Submit captions for this cartoon of “The Great One” in this post’s comments. And don’t forget to submit captions for the other Software Engineer Types as well…
The Great One
Where did this engineer come from, and can you have five more of him?
Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Always delivers on schedule, even when unforeseen code bottlenecks require more time that initially estimated.
- If unforeseen bottlenecks arise, you don’t hear about it from this engineer. Instead, you hear about how this engineer worked all weekend from one of his peers.
- Respected by engineering peers. Professional in meetings.
- Honest with estimates.
- May have a Star Trek accent or a superhero fetish. Loves watching “How It’s Made”.
- Solid code, sometimes delivers more than what was requested.
- After the feature is launched, asks whether it met the users’ needs.
- Keeps up with his bug queue.
Do you need this engineer?
Um, duh.
Project Pitfalls:
Try not to hug this engineer in public. He gets embarrassed and human contact is sometimes confusing.
Achilles Heel:
This engineer is so dependable that his manager tends to put him on every project. He sometimes has trouble saying “no”, so can become overstretched. Also he tends to be optimistic in his estimates.
Best Bet:
- Give lots of public credit to this engineer, even if he doesn’t care about that — because his peers might.
- Send nice notes to his management.
- Don’t ask him to attend time-waster meetings, but if he must, publicly change the agenda to accommodate his part first so he can leave quickly.
- Add time to his initial estimates to buy him some wiggle room.
- Play Halo with him
- Bring him food.
- Ask how you can help him, and ask often.
- Encourage this engineer to breed.
Also in 7 Types of Engineers
- Caption Contest! (7 Types of Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Veteran (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Hotshot (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Great One (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Teflon-gineer (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: Offshore (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Maverick (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
- Caption Contest: The Clockwork Mouse (The Seven Types of Software Engineers)
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
To get things rolling….
“So, did the users like the feature?”
“I added extra validation just in case the first one fails.”
“Remember those features that Lehman wanted? I added them to the code last week. What? What do you mean they went bankrupt? When?
I just finished breakfast with the Easter Bunny and Bigfoot. And I checked in the code you needed last night, with 100% test coverage. What’s next?
“Are you sure this is what the user wants? How about moving it up here? It might simplify the process for him and even cut our work by a week”
(Just like Santa and the Easter Bunny, this engineer is a figment of your imagination!)
Do not panic. You are not hallucinating. I do exist. Now, do you have any more requirements that I can get started on?
“My INBOX is always clean, too.”
“Can’t talk, Wapner’s on in 3 minutes.”
“Let me take that one; It’ll be a fun challenge.”
I just finished coding the entire PBL. Now what?
“It’s okay. It was important to be here for the launch, and I’m sure I’ll be there when my next child is born.”