IP). If this is so, then maybe the incentive to ship should be a financial reward: a "cut of the action". A royalty on the Intellectual Property that has been created. A financial reward system that creates a direct relationship between success of a project in the market and compensation would give not only incentive "to ship" but incentive for the software created to succeed. Stock options might be thought of as this kind of system, but can be quite dilute (particularly in larger companies, the value of options may not be very closely related with success of the product being built by a given team.) True, maybe some kids just wanna have fun, but others want to build products that succeed and to be compensated for their strong contributions. Let’s say for a moment that the Product Designer and Sofware Engineer make critical contributions to the value of the product (IP).

If this is so, then maybe the incentive to ship should be a financial reward: a “cut of the action”. A royalty on the Intellectual Property that has been created.

A financial reward system that creates a direct relationship between success of a project in the market and compensation would give not only incentive “to ship” but incentive for the software created to succeed.

Stock options might be thought of as this kind of system, but can be quite dilute (particularly in larger companies, the value of options may not be very closely related with success of the product being built by a given team.)

True, maybe some kids just wanna have fun, but others want to build products that succeed and to be compensated for their strong contributions.

]]> By: Robert Singer http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-28 Robert Singer Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:16:29 +0000 http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-28 Hamid - what do you say to this posting? http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=765 Hamid – what do you say to this posting?

http://blog.adaptiveblue.com/?p=765

]]> By: Sameer Alibhai http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-27 Sameer Alibhai Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:06:10 +0000 http://shipsoftwareontime.com/2007/12/17/whats-the-developers-incentive-to-ship/#comment-27 Very interesting and creative idea. I am sure you will get many people who would love to work there just to get this fun time! However, it's important to keep in mind that two different things can happen which both have disastrous results. One is, as you mentioned, the ship date slips further and further. However, there is another overlooked option that can occur. Developers taking shortcuts to keep the ship date constant (and say to get their free time), but the quality of code being reduced. This can happen by not using proper structure in your code, hard-coding values, COPYING and PASTING code all over the place, and so on.. The ship date will stay constant, but the resulting architectural mess can take months to clean up. Very interesting and creative idea. I am sure you will get many people who would love to work there just to get this fun time!

However, it’s important to keep in mind that two different things can happen which both have disastrous results. One is, as you mentioned, the ship date slips further and further. However, there is another overlooked option that can occur. Developers taking shortcuts to keep the ship date constant (and say to get their free time), but the quality of code being reduced. This can happen by not using proper structure in your code, hard-coding values, COPYING and PASTING code all over the place, and so on.. The ship date will stay constant, but the resulting architectural mess can take months to clean up.

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