15 Workplace Barriers To Better Code

Meetings, know-nothing managers, productivity metrics -- here's what's standing between you and the next generation of great software

The product had to ship yesterday. The users are screaming about a missing feature. The boss's boss says we better get moving or else the ax will fall. Nothing ever seems to work as well as it could.

No one is happy with how quickly developers change the world, and everyone wants the code to flow like water from a fire hose, but no one wants to give developers what they need to get the job done. The same boss who wants the job finished yesterday won't hire more people, buy faster machines, or do any of the dozens of things that make it easier for programmers to just program.

Here are 15 real-world roadblocks to programming progress, each of which is getting in the way of building the next generation of software. Our informal survey was surprisingly easy. When the developers suspected they were talking with a sympathetic ear, they poured out their complaints.