A development team that I work with is having serious productivity problems. There are a few aspects to the issue, past the obvious lack of skill and personal focus. Leadership in the group conciliates situations around areas of uncertainty; confrontation is discouraged. Developers of all skill levels have input into every problem, resulting in glacial progress and marginal software.

The group has an unwritten principle of ‘equal say’, which has obvious ramifications in key decisions. The interesting part, I’ve found, is the effect that the challenged developers have on daily issues — victory is the result eroding intelligence with stupidity. Bad decisions are always a compromise, but it is the many small ones that result in the greatest evils.

Painful debates placating marginal developers are intolerable: baseless viewpoints waste time and energy. People betting on their gut feelings, lack of sense, or ignorance have should carry no weight in the decision making process. Solid sense needs to prevail — even if the approach has to be blunt.

Development environments need to be stacked in such a way that bright people do not need to wade up the current of stupidity. When decisions are influenced by people who just don’t get technology, or are challenged by a lack of solid-sense, they slowly destroy the productivity of all. forcing solid developers to endure stupidity is counter-productive. they become bored and frustrated.

Now, the useful part of this rant is that I see an obvious partial solution: brute force. The bright people need to be encouraged to be bluntly focused (a.k.a. tasteful assholes). The approach isn’t without fault, but it does solve for a core problem — that the wrong people are participating equally in complex decisions. Having incredible developers would be better, but reality doesn’t always produce perfect teams.

Development must follow the sensibilities and innovation of the intelligent; useless debate should not be gratified. The bright make decisions, and the unbright are left to follow or be isolated. Mistakes will occur, but will be recognized, studied, and corrected. Excellence and forward momentum, however, are the clear goal — not the aversion of wrong.