Customer is King...or a dictator

When a customer says jump...you say how high...usually.

In some cases customers come up with extreme request...like they want you to do all the development on their environment....the reasoning?...because of security...they don't want their system exposed...while it is ok for you to trust them with all your code...and move all your development to their premise.

Nowadays customers should be treasured...but where is the limit?

Would you refactor your Dev process for the sake of a customers paranoia? will the project pay for all the overhead caused?

....we will see ;)

Roadmap

 In software development, a roadmap (of a product) is that map, with directions and signs...telling you where a product should go.

This is not a planned route...or if it is it certainly is not the final one...it is just the directions ... like "just go north"...

Than developers will take this roadmap and will plan an actual route...with all its POIs ...all those stops (we call milestones) ...and we start the journey. 

At any moment the planned route can change...and than we reroute...place you POIs...remove old ones...but we are moving...towards that destination. Maybe we will not reach the original destination but we will certainly find another...a closer one. There will be always a destination. The destination is the most important aspect...the trip...not so much. This is not life.

For a company, planning a roadmap means investing in the future. It means placing your bets on certain features that could bring benefit for the company...even considering the invested effort.

So the question is always: will it pay off? ... on the short/middle/long term will the company benefit from this? ...because companies are there to produce profit ... that's one of the main goals.

If all the above are true...than who should come up with the destinations? 

Should developers be asked to come up with ideas to improve a product? ...and lay down some possible destinations? (bottom - up)

...or should the company come with destinations, goals, plans and than involve people to discuss them...find solutions to achieve them...to push those barriers? (top-down)

...to me both seem democratic approaches...but one seems more constructive than the other...and deciding which seems to be a subjective mater.

Anyways...it is roadmap time...that time of a year :)

The leader

 Leaders are there to lead...to show the direction...they should be the ones who stay in front of the flock and brake those barriers...the ones who fight among their followers...to give them strength and hope.

Managers are there to manage...to delegate...to give orders and expect reports....they push their people to the frontline...and watch what happens...and delegate the consequences.

Some people are born to be leaders...and the rest can only become managers.

If you think you are a leader...ask yourself a question: If you stand for an idea you believe in against the management of your company, will people follow and got your back? ...or will you stand alone?

If you remain alone...it might be a sign that you are not a leader...just a lone rebel...nobody understands.

Saying no

Imagine you are driving a car you helped building...in fact you did a lot to improve it...and still you are fairly convinced that it could drive many more miles...and your feel that your job is not done yet with this vehicle...just improving it would extend it's life quite significantly. 

And this vehicle caries several people....a department or so.

Than you get an offer...to jump to a new shiny tandem bicycle that one day could become a four wheel vehicle perhaps...and you are asked to be an architect for a now bicycle and take the sword up and fight to transform this bicycle into a car.

...but by some reason you don't feel the urge...your inner voice tells you that you cannot ride two vehicles at once...and there are more things to achieve here...nothing shiny though...but being spacious it could bring several people with you... 

...than you say no ...and a world collapses... people take this personally because you were expected to take this role...they were counting on you...although nobody mentioned this ... and suddenly you are excluded from the bicycle project...and now you are puzzled...what just happened...and you see people around you consider this as a not an appropriate attitude....and probably they are right.

Maybe saying no is not so well accepted...if it was at all? 

When you are an employee can you...should you say no to things like assignments? I mean when there is an option to say no, of course.

I'll leave you with this,

Happy coding.