I heard a great metaphor in my software engineering class today. We were talking about agile processes and somehow the issue of not relying too heavily on any one member came up. I think the term “heroic programming” was on the slide. It made me think of that one person who tries to take on too much and ends up coding the entire program himself. In my undergrad, that was usually me.
Back to the new metaphor. Bus Number is the number of people vital to a project. That is, if n people were to get hit by a bus, could the project continue? Great term that sums up the point succinctly.
Later, we were talking about the Scrum development method and the point came up that only people on the team should participate in meetings, though others might be in attendance. The TA was presenting the lecture today since the professor was out of town and there was a term on the slides that he attributed to a generation gap referring to people in the meeting as chickens and pigs. Another professor who sits in on classes put it this way (my paraphrase):
It has something to do with how close you are to the project. It’s like a breakfast of ham and eggs. Sure the chicken gives the eggs, but it’s not the same sacrifice as the pig.
Ah yes. Heroic programming is something further to avoid when you have a job. When you end up finishing your whole CS project by yourself, at least it ends when you turn it in. But if you do the equivalent in a long-term job, you might just NEVER BE ABLE TO TURN OVER OWNERSHIP. And accumulate enough of those things and you are in trouble.
You know, hypothetically.