Developers are Artists

In a meeting a little while ago I heard a comment, at the time said in a little bit of a flip way, that developers are artists. While not necessarily meant in a way that would suggest that Developers are right brain oriented, creative, canvas painting snobs the statement did get me thinking.

We were discussing standards. A topic that can be scary for people who want to forge their own way... artistically creating the next generation of award winning software... etc. (blah blah blah)

So off my brain went on a metaphor dive and it actually started to make sense to me. While artists want to be able to choose their own tools to ensure they get the right tools for the job there is a lot to be said for simplicity. Having the right brush size is critical... but it's still a brush. Certainly, there is a difference between the 10 for a dollar brush and the $20 brush but if you compare a $19 and a $22... is that really something an artist wants to waste their time doing? I mean really... there are people who are paid to do that... shouldn't the artist be creating... painting... utilizing their skills to make a difference.

Our approach to standards needs to be the same way. We will have people who specialize in brushes. Or in this case Database Platforms, Application Server platforms, Middleware solutions etc. We have a set of brushes sized appropriately for the job. Or in this case standard containers such as J2SE and J2EE containers both basic and fully enterprise capable... Tomcat, JBoss, JBoss with Clustering, etc. We want our artists to focus on painting the canvas with differentiating impactful imagery. Or in this case business logic that implements the vision the company has for functionality.

I realize some of you may be wondering just how deep my analogy rabbit hole is going to go but I will make a few more points and abuse it just a little more and then let you get on with your life. Just like brushes need to be replaced and a new canvas is occasionally needed so to do application and development standards need to be refreshed. Standards are just a representation of the best knowledge at a point in time. They are meant to be challenged, updated, and tuned. Without that effort and focus they become dated and slow things down rather than speed them up.

So as we set and roll out new standards as part of our efforts to accelerate development and increase stability and quality keep that in mind. Let's make it so that our artists can paint... but let's also challenge the status quo.