The Grubbsian

So, I’ve been working at a client location now for the past several months and up until about three weeks ago I was able to use my own laptop for most of my development.  Unfortunately, due to the security policy on one of our more recent projects I have been forced to use the machine provided (because it’s joined to the domain).

Now, this machine is very typical for this company, most of the developers have this exact setup.  Let me just give you the run down:

1. Lenovo ThinkCentre – Pentium 4 (2.xGHz), 1GB Memory, 40GB Hard Disk.
2. Acer 17" LCD Monitor (just one mind you)
3. Standard Lenovo keyboard (wired)
4. Standard Lenovo mouse (wired)

So there you have it.  The most basic business machine…ever.  If I was sitting in accounts payable, or in marketing, or even an IT manager this machine would be exactly what I need.  It would handle my spreadsheets, word documents, and emails with ease.  As a developer however, it leaves much to be desired.

So this got me thinking about the cost/benefit surrounding the choice of hardware for your development team…and the choice to plant this doorstop on my desk.  Developers are not typical users, they’re not really even power users, they are their own class.  Constantly restarting, installing, uninstalling, resetting, formatting, deleting, pegging the processor, running out of memory, etc, etc.  Basically anything bad that you can do to a computer, a developer will inevitably do.  So the first compelling reason to get good hardware is for the hardware’s sake…it will simply last longer and perform better for a longer period.

The second thing that distinguishes developers from other users is that their primary output is code…a medium wholly dependent on a computer.  Other positions within a company, while extremely reliant on computers and software, are not completely crippled when a computer is slow or temporarily unavailable.  So the second argument for quality machines is maintaining developer output.

The third reason I’ll highlight is developer happiness   Again, developers are not normal.  We are fickle but easily amused and really good hardware running well tweaked operating systems just make us smile.  Smiling developers write better code…it’s a fact.

So please, if you manage a development team or are responsible for provision hardware for one…think about the day-in-day out developer who’ll be sitting behind that tiny screen, and get him/her a bigger one.

The September issue of .NET Developers Journal will include an article authored by yours truly entitled, "Design for Developers".  It’s basically a primer for developers on the art of design.  I don’t consider myself a designer by any means but I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way and am fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to share my learning with the community at large.  I’ll post again when the issue is out with a link to the online version.