Training For All The Wrong Skills

Are We Training People For the Wrong Skills?

In business and software development, we’ve got a misalignment. We’re so wrapped up in perfecting the technical, we lose sight of the human. Developers are trained to churn out code more quickly, code that’s faster, cheaper, and more reliable, but are they learning how to solve real-world problems? Testers are trained to find bugs, but not how to prevent them. The result: technically proficient software that either nobody wants or that arrives late and over budget, or both.

Technical Matters?

Yes, quality code is essential. Yet, it’s by no means the end-all and be-all. A developer isn’t just a code-writing machine; they’re attendants. The fixation on coding and computing skills above all else turns them into technicians rather than holistic thinkers capable of understanding and meeting folks’ needs. When developers are pigeonholed into this role, organisations miss out on the broader impact their expensive developers could be making.

What About Bugs?

Finding bugs is a red herring – what if we could prevent them in the first place? Testers are often pigeonholed into merely identifying issues rather than participating in a more proactive approach. This approach costs time, money, and may even reduce the software’s overall quality because the focus is on fixing, not preventing. The need for speed in bug-finding diverts attention from other valuable forms of contribution, like feature development and needs validation (making sure the product meets the real needs of all the Folks That Matter™.

What’s the Cost?

When we narrow our focus to speed, efficiency, and defect detection, we end up inflating costs and extending delivery times. Software development isn’t just about churning out lines of code or ticking off a testing checklist. It’s a more nuanced art that blends technical skills with an understanding of the needs of all the Folks That Matter™.

Where’s the User in All This?

In the chase for technical mastery, it’s easy to forget the end-user. Products, at their core, are intended to make lives easier, to attend to folks needs. When developers and testers are not trained to master these things, we end up with products that are high on features but low on utility.

So What’s the Solution?

If we’re to correct this misalignment, we need a cultural shift. We might choose to reorient our training and development programmes. For developers, this means less emphasis on speed and more on understanding who matters, and then discovering and meeting these folks’ needs. For testers, a shift from just finding bugs to a more holistic approach to quality via defect prevention (Cf. ZeeDee) would be transformative.

Where Do We Go from Here?

The technical aspects of software and product development are, without a doubt, essential. But they aren’t the whole story. By shifting our focus to include all the needs of all the Folks That Matter™, we can create products that not only work but makes a difference. The first step? Acknowledging that we’ve been training for all the wrong skills.