Big O of developer's Life !!

I'm going to take is opportunity speak my mind !

As a developer we are seen as "Problem solvers" and often tasked with challenging problems in technology each day. We may have to develop, troubleshoot attend meetings, design and collaborate cross functionally across teams etc etc.

We spend a lot of time with computers when we learn, code and troubleshoot vs people in any other industry for that matter. Sometimes it is very easy to be caught up sitting long hours trying to solve a problem. It's so hard to step back or relax or rejuvenate to come back later to the same problem. I have always had the feeling

Well I have come this far, may be spend some more time so its all resolved in this day and I don't have to come back again !! "

Leadership teams, Scrum calls literally looks up to strong timelines on when an activity will be completed increasing the "invisibe stress" upon us.

Whether you're a novice or an experienced professional you'll deal with challenging days where you'll see yourself often spend time on something that takes much of your day eg: a complex stacktrace, errors while setting up an environment or troubleshoot an production escalation, talking to people, helping your peers etc etc Only to realize that you have fallen behind and code late hours to get things done so that you can meet sprint goals. Otherwise everyone is going to look at you for answers.

Let me jump right into the concept of "Estimation." When a product looks to the developers for an estimate during sprint planning, they usually want you to look at the ticket and tell them how many hours or points are needed to accomplish it. I'm not opposed to agile approaches; the point is that estimating is simply a way for us to see how much work we can get done in a given amount of time.

We don't see the fact that "Is that going to be worked upon by a junior developer ?"

"Does the developer have all the information he needs to make it happen"

"If you said that's what "stand ups" are meant for to listen for blockers so that other people in the team can lend a hand or help you solve it so that you could move with your plan"

Come along. This has been the reality in many teams !!!!

"Developer goes to work and now he's stuck with another problem."

"May be its new to him/her, he's trying to catch up to his best"

"The existing code base could be tricky to understand, may be not easily scalable"

Do we think we all think about all these at the time of estimation?

"Do you think the scrum master will adjust the estimated hours based on what happens on every day on the standup consistently? "

All the people on the management are focused on shipping the product on time with little adjustments here and there. Pressure will not go away !!!!

We all know that its not possible to have a experienced team who can deliver on time.

We are diverse, we have juniors who are still learning, they are seniors who spend time mentoring doing their work while they do theirs.

Even with a good technical management leaders, things get tricky when their bosses apply pressure.

Net ride >>> loads and loads of pressure on the poor developer and his team to meet the deadlines.

When the leadership changes, things get even worse.

A good project management leader should step in and address the needs of the developer and help chug priorities which is very critical for project success.

Developers are humans who have a family to take care of ! They can't endlessly sit and chug things sacrificing their personal time.

Solving problems needs time !

Learning by doing takes time !

Move away from toxic work cultures !

I loved a quote that I read this morning from linked In

"Don't give your career best of you, and your family only the rest of you"

Don't spend all day cracking algos, learning XYZ technology to get that FAANG job or your dream job. Get out ! Go for a walk ! Exercise ! Eat Healthy ! Spend time with family !