Territorial workers
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We have a couple of people here who are ridiculously territorial about their code. They will not accept any criticism or improvement suggestions about anything they've written or worked on. If someone else dares to make any sort of changes to any files, classes, or functions that they've worked on, they often become quite irrate. This can even be for something as trivial as changing a comment. One guy had a temper tantrum that lasted more than a month after he was forced to give in to an issue during a code review. How have other people learned to deal with these types of co-workers? I have tried to get my boss involved but he just blows me off. Of course, he's not the one getting yelled at.
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We have a couple of people here who are ridiculously territorial about their code. They will not accept any criticism or improvement suggestions about anything they've written or worked on. If someone else dares to make any sort of changes to any files, classes, or functions that they've worked on, they often become quite irrate. This can even be for something as trivial as changing a comment. One guy had a temper tantrum that lasted more than a month after he was forced to give in to an issue during a code review. How have other people learned to deal with these types of co-workers? I have tried to get my boss involved but he just blows me off. Of course, he's not the one getting yelled at.
Do the "territorial" people give any explanation for their stance? I would guess one or more of the following is going on: 1. These individuals think they have written "perfect" code and other people are messing it up. 2. It could be that these guys are not that confident in what they have written and fear someone digging into their sloppy work. 3. They may view their work as a "piece of art" that someone is about to destroy. (The perfect class separation that someone is going to subvert.) Is it possible that these guys are much better at what they do than the rest of the team and other people do tend to "mess up" their code? Here are some of my thoughts: 1. Have you discussed the problem directly with the individuals? You might want to be pretty blunt about it, explaining that the developers need to work as a team and no one "owns" any portion of the code. Tell them that you've noticed they get very upset when someone suggests changes to the code they have written. If this is really a big problem, what's the worst that could happen - you might offend them and they might leave? Would that be a bad thing? 2. Is there another developer that these people would "look up to" and respect their opinions about code changes? 3. Another option would be to solicit help from the person who wrote the initial code for suggestions on how any changes should be made (but make it clear that someone else will be making the changes). "Fred is going to be working on some new interfaces to the object you wrote, can you help give him some direction on how best to implement those changes." 4. Call the temper tantrum guy into your office and tell him he's been whining for over a month and he needs to get over it. (I probably wouldn't want to allow him to complain for a month though in the future.) How's any of that strike you? I'm not sure how these guys affect the overall atmosphere in the office, but even if they are the "most productive", you may need to consider whether overall production suffers because of them. I know that my natural reaction is to be somewhat territorial with the code I've written, but I also realize I need other developers to make changes if all the work is going to be done that needs to be done. If I don't like what someone else wants to do, I at least try to offer an alternative implementation. Neal Stublen http://www.awesoftware.com
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We have a couple of people here who are ridiculously territorial about their code. They will not accept any criticism or improvement suggestions about anything they've written or worked on. If someone else dares to make any sort of changes to any files, classes, or functions that they've worked on, they often become quite irrate. This can even be for something as trivial as changing a comment. One guy had a temper tantrum that lasted more than a month after he was forced to give in to an issue during a code review. How have other people learned to deal with these types of co-workers? I have tried to get my boss involved but he just blows me off. Of course, he's not the one getting yelled at.
I would suggest taking the approach that they are feeling overly *responsible* for their code sections. That implies the best intentions on their part in reacting to changes, and may help steer them into more productive attitudes when you need to confront them. People want to be good, but sometimes they need the opening or excuse provided to them.