Virtual Development Setup #

By Bill Nicholls Posted Tuesday 21st November 2006 14:44 GMT

I suspect the takeup for this item will not be great.

Why? It's simple - developers are at the bottom of the food chain, especially as they are seen as an expense item, not an investment (by most shops).

Most places, and I've worked in a number, put their faith in more people and fewer systems. The potential productivity payoff for a big virtual development, and double that for a QA environment, is very hard to demonstrate on paper.

And therein lies the rub. In order to maximize productivity with a big virtual system, the system also needs to run some software that keeps the whole development process organized from inspiration to delivery.

It will require training, another expense, ongoing education, ditto, and run into the rock wall that is the mindset of most developers - resistance to change. Essentially "I already know how to program, so why do I have to learn this stuff?" attitude.

There will be exceptions, and those exceptions will slowly seed the mindset of developers with new ideas. Over time, say five years, the idea will gain strength *if* the first set of installs works well.

Yes, it could work. But I'd rather bet on the leading apprentice jockey to place than this revolution to succeed, because it really requires revoltionary changes in the developer environment and mindset.

BillN