Developers are important, but who is the boss

If you graduated as a developer or you’ve spent some time taking a crash course in development, this can be one of the best investments in your career. As some say, coding is the language we need to teach kids in schools. 
A developer is a cornerstone of any software delivery project. You’re the one who actually builds stuff and everyone in the chain (testers, project managers, delivery managers, program managers and even CEOs) are relying partially on you to send their reports and claim that they’ve delivered something.
Does this mean I am more important than anyone in the company?
Not really, sorry, for two reasons 
  • It is not about what you build, it is about what is the value of what you build and what it means to the audience. For example, a simple form that you built on your website that captures some data can be a game changer to a company if the CEO sends an email and announces that this form is a way for employees to send questions directly to him or that this form is employees’ way to win 1000$ prize if they send a suggestion that meets specific criteria.
  • Developers can be replaced, partially because of the first reason (i.e. it is about the value of what you’re delivering) and the other part is you can always find other developers to do the job. For example, if the most talented developers of a delivery company left, definitely there will be an impact on the quality and timeline of deliverables for a period of time. However, this incident won’t make the company run out of business provided they get the right resources in reasonable time. I am not saying there will be no impact, but the company can recover with the right level of relations and communication with customers.
Don’t get demotivated, your role is very important as I said earlier. There is a huge demand for developers in the market and you have a great career potential. You even have plenty of career options, a luxury not available to everyone. In the next article, I will talk about some of these career options and the difference between them. Stay tuned!

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