RE: Big companies using Subversion ?

Grant Rettke wrote:
> Hi Sheryl, totally understood.

Actually, not quite, I think.

> One approach is to hire commodity
> developers, stick with commodity technologies, and minimize risks.

"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" as an old boss used to say. :-)

> Another approach is to hire excellent developers, rely on your
> developers to make technical decisions, and in doing so minimize risk.
> The first one is probably easier.

First, in small shops especially, sometimes you don't figure out your
developer wasn't as excellent as he thought he was until he moves on and
you try to maintain what he left behind.

Also, it isn't just a technical decision, it's a business decision. I've
seen a lot of talented people spend thousands of dollars of company time
to put together a "free" solution when the alternative would be to spend
$250 on something off-the-shelf. To the developer, it's often because
it's fun, or because they get fixated on the up-front dollar cost and
don't consider the cost of their time to implement. But to the manager,
it might just be a diversion from work directly related to the mission.

I'm not saying that subversion is such a solution, I'm just trying to make
a case for why a manager has a legitimate reason to inquire into *why* his
people would choose one solution over another.

Sheryl

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Received on Thu Sep 14 20:26:43 2006