Why Most Software Development Jobs Suck
Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
“It’s -a me, Mario!” is a refrain you might hear from a Switch around you this holiday season*. Japanese gaming giant Nintendo seems to have got software development right in a way that The Secret Developer wishes was more common in software development.
Let’s see what we can learn.
How software development should be done
Lovers of plumbers and video games have long loved Nintendo.
“We aren’t talking about their seal of approval or anti-competitive practices. We aren’t even talking about that quote about quality misattributed to designer Shigeru Miyamoto ‘A Delayed Game Is Eventually Good, a Bad Game Is Bad Forever’.
It’s this quote-”
‘Super Mario Bros was made by a team of five people, 38 years ago. Of those five people, four of them worked on Super Mario Bros Wonder’
“We’re talking Max Nichols from Halo creator Bungie’s realization that perhaps keeping staff on after a project is actually a good idea.
This means the Japanese developer doesn’t need to spend so much time on knowledge transfer (horribly called KT in these parts). The staff at Nintendo actually have experience working on their most important property.”
My Experience of Software Development
“This isn’t just a question of knowledge transfer. I think software development practices aren’t really working well for anyone.
New software developers come into the industry and move every 12–18 months in order to get experience and increase their salary as fast as possible. This means that their income grows as it is rare for a software developer to get a raise in their current job.
Within software development teams there is little teamwork. People don’t know each other as team members frequently change. Projects oftentimes have such high turnover rates that developers do not take responsibility for their project decisions since they usually aren’t around come release time.”
How software development should be done
“When we look at how Nintendo treats their employees we might get a few tips as to how a successful software development company might be run. Let’s take a look.”
Layoffs: Nintendo is one of the rare companies that refuse to let go of its workers. This means that they keep their knowledge and experience within the company.
Values: Nintendo wants to create experiences that put smiles on faces, and believes those smiles are for everyone. Nintendo employees know what they are doing, and why they are doing it.
High retention rate: 98.9%. When employees start at Nintendo they tend to stay there.
Nintendo cares about quality. They aren’t afraid of holding back or capping projects if they do not represent the company in a good light.
Nintendo staff are happy. 98% of employees would recommend working at Nintendo to a friend
“That does not sound like any software company I’ve worked for. That might be the key to all of this, western software development firms don’t seem to value their staff.
It’s about treating staff in such a way to ensure that software development projects are made in such a way as to make fans rather than customers.”
Conclusion
There still is much to learn about software development. We should take inspiration from wherever we can even if that is a video game company in Japan.
“I just wish software developers could work somewhere they like and companies liked their employees. Wouldn’t that be nice?”